Card of the Day - 2022-05-12

Ching was an associate of British American Tobacco, and they issued cards from 1959 to 1964.

After failing after several attempts to find this set in the original Trade Index, I realised, of course, that these cards are too late; that volume was issued in 1956. 

This card shows one of the most useful vegetables, mushrooms, which can replace the texture of meat with little enhancement. There are many varieties, and though you must be careful if you want to pick your own, there are foraging courses which aim to teach you a useful skill whilst having some fun. 

This is quite an unusual card, from the Channel Islands. The mushroom you will most commonly discover in your albums is the W.D. & H.O. Wills one, “Do You Know” first series (W675-165 : W62-127 : RB21/200/188-191 ~1922) 46/50 “Do You Know a Toadstool from a Mushroom?”. I have to say that the truth is slightly less obvious than between this very battered, manky toadstool and the lovely shiny mushroom.

By the way, toads seldom sit about lollygagging on toadstools, for they do not hop, they crawl, and they are also rather hefty around the midriff, which makes clambering a tad uncomfortable for them. Or should that be a `toad` uncomfortable? Dreadful pun, but maybe some of you are smiling, and it is a sad day without a smile somewhere in it. 

This is a set with many permutations, for there were three sets in all, each of fifty cards. The first fifty were issued by Cooper & Co Stores Ltd of Glasgow, with Coopers Tea (COO-150 : CPD-1 - full set), and by Elkes Biscuits who had three branches, Uttoxeter, Cardiff and Burscough (ELK-020 : ELK-1 - second 25). This was the only set Elkes ever issued. The second set of fifty is our set by Ching, but they only issued the first half, twenty-five cards. The other issuers were B.T. Limited, a tea merchant, (BAA-220 : AZZ-3 - first 25) Cromwell (or Cromwell`s) Stores, who were actually an off licence in Shepherds Bush, London (CRO-070 : CRU-2 - first 25), Liam Devlin of Dublin, who made or distributed Barratt products in Eire (DEV-050 : DEV-2 - 50), Ovaltine Biscuits (OVA-050 : OVA-8 - first 25), Steve Prior, a bookseller of London S.W.8 (PRI-580 : PTQ-2 - second 25), and Sweetule Confectionery of Manchester and London (SWE-100 : SWA-27 - second 25). If that was not confusing enough the first 25 were also issued by Tonibell Ice Cream, but as "Did You Know?" (TON-030 : TNA-1 - 1963). Then there is a third set of fifty, issued as a first and second series, each of twenty-five, by Baker Wardell & Co. of Dublin, presumably with “Capital Tea”, but issued in two halves (BAK-140 : BAMF-1) and Gaycon Products, confectioners of London and East Grinstead (GAY-060 : GAY-4)

Ching started issuing cards in 1960, those being the first twenty four cards, "A Series" of the large sized photographic set "Jersey Past and Present", which is difficult to make up from odds and usually sold as complete sets, and a set called "Veteran and Vintage Cars", issued as a set of fifty with mauve backs and almost simultaneously issued as only cards 26-50 (just the second half), with blue backs. The blue back cards are quite scarce and there are not many dealers who will be able to sell you a complete set. In 1961 they issued just one set, "Ships and their Workings". In 1962, this "Do You Know", plus a set of medium sized "Flowers" and the second series of the large sized photographic set "Jersey Past and Present". This was completed by a third set the following year. Also in 1963 another partwork began, this was the large sized "Around and About in Jersey", and the second series followed in 1964. That was their final issue