1932 Zeppelin "World Travels" German Cigarette Cards
Awesome 53 page book outlining the German history of the zeppelin from 1899-1932. Published entirely in German the book was sponsored by the manufacturer's of LIGA and CLUB cigarettes. Similar to early 20th century American cigarette premiums, a small 2½" x 1½" black and white photo printed on heavy card stock was included with each pack. The book would've been acquired separately. This example is complete with all 265 original cards. Every one is different. Overall it's in excellent condition. Every page is one sided. The book opens to a page-wide photograph of the inventor of the zeppelin, Ferdinand Graf Von Zeppelin (shown below). The next several pages were printed on standard paper although textured and of excellent quality. These include instructions for viewing the photographs with a small tri-fold glass magnifier. I've included one with the book. It's not the original viewer, but it does work. The next page shows packages of the sponsor's German cigarette products. A brief history of early pre-zeppelin history then follows. The remaining 50 or so pages (all single sided) recounts the history of the zeppelin from its earliest beginnings, through the "cigarette-appearance era", right up until the publishing date of 1932. Six to nine cigarette card photos were pasted to each page. The back of the photo's are numbered to correspond with the blank book space. A small advertisement for the cigarettes was again included on the back of each card. Although written entirely in German it's easy to follow. The subject, "world travels", shows many photographs of the Earth taken from an actual zeppelin. Near the end of the book those pages dealing with America are easy to spot. These include the Lincoln Memorial, New York City, Philadelphia, Lakehurst, NJ, and Atlantic City. I've shown a few of these below. There are also rare shots of the interior of the golden age of the zeppelin showing individual staterooms, sleeping accommodations and even the galley (kitchen). Gigantic zeppelin hangers are shown as well as a tiny few disaster photo's. Many schematics of the interior and building are laid out, as well as transcontinental maps showing the routes taken. Stuffed in the back cover were also a couple of "odd" color illustrations about zeppelin history illustrated by Bruce McCall. I recognize them from an early 1970s National Lampoon magazine. I've included my favorite one below. Size: 13¼" x 9½" x 1". Date Sold: May 2008
Price Sold: $ 192
