Card of the Day - 2022-12-02

Bewlay "War Series"
Bewlay & Co. Ltd [tobacco : UK] "War Series" (1915) 4/12 - B359-180A : B63-1A

Bewlay & Co Ltd were founded in 1780, and were actually a pipe seller, though they did not make their own, they retailed pipes, and primarily expensive ones. I have found out that they were "formerly Salmon & Gluckstein", and that they were taken over by Imperial Tobacco in the 1950s. They had a network of shops, including at 49, Strand, London, W.C. - and 2 Exchange St, E.C.1 - and were still in business at the time our "Directory of British Issuers" was published, in 1946, though it states they were "Now retail trade only (shops)", but these slowly disappeared until just one was left, in Hull, which apparently still remains - if any Hull residents would like to go and take a photo we will include it here. 

This card proves that they did also sell tobacco for it advertises their "Caps the Lot" Smoking Mixture", "as good as the Cigarettes. 5d per Oz. Packet". If you change our underlined "the" for "our" it hints that they also produced cigarettes...? You can also find a slight variant which says "Try Bewlay`s "Caps the Lot" Mixture", and another, rarer, printing for "Try Bewlay`s "Moden Man" Mixture". 

They only ever issued two sets of cigarette cards, both "War Series", ours, of 12 cards, and another of 25 cards, which were differently branded, two for "Modern Man", Mixtures and Cigarettes, and one for "Two Great Favourites" [Modern Man mixture and cigarettes]. They are similar to R & J Hill, whose cards cite that the photos, and perhaps the text, are "by permission of The Graphic" [Newspaper"]. 

Bewlay did issue other cards, namely "Comic Advertisement Cards" for "Flor de Dindigul" branded cigars. Seven cigarette card sized ones are known and they are listed at H.36, but there were also six postcards. 

General Leman, far more groomed, also appears on Major Drapkin`s "Celebrities of the Great War". The text mentions "his gallant defence of Liege", and slightly alters his teaching by telling us that rather than our card, where he "was for several years Director of Studies in the Ecole Militaire in Brussels, and is a distinguished mathematician", this card says that "for many years he was Professor of Mathematics at the Ecole Polytchnique in Brussels", and closes by saying "When the forts [at Liege] were eventually captured by the Germans General Leman was found buried in the ruins, and was taken prisoner, badly wounded." Perhaps it was during this captivity when our photograph was taken, in the way that all propaganda looks for the opposing forces at their worst or their lowest.