Card of the Day - 2022-02-07

This was selected because the beauty was named as “Scotch”.

Now this set has two variants, this version, the earliest, being issued by A. Baker and Co of 65 Holloway Road, London. They were fairly short lived, because a new company was registered on 5 March, 1898, with the sole aim of taking over the retail and manufacturing businesses of the tobacconist A. Baker and Co. Now curiously this new company was called “Albert Baker and Co” and they stayed at the same location of 65 Holloway Road, but they did change the name on all their products, and that included their cigarette cards, so there is a set of these cards which say “A” Baker, and a set which says “Albert” Baker. If you have a set, be brave and have a look to see whether you have a marriage, in other words some cards of each printing. I am not sure you will be able to make these into two complete sets, as the cards are quite scarce, but it costs nothing to add them to your wants list. 

Our “Directory of British Card Issuers” (RB.7) tells us that by 1946, when the booklet was issued, A. Baker & Co were only retail shops, which were owned by Imperial Tobacco Co. Ltd. They were still based on the Holloway Road though, and to be honest their business was always mainly retail, not manufacturing. They did issue several sets of cards, though their main claim to fame is that they are the “B” in “Actresses BLARM” issued in 1900; the others being Lambert & butler, Anonymous, Redford, and Murray. Their other sets were a mixture of ones also issued by other people [“Star Girls” (1898) - “Actresses HAGG” (1900), which I always thought an odd word to use in conjunction with beauty – “British Royal Family” (1902) – and - “Cricketers Series” (1902)] and ones that only they issued [“Actresses Baker`s 3 sizes” (1901) the three being standard, medium and extra large/postcard size – “Beauties of All Nations” (1898 and 1899) – and a very interesting set showing their shops, issued in 1901 and presumably used for advertising purposes, but, alas, if we use the list of shops off the back of the extra large card of their “Actresses – Baker`s 3 Sizes”, it appears that we are only just over half way complete with this, as we have found just 23 of 41 cards. If anyone out there has any of these black and white cards, do let us know, for we might be able to cross a few more off the research list.

Their issuing of cards stopped in 1903, and the factory reportedly closed in 1921. They also owned W.B. Newman & Co. who seemingly did not issue cigarette cards, and Finlay & Co. Ltd. of Newcastle-on-Tyne, which were primarily retail shops, but issued two sets, “Worlds Aircraft” (1912) a set of thirty cards, and “Our Girls”, which some believe were issued in 1910, and others insist are First World War Women War Workers so cannot have been issued before 1914. The first two of those cards to be recorded are shown here, courtesy of the London Cigarette Card Company Handbook of 1950. It is believed that there are twenty-seven cards in total, but this seems an odd number, so do let us know what you have out there and we will see if we can compile a list. Scans would be very useful as well.