NOW here's a little test for you. Study the following list of names and guess the product - Island Queen, Fusilier, Clown, Kits, London Idol, Teddy Bear and Man of War.

Any ideas? Well, they're actually all brands of cigarette, and those are just a fraction of the varying brands that have been produced over the years, mainly between about 1900 and the 1950s.

While cigarette cards have long been collected, the collecting of cigarette packets is less well known, though it does have its own particular following.

You would think it rather hard to acquire old cigarette packets, but they turn up, quite surprisingly, in house clearances, when attics are sorted out, or when old shops are closed down and the cellars are emptied.

The value of an old cigarette packet, usually empty of course, will vary from around £5 to £50 or more depending on age, design, and rarity.

While old packets of Wills or Players cigarettes are still fairly common around the antiques trade, it is the more unusual brands, such as those I listed at the start of this article, which attract collectors, and those listed will all have a value of at least £20 a packet.

The appeal of old cigarette packets is the design element, for some of the fronts of the packs were visually very arresting, as brands competed for attention in the tobacconist's shop.

Vivid colours, unusual names, eye-catching pictures of dashing soldiers or pretty girls all evoke a nostalgic feeling for those far off days when smoking was not regarded as a health hazard.

Island Queen cigarettes, for instance, made between 1940 and 1960, featured a swimsuited girl sitting on a rock. Man of War featured a warship, and Fusilier a guardsman. There were many others, too.

Do you remember Pirate cigarettes, or the Jolly Briton featuring a football game on the front of the pack? Or maybe Page Boy cigarettes featuring a valet, or even Motor cigarettes featuring a chauffeur and his limousine?

Cigarettes began being sold in Britain in the 1850s, initially just sold in paper wrappers. But the cardboard packet was soon produced and brand names were registered. In the last one hundred years or so, more than 30,000 different brands have been marketed. The flip-top packet in common use today was invented in America in the 1920s, but, oddly, enough didn't make it across the Atlantic until the late 1950s, when Churchman's No.1 cigarettes were the first to feature the new-style packet. Today, cigarettes are available usually in packets of 10 or 20, but in the inter-war years, it was common for there to be packets of five or even seven!

Many of the brand names mentioned were marketed between 1900 and 1940, though some equally oddly titled brands such as Passing Cloud (pictured) survived well into the 1960s. Now, all examples are collectable and though most are going to be perhaps £3-£5 a packet, the more unusual, older examples can easily fetch £20 to £30 each.

Nick Fletcher