Today's collection is a series of books and illustrations created by Dutch cake & biscuit manufacturer Verkade. The genre started in 1903 when Verkade began including illustrated cards within their product packaging (similar to cigarette cards or a chic crackerjack toy) that could be collected and glued into specially made albums or "plaatjes." The first three books produced were all fairytale themed, but over the next forty years, over 30 million individual cards and 3.2 million copies of topical albums were manufactured across at least 30 different themes—from flora and fauna to landscapes, churches, farms and castles.