Card of the Day - 2021-11-23

These are amongst my favourite cards, not for their look, but because they were so many of my “firsts” - the first unframed proper “cigarette” cards I ever owned - the first part set I ever owned - the first cards I ever made a wants list of - the first cards I ever fossicked about at stalls and in odds boxes for - and the first cards I ever physically completed a whole set of.

There seems two schools of thought, the first is that all were intended to be issued as separate small sets of six cards, and the second is that they were merely sub sets in a larger series called “General Interest”. However, the wording “General Interest” does not appear anywhere on the cards, and nor does any mention that they are intended to build into a bigger set. The 1950 London Cigarette Card Company catalogue has them under the main heading but prices them in sub sets, from which we can tell they varied as to supply and value – the least expensive being “Schools in Foreign Countries” which was 4/- a card and 12/6d. a set; whilst the most expensive was “The Ice Breaker”, at 6/6d/. a card and 20/- a set, though this may have been due to it being a nautical subject. The other three sub sets, “Agriculture in the Orient”, "Architectural Monuments”, and “Strange Vessels" were listed at 5/- a card and 15/- a set.

Now you will also find the yam in John Player “Useful Plants and Fruit” a set of unnumbered cards, I always think that set was actually designed to be called “Pictures of Useful Plants and Fruit”. What do you think? I base that on the fact that the “of” actually appears in the title box.

The reverse of that card tells us that the yam (Dioscorea sativa) “is an excellent substitute for the potato … but is of a closer texture and sweeter.”. This is why the yam is more usually called the sweet potato, a popular Thanksgiving side dish. The card also tells you where it comes from, and how it grows, but totally fails to mention that only some species are edible, whilst others are poisonous; it is reportedly okay to eat the ones where the leaves come in pairs, but not the ones where they are down the stem one after the other (I hope I got that right). It also omits the fact that the raw tubers of all species are poisonous, and narcotic, only cooking makes them safe.

And the mention of narcotic is interesting, as today “Sativa” is a word that is more associated with Cannabis.