1933-1934 Sky Birds (R136)
National Chicle Company, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Series Title: Sky Birds
ACC No.: R136
Manufactured by: National Chicle Company, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Number of Cards: 108 images
   Series 1a - 24 cards marked 1933 cards
   Series 1b - 24 cards marked 1934 cards
   Series 2a - 108 cards with green ink text
   Series 2b - 108 (unconfirmed) cards with black or dark green ink text
Card Dimensions: 2^5/16 × 2^7/8 inches
Circa: 1933 and 1934

Overview

During 1933, the National Chicle Company of Cambridge, MA issued their first series of Sky Birds airplane cards. It appears that the initial series contained 48 cards. It was broken into two phases. Cards 1 to 24 were issued during 1933, while cards 25 to 48 were issued during 1934.

A second series was issued in 1934 and included a reissue of cards 1 to 48 from the original series plus 60 additional cards. Originally the second series was to contain 144 cards as noted on the reverse of the cards. However, only 108 titles were issued. There appears to be print variations on the reverse side of these cards. This would suggest the possibility that the series may have been reissued. We originally reported green and black ink print variations on the reverse sides of some of the cards. Closer examination of these cards shows a very dark green rather than black ink. Other collectors have noted black ink variations. The number of cards in these printings is therefore a mystery, we know it’s at least 108.

The American Card Catalog number for this set is R136. We have show examples of the various series below.

Typical 1933 Card Front



Typical 1933 Series of 48 Card Back



Typical 1934 Card Front



Typical 1934 Series of 48 Card Back



Typical 1934 Series of 144 Card Back

Image-Guide

1933 Cards 1-24



1934 Cards 25 to 48



1934 Cards 49 to 108

Sky Birds Wrappers

To date, we’ve been able to identify four wrappers for the National Chicle Sky Birds series. They all appear to have a generic design with a center graphic panel of blue and red with a biplane fighter being sought out by searchlights. The four variations of this basic design are shown below.

Sky Birds Wrapper 1



Sky Birds Wrapper 2



Sky Birds Wrapper 3
(Special thanks to Vladislav Kuchta for sending us this scan.)



Sky Birds Wrapper 4
(Special thanks to Doug Dewitz for sending us this scan.)

Checklist

Special Thanks

A very special thanks to Doug Dewitz for sending us a scan of the #4 wrapper. Also, Vladislav Kuchta from Prague, Czech Republic for sending us scan of the #3 wrapper shown above. Vladislav is a long-time collector of chewing gum wrappers. He has over 100,000 items in his collection.

References

1. John A. Shupek: Card images via the Skytamer Archive Digital Image Database.
2. Doug Dewitz: Wrapper scans from personal collection.
3. Vladislav Kuchta: Wrapper scans from personal collection.

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