Card of the Day - 2023-01-20

Rabbit unknown
Anonymous [trade : magazine : UK] "Pets and Animals" untitled (1959) Un/16 - FLE-275 : FLC-29

After my initial efforts at trying to track this down as an Australian issue, I have had the most marvellous and informative email from Malcolm Thompson, which tells me that the card is from a set of sixteen cards issued with Harold Hare's Newspaper in 1960. The cards  measured 95mm x 50mm and had to be cut out from sheets before sticking them into an album called 'My book of pets and animals'. And here are a couple of pictures, also supplied by Malcolm Thompson - namely the front cover, followed by the back.

Harold Hare front cover
Harold Hare back

The card backs were blank because the descriptions were given adjacent to the picture when put in the album. The set was obviously designed for young children because here is the description for  the Rabbit:

"Long ago all rabbits ran wild in the countryside, but nowadays they are mainly kept as pets and live in hutches. The English rabbits in the picture are a cuddly bunch of bunnies aren't they? There is nothing they like better than nibbling at a crisp lettuce or carrot. In fact, like some children, they always seem to be hungry, and love to munch away the whole day through. Some children take their rabbits along to Rabbit Shows. They have lots of fun seeing all the other rabbits there, and often win prizes, too"

The other cards in the set are The cormorant, hedgehog, cow, Alsatian, elephant, cat, rabbit, camel, goldfish, donkey; carrier pigeon, sheepdog, hamster, bee, macaw and llama.

And if you would like to read even more, read "'Pets on Cards'" by Malcolm Thompson, which was published in Cigarette Card News Vol 83 No's 927 & 928 and Vol 84 No 937.

Once armed with all this extra info, I found that you can read more about the newspaper at British Comics / Harold Hare and that it ran from 1959 to 1964. Now thrillingly they show all the covers, and many show giveaways, including our set, which fitted in an album called "My Book of Pets and Animals". In fact I can see our card,

The reason why the card codes start with an F is because the magazine was published by Fleetway Press. As far as our own reference books, the original British Trade Index part 2 and our updated single volume British Trade Index tells us the album had twelve pages with spaces for the sixteen cards corner mounted, (does this mean that they were precut with slots?) The cards are 95 x 50 m.m when cut, because they were issued in six pairs and one block of four. The pairs were issued as The Bee - Golden Hamster / The Camel - The Rabbit / The Donkey - Fish / The Hedgehog - The Cormorants / The Alsatian - The Crow / The Elephant - The Cat / The Llama - The Macaw / The Sheepdog - Carrier Pigeons.

And this means I have to go back and look what the block of four was!