A very exciting card for you today, which refers to riding a horse.
The first thing you will notice is that the card has no margin and when that happens it is pretty certain that it is designed to be put on a flat surface and butted up to other cards to make a larger picture. The panorama in this case is rather spectacular, and you can see it for yourself by galloping along to Worthpoint/ScissorsDerby - now if you want to gauge the size of this completed item, each card measures 63 x 35 m/m.
There are several versions of this set, which could be why there is no firm date of issue, it being generally regarded that they were issued between 1910 and 1915. Some dealers do put a date of 1914 though. As an aside 1910 could not be right, because the course was not railed off from the spectators until the 1911 race. Then 1913, of course, was the Suffragette Derby. And from 1915 to 1918 the race was not held at Epsom but at Newmarket, because the grandstands were being used as hospitals, and the Epsom area was home to a military base.
The basic Wills versions in our World Tobacco Issues Index are catalogued as:
A. Back says "Derby Day Series"
B. Back says "Series A", no mention of a particular race
C. Cards with a Star and Circle back design
D. Anonymous cards with large lettering
For our original RB.21 there was a bit of a change - versions A and B were combined as A1 and A2. The vacant B was then given to the anonymous cards with the large lettering. And the C seems to have disappeared, so if anyone has any of these cards with a star and circle back do let us know.
This was not the end of this set, for it turns up being issued by African Tobacco Manufacturers of Cape Town in South Africa, some time later in 1923. However it has a new title, of "The Racecourse". Some catalogues say the set is not quite the same as the Wills version, so if you have any info on this do tell us.