Abadie

Heraldry of the World Heraldic collector's items catalogue > Heraldic albums

Abadie : Flaggen und Wappen der Welt

Album information :

• Issued by : Abadie, Vienna, Austria
• Date of issue : 1928-33
• Number of stamps/cards : 3877
• Image variants : around 15 changed images; several hundreds of reprints with text variations

Background

In 1928 the Abadie cigarette paper company started with issueing small 3x5 cm images of arms to their cigarette papers. The images contained arms and flags of countries, cities and regions. Initially four series were planned, of which only two were described : Series A Banners and Flags (325 images) and Series B Arms of countries and cities (400 images). Series C and D had not yet been named. The series were sub-divided in smaller groups, such as Flags of Prussian provinces, Flags of Countries etc. The author of the texts and the designer of the images are not known.

To the series an album was issued, consisting of a map of Austria. some photographs and texts of the company and about tobacco, a collector's page and empty numbered sheets for the images. The album consisted of loose sheets, that could be bound together with a ribbon. This enabled later additions (sheets) to be added to the album. As planned all series were to be issued for one year only, to make the series more collectable.

As it turned out, the albums and images were very collectable and the first album was enlarged to 1984 images in several series. The series were also reprinted as was the album. The second edition of the album was now divided into sections with a colooured index page of each section. In the first edition all images were numbered sequencially, in the second edition later additions were added to the original chapters and some series were regrouped. Some images were also changed.

On the back of the images, not visible in the album, the company first printed some short information on the country, town or arms. On the flag images generally there was no text. In the second, and sometimes third edition of the images, more texts were added. Also some texts were adapted and changed. In many albums the images are totally glued, even though there was a small strip marked 'Kleberaum' (glue-area) and the texts are no longer readable.

Content of the albums

Chapters

Original German title	English translation
Das Flaggenalphabet	International flag alphabet
Fahnen der Europäischen Staaten	European National flags
Fahnen Österreich-Ungarns vor 1914	Austro-Hungarian flags pre 1914
Fahnen der Deutschen Staaten	Flags of German States
Preussische Provinzen	Flags of Prussian provinces
Fahnen der Schweizer Kantone	Flags of Swiss cantons
Flaggen diverse Staaten	Flags of countries
Europäische Länderwappen	Coat of arms of European countries
Aussereuropäische Länderwappen	Coat of arms of non-European countries
Englische Dominions	Coat of arms of English dominions
Österreichische Städtewappen vor 1914	Austrian city arms pre 1914
Wappen der wichtigsten Städte	Coat of arms of important cities in the world
Wappen von Wien und Wiener Bezirke	Coat of arms of Vienna and Viennese districts
Österreichische Städtewappen vor 1914 (II)	Austrian city arms pre 1914
Wappen der wichtigsten Städte (II)	Coat of arms of important cities in the world
Fahnen der Vereingte Staaten von Amerika	Flags of US States
Wappen der Zünfte und Innungen	Coat of arms of (Viennese) guilds
Historische Fahnen aus dem Jahre 1350	Historical flags from 1350
Historische Fahnen aus dem Jahre 1705	Historical flags from 1705
Wappen der Schweizer Kantone	Coat of arms of Swiss cantons
Österreich-Ungarische Städtewappen	Austro-Hungarian city arms
Flaggen und Abzeichen Englisher kolonien	Arms and badges of English colonies
Länderwappen der Österr.-Ungarn. Monarchie	Austro-Hungarian state arms
Flaggen des Deutschen Reiches	Flags of the German Empire
Italienische Städtewappen	Italian city arms
Alte Nationalfahnen	Old national flags
Historische Fahnen usw aus dem Heeresmuseum	Historical flags and militaria from the war museum in Vienna
Flaggen der Europäischen Staaten	Flags of European countries
Französische Wappen	Coat of arms of French provinces and cities
Historische Amerikanische Fahnen	American historical flags
Deutsche Städtewappen (I)	German city arms (I)
Deutsche Städtewappen (II)	German city arms (II)
Übersee flaggen	]]
Deutsche Städtewappen (III)	German city arms (III)
Ungarische Komitate	Hungarian provincial arms
Vereins Abzeichen	Badges of clubs