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FOR SALE: LOT of Rare 1920s W545 WWI LEADERS, SCENES & INSIGNIA CARDS
CARDS INCLUDED: #12580th Division, Blue Ridge, #120 American Dirgible Trans-Atlantic, #116British Bombing Airplane, #106 French Tanks, #52 G. Cabroni, #74 T.G. Masaryk,
SET DESCRIPTION
While the W545 strip cards aren’t one of those sets,they are one of the earliest cards that were created as a reference to thefirst World War, fought from 1914 into late 1918.
The set is most known for that reference, of course.But to those that collect it, it is known for being a frustratingly difficultset to build for two reasons. First, the cards are not all that common. Andeven when they are found, they are often miscategorized by sellers unfamiliarwith them. They have no maker/printer name on them or even the name of anadvertiser or set.
By all indications, these have been regarded as havingbeen actually printed after the war ended. If assigned a date at all, they areoften simply called a 1920s issue. That is perhaps because most strip cardsdate to that decade.
It is tempting to try to date the cards based on thesubjects included. For example, Woodrow Wilson was U.S. President at the timeand he is pictured and titled as such. He was in office until 1921 and it couldbe that this set was issued prior to his exit, making it no later than a 1921set. However, it is important to [Lm1]remember that these were presumably personnel carryingtheir respective titles during the war — not particularly titles they held atthe time the set was actually printed.
There also are not cards hailing the end of the war,like you might suspect. That has always made me wonder about the print date.But the big takeaway here is that I am not aware of any definitive date ofissue for these cards.
The manufacturer of them, too, may not be fullconfirmed, either. While some references do cite them as a Mayfair Novelty set(a common producer of other strip cards around the time), I am not certain ifthat has ever been confirmed. For what it’s worth, Jefferson Burdick’s AmericanCard Catalog categorizes the set as W545 but makes no reference to the maker oryear of issue. The American Card Catalog only calls them a set of “World War ILeaders, Scenes, and Insignia.”
PART 1: INDIVIDUAL SUBJECTS (CARDS NO. 1-80)
Military personnel related to World War I are found inthis part of the set. Really, it can probably even be considered as a set onits own to some degree, simply because of the large size of it. Then U.S.President Woodrow Wilson is, fittingly No. 1 in the set since this is anAmerican release. He’s followed in the set by all sorts of other U.S.officials. In fact, the first 15 cards are all U.S. personnel. Representativesfrom England, France, Italy, and other nations follow.
PART 2: WAR SCENES (CARDS 81-120)
The second primary subset pictures a variety ofwar-time scenes.
These cards do depict some actual machinery andequipment used in the war. They are also often separated out by country.
The most intriguing cards in the subset are likelythose from No. 110-120, which picture planes and other flying machinery.Aviation cards have gotten more popular and, even though there are no actualsubjects named, the names of the actual planes are actually included onseveral.
This subset, too, can be broken down a bit morespecifically. Cards 81-100 feature equipment/weapons. Cards No. 101-109 featuretanks. And cards No. 110-120 feature the aforementioned aviation sector.
PART 3: MILITARY INSIGNIAS (CARDS 121-200)
For anyone building this set, it is easy to see thatthe military insignias are generally the most difficult to find.
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