Card of the Day - 2022-02-15

Here we have the Valentine telegram, just one of the advertising opportunities that the post office used to send out. Sadly telegrams are no more, they expired in 2003. Is it as romantic to send your love an e-mail? Or twitter your declarations in front of all the World? I am not so sure. And you can`t keep an e-mail like you can a telegram, or put one under your pillow and kiss it before you go to bed. 

If you remember telegrams, or are curious about them, nip along to the Lightstraw website - they also show some of the ones illustrated by Edward Ardizzone, and there are several links. 

This card is rather interesting for another reason; actually it was one of the duplicated sets which I discovered after I had the brilliant idea of indexing all our featured cards and making a clickable gallery, but it won because of the product placement, which we tend to think is a modern thing. Just look at what is written on the pad, namely a message to "Order my Rhodian Cigarettes". There was also Rhodian tobacco, and, as the name suggests, it came from Rhodesia.

Note too that  Lambert & Butler issued sets of Rhodesian interest - "Rhodesian Series" (1928), "Fauna of Rhodesia" (1929), and, a bit confusingly, "Third Rhodesian Series" (1930). Obviously the "Fauna" was set two, without saying so - and it even says below the top banner "A Series of 25".

However I have failed to find any link between the company and the country, only premises in Jamaica. Even the website Lets Look Again / Lambert & Butler gives a great biography of the firm, but does not mention Rhodesia. 

This set is first recorded in our original reference book to the issues of Lambert & Butler, RB.9, issued in 1948. That is one of my favourite volumes, because inside the back cover is a list of books either published already (RB.1-7), earmarked for 1948 (RB.8-10), or part of the "suggested grouping to complete part 1 of programme - British Issuers". In fact this was not done, the only ones which were published as separate books were Ogdens, Ogden`s Guinea Gold, Phillips, Player, Taddy, and Wills part II. The rest formed part of the World Tobacco Issues Index, except for one I would have found most useful, the "Index of Brand Names".

I digressed. In the Lambert and Butler reference book our set is described as : 

58. INTERESTING SIDELIGHTS ON THE WORK OF THE G.P.O. Fronts printed by letterpress, 4-colour half-tone process. October 1939.

This does not mention the thrilling fact that the set was made possible “by courtesy of the Postmaster General”, perhaps because it says so at the top of every card. 

Whilst in both our original and updated World Tobacco Issues Indexes this set is simply recorded as : 

INTERESTING SIDELIGHTS ON THE WORK OF THE G.P.O. Sm. Nd. (50)