Tales from the Closet - Part Two - Really old cards!!

First off sorry for not posting for so long.  The weather up here in Alaska finally broke and it's been really nice, so that means I have lots of stuff to do outside and with the daylight lasting almost to midnight.. well when I get done I really don't feel like sitting down to post.  Not only that, but my field season starts next week so my posting will be even more sporadic.  I'm hoping to find some time to schedule a few posts so I have a little content coming out, but after over three years this is pretty much just part of my yearly cycle.

OK now on to the second post of some of the stuff I pulled out of the closet at my parents house.

I grew up a military brat so I moved around a lot. My fathers last post was in Berlin, Germany just after the wall fell and we were there from 1989 to 1992.  It was a great time in my life. I was 16 when I got there and  18 when I left.  But while there I use to visit a lot of the local flea markets.  Berlin is a very old city and there were some great stuff you could pick up for cheap.  One of the things I started buying was old coffee and chocolate cards.  Similar to cigarette cards of the period they are beautiful with a wide range of subjects.  To be honest it's only now that I have them in my hands again that I've finally got to do some research on what I really have.  My only regret was not picking more of them up at the time.

First batch I'm going to start off with are these old Stollwerck Chocolade cards.  After doing a little research I found a website that had a list of various types of German cards.  You can check it out here.  The Stollwerck company is still in business and still makes chocolate.  Stollwerck issued lots of different sets of cards with it's products from the mid 1880's to the early 1930s.

This group was part of an Album, album #3 and was issued in 1899.  Sets were issued in groups of 6.  I only have 5.  This set is called Aus der Berliner Siegesalle or The Avenue of Victory in Berlin. The Siegesalle and the statues use to reside in front on the original Reichstag building pre World War II.

While not the most beautiful of the Stollwerck cards they are full of history, especially if you read German.

Next up some really cool Dairy cards!!