Card of the Day - 2022-04-19

So here we have an unusual card of Shakespeare`s birthplace, almost indistinguishable amidst the row of other houses. There is something wrong though, because the title reads "Maison de Shakespeare a Stradford" and not "Stratford", as it ought. 

You will find the interior of the very room, of where Shakespeare was born in Westminster Tobacco Co. Ltd`s "A Second Series of British Royal and Ancient Buildings" (1926 - 39/48). The card tells us it is  "The room where Shakespeare was born", being “A first-floor room in a house in Henley St. Stratford-on-Avon” where “The walls are covered with … inscriptions of pilgrims of all ranks, including Byron, Scott, Dickens, Irving, Washington and the Duke of Wellington.” 

There is a very similar view, including the same bust, obviously a later addition, on the anonymous set of "Beauties of Great Britain", but the card is entitled "The Birth Room of Shakespeare" (13/50)

The birth room also appears on John Player “Shakespearean Series” (1914 - 1/25), which has a descriptive text saying that “According to well-verified family tradition, the great dramatist was born in this quaint chamber on April 23rd, 1564.” And it also explains the writing on the wall mentioned on our card as “Formerly visitors were allowed to write their names upon the walls, ceilings and window panes, and many notable autographs are here inscribed”. The first series of the Player cards were issued in 1925. RB21-200-159.1 tells us they were in two formats, unnumbered with no descriptive text, and numbered with a descriptive text. They were already pretty scarce by 1950, when the London Cigarette Card Company catalogue listed them as odds only, the unnumbered version being retailed at 1/6d. each and the numbered version at a shilling each. 
 

As far as our set, it also has a companion, series 115. And at the moment this page will include a list of both sets, but when we use a card from that we will move the second list across. 

Serie 114

1. Les Charmettes pres Chambery, maison de J.-J. Rousseau
2.  La maison de Beethoven a Bonn
3.  La maison de Jordoens a Anvers
4. La maison de Cuvier a Paris
5.  Nurenberg. Maison d`Albert Durer
6. Haute-ville House a Guernesey, Victor Hugo
7. Maison de Richard Wagner a Bayreuth
8. La maison d`Erasme a Anderlecht
9. Maison de Balzac a Passy
10. Craigenputtock, Demeure de Thomas Carlyle 
11. La maison de Goethe a Weimar
12.  Maison de Shakespeare a Stradford

Serie 115 

1. La maison de Jeanne d`Arc a Domremy
2. La maison de Gretry a Liege
3. La maison de Mistral a Mallane
4. Maison de Schumann a Zwickau
5. La maison de Guido Gezelle a Bruges
6. La maison de Luther a Miltenberg-sur-Main
7. Maison de Berlioz a la Cote Saint-Andre
8. La maison natale de Schiller a Marbach
9.  Maison d`Ibsen pres de Skien (annes d`enfance)
10.  La maison de Peter Benoit a Harlebeke
11.  Maison de Spinoza a Rynsburg
12.  Maison de Buffon a Paris

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