Card of the Day - 2022-11-04

Lea "Chairman and Vice Chairman Miniatures" first series blue border (1912)
R & J Lea [tobacco : UK] "Chairman Miniatures" (1912) - L250-050.2 - L26-1.2

Our last moustache is a Van Dyck, named after a painter. It is sometimes called a Van Dyk or a Van Dyke, both simply being spelling variants. This style consists of a moustache and a separate small or goatee beard which is crucially not joined to each other. 

This card actually shows a painting by Sir Anthony van Dyck, who was actually Flemish, but became the most sought after painter for the British royalty and society, and was eventually buried in St. Paul`s Cathedral. Some say that this all came because he was already rich, his father being one of the top silk merchants in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe; but the truth is that it would not have happened at all if he had not been such a skilled painter, and more or less self taught from a very young age. 

Now I am sure you are wondering whether the artist sported a Van Dyck moustache himself. Well he only ever painted three self portraits, but in one, that you can see at The National Portrait Gallery/Van Dyck yes, he definitely does. 

There were several versions of this set. They are well summarised in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes as : 

1. ISSUES 1907-16
1A. SMALL CARDS. Size 67-68 x 36-37 m/m

CHAIRMAN MINIATURES. Sm. Nd. See RB.21/200-261.B. "Indexed Album" advertised on backs.
1. "First Series", Nos. 1/50. Inscribed "Chairman Miniatures". 
      Front (a) with gilt border (b) without border
2. "First Series", Nos. 51-100. Inscribed "Chairman and Vice-Chair Miniatures".
      Front with blue border. 

Now actually the cigarettes were called "The Chairman" Cigarettes, and they were straight cut Virginia tobacco, ten to a blue packet. I have been unable to find a "Vice Chairman" packet, which makes me think it may be tobacco. Anyone out there know?