Vintage Nanyang Brothers 'Snow White' Trading Cards

In the late 1930s, the Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company of Hong Kong issued a series of 40 Snow White cigarette cards. The artwork in this collection originated from the Disney Studio drawings. And yet, as we've seen in previous Archive posts (e.g., the De Beukelaer and Belgian sets), these card images always have a flavorful style all their own, reflecting a uniqueness to the region in which they were produced.

Card 1

Each card is numbered on the back (in parentheses).

2-3

4-5

6

7

8-9

10-11

12-13

14

15, 17 (missing 16)

18-19

20

21-22

23-24

25

26-27

28-29

30-31

32-33

34-35

36-37

38

39

40

The Nanyang Brothers issued at least three variations of this set. To think that Snow White cards were being collected by smokers in Hong Kong during the late 1930s, it just goes to show how far-reaching this Walt Disney's film really was during its first run.

Special thanks to the Michael Prior Collection for use of the images and info.