Card of the Day - 2022-03-23

Many people might be surprised that Queen Mary was called The Queen Mother, thinking that the mother of our present Queen was the first to carry the title of “Queen Mother”. To be honest, it is a rare title, because either the mother of the new King or Queen had already died, when her child ascended the throne, which was the case with Queen Victoria. And there have been far fewer Queens than Kings anyway, unlike in other countries – just look at Adkin & Sons` “A Royal Favourite”, issued in 1900, which has a card for HM the Queen Mother of Holland.

In our case Queen Mary was the mother of two Kings - George VI and of Edward VIII.  

This set first appears in our original Godfrey Phillips reference booklet, issued in 1949, where it is revealed to be one of four printings, described as :

• 57. CORONATION OF THEIR MAJESTIES. Fronts printed by letterpress in colour. Home and export issue, 1937, in three sizes :- 

           A. Series of 50. Small cards, size 67 x 37 m/m. Backs in brown, with descriptive text, adhesive. 

           B. Series of 36. Medium cards, size 61 x 53 m/m. Backs in brown, with descriptive text, adhesive. 

           C. Series of 24. Postcard size, 127 x 89 m/m.

                (a)  Backs in Post Card format, no descriptive text - Home issue

                (b)  Post Card format omitted - export issue 

Our original World Tobacco Issues Index records them as simply : 

 

• CORONATION OF THEIR MAJESTIES. Sm. Special album issued. ...P50-102
  
  A. Small (50)
  
  B. Medium (36)
  
  C. Postcard (24). Titled "... to record the Coronation." Back
  
       (a) with
  
       (b) without postcard format. Without series title. 

The 1955 London Cigarette Card Catalogue, issued at the same time as that book, gives us the contemporary retail prices for all the sets, save the postcard sized cards without the postcard format, which was an export issue. Those retail prices were as follows :

size	- odds`	- complete sets
small	1d. each	3/-
medium	1d. each	2/-
postcard	6d. each	12/6

By the time of our most recent World Tobacco Issues Index something really startling had been found out, and that was that this set was not originally planned to be issued for George VI`s Coronation at all, but for Queen Mary`s other son, Edward. This is recorded in that book as follows : 

• CORONATION OF THEIR MAJESTIES.
  
  A small sized proof set is known with pictures prepared for the Coronation of Edward VIII; heads are redrawn and some subjects altered.Sm. Special album issued. ...P521-430
  
  A. Small (50) Special album issued.
  
  B. Medium (36)
  
  C. Postcard (24). Titled "... to record the Coronation." Back
  
       (a) with
  
       (b) without postcard format. Without series title. 
  
             in printing (a) No.6 may not have been issued. 

So if any reader knows more about, or owns, that standard sized proof set - on which the heads and some of the subjects were different - I would love to know more, as this would make a most intriguing article for our magazine or website.

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