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These cards are from a series of 30 cards showing scenes from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Inside is an extract from the novel concerning the character illustrated on the front and details of a Prize scheme offering 'one of the new super-quality "Ty.phoo pens'. You would have had to collect all 30 cards and send them to Sumner's Typhoo Tea Ltd, Birmingham to claim your pen. The pen had a 'strong gold, 14 carat, iridium tipped' nib and a 'full size, handsome red mottled' barrel. It's actual value was claimed to be 6/6d. Or if you couldn't wait, you could send a Postal Order for 1/9d and any 16 cards including card 30.

The closing date was 30th September 1930, the middle of the Great Depression. By the end of 1930 unemployment had more than doubled from 1 million to 2.5 million (20% of the insured workforce), and exports had fallen in value by 50%. So these cards were an incentive to buy Typhoo tea in hard times, educate yourself ("A suggestion- Buy David Copperfield and read the story") swap cards with your friends and buy a pen.