Arms and Flags (Kraepelien)

Heraldry of the World Heraldic collector's items catalogue > Heraldic trade cards

Arms and Flags series (Kraepelien & Holm)

Series information :

• Date of issue : 1910s ? (approx.)
• Number of cards : 72
• Image variants : no, but colour variations in the cards and two backs

Series

This is a large series of trade cards, showing the arms and flags of countries. The series is not dated, but based on the images on the cards, as well as the names of countries, can be dated as <1918. The series was printed in Holland, but the printer, nor the designer is known.

As trade cards the series was issued by a number of Dutch companies :

Honig

Kraepelien & Holm

Neelmeijer

Smith

Van Dijk

Paul Kaiser

Some of the series are numbered and all numbered series indicate that 72 cards were issued.

As tobacco cards the series was issued by James in the UK.

As postcards the series was issued by EFA (the Excelsior Fine Art Company) for the UK market and by the Dutch firm Spit & De Vletter as appointment cards.

Company

Kraepelien & Holm was a company based in Zeist, the Netherlands, producing (semi-)pharmaceutical products. According to the cards the company produced asthma-cigarettes, cough- and other pastilles, cocoa surrogates and similar items. At present a company with the same name is based in Oosterwolde, the Netherlands, producing liquorice.

Besides the (early) cards in this series, the company has issued many series with completely different designs, mainly between 1930 and 1940.

Cards

For all known cards see here.

Unlike the cards issued by other companies, there are a lot of variations known in colour design for Kraepelien & Holm. In addition to this, the cards have been issued with two different backs, resulting in a large number of variations in this series.

Back type 1

Back type 2

Some examples:

Abyssinia	Bosnia
Haiti	Norway
Sachsen-Weimar	Serbia