Carreras Tobacco Company - Black Cat

Black Cat

Black Cat is now a cigarette brand sold around the world, but its name sprang from humble origins. The original black cat was an ordinary domestic cat which spent hours curled up asleep in the window of Don José’s Wardour Street shop, well before the turn of the 20th century. Because the cat became such a familiar sight to the passers-by, the shop began to be known as the “black cat shop”.

Don José decided to adopt the cat as part of the company's image and in 1886 it became the first trademark to be registered by Carreras. Eventually the cat became an integral part of the design of the Black Cat pack where it appeared in a white circle surrounded by a black border above the initials “JJC” (Don José Joaquin Carreras).

The Black Cat cigarette was introduced in 1904 as one of the first machine-made cigarettes manufactured in Britain.

The black cat was also used in some of the earliest cigarette promotions, including the Black Cat stamp album which was issued free to smokers. Stamps were available inside the cigarette packs and £325 in prizes was offered for the best completed albums.

In 1907 Carreras introduced an early version of the football pools. Coupons listing forthcoming matches were available from tobacconists and prizes were given for both the best forecast and to the owner of the shop from where the coupon had been purchased.

The first item to be given away inside Black Cat cigarette packets was the Black Cat Library of Short Stories which appeared in 1909. This was a series of forty adventure stories with titles ranging from “A Fight with the Spaniards”, to “The Gunpowder Plot”, “Who Was the Man in the Iron Mask?” and “The Revenge”.

In 1910 Black Cat began full-scale coupon trading, offering gifts such as pipe fillers and other smokers' requisites.

One of the most ambitious promotions took place on 18 October 1913 - designated by the company as “Black Cat Day”. Advertised extensively in the national press, Black Cat salesmen could give a golden half-sovereign to anyone they approached in the street who could prove they were in possession of a Black Cat pack.

During the First World War Carreras sent gift parcels to the British troops which included French phrase books inside cigarette packs. These were to enable the soldiers to “get on better terms with our French allies”.

In 1914 Black Cat cigarettes offered smokers a chance to collect small cardboard flags of the Allies and in 1916 the first set of cigarette cards was included in the packs. This was a set of 140 war cartoons by Louis Raemaekers which could fetch a considerable price at auction today. The next series of cards quickly followed, featuring Women on War Work. This was succeeded in 1915 by a series on the Science of Boxing.

During the early 1920s enthusiasm for the Black Cat was at a peak, with many people wearing badges and stickers featuring the cat and even going to fancy dress parties in black cat costumes. By now, coupon trading was fiercely competitive and the Black Cat gift catalogue offered gramophone records, gardening equipment, gentlemen's razors, automobile accessories and wirelesses.

The cigarette manufacturers agreed to withdraw coupons on 1 January 1934 but the number and variety of cigarette card series continued to increase, with Carreras amongst the most prolific of the issuing companies.

During the Second World War many cigarette brands were withdrawn from sale and Black Cat was one of these. The brand didn’t appear again until 1957, but it was reintroduced as a plain cigarette at a time when huge sales were being made by filter cigarettes. The market for plain brands continued to diminish and Black Cat was withdrawn again in 1959.

It made another appearance on the UK market in 1976, this time as a filter cigarette, but finally disappeared in November 1993. However, the trademark continues in the ownership of the British American Tobacco Group of companies.