Paddington Bear Playing Cards Signed by Michael Bond 1974

Pack of 37 playing cards
Hong Kong: Paddington and Company Ltd./ Filmfair Ltd., 1974
 
37 playing cards (8.5 x 6cm approx); printed one one side with ‘Whitman’ logo in red, and the other in full-colour; complete in the original box with a photograph of the famous bear, and BBC logo; a couple of cards with some small red marks, else fine; the box a trifle creased and sunned, else also near-fine. 
 
Here, the author of Paddington has signed the box in black biro ‘I REFUSE TO SIGN EACH CARD! Michael Bond’. This set together with one additional card (36 called for). 
 
A simple game, with nine sets of 4 cards, each showing the bear in a variety of different poses. The aim of the game is for players to collect sets, and the first to place down two correct sets is the winner. 
 
Released concurrently with the BBC series, production of which was completed in 1975. The first series did not air until 1976. Scripted by Bond himself, it proved extremely popular, and ran up until the early 1980s.