And lastly, the clue was that same old moon, another beacon in the night sky. In fact right now it looks especially beautiful for it is pink in hue.
Strangely though, that is not how the moon at this time of year got its name - for it was likened to a North American flower that bloomed at the same time, called moss phlox or moss pink. I am rather sad we did not use one of the Native American names, for the Cree Indians of Canada knew it as the Frog Moon, because it summoned the frogs to the pools. Mind you I don`t want to think about why they were glad about this because I am pretty sure if I followed that trail it would lead me to cooking and to eating.
This card was just one of the many uses of the artwork by Bruce Bairnsfather, often featuring his creation "Old Bill". He appeared on china, and as metal figures, and even as a car mascot. And he was played by Charlie Chaplin`s older half-brother, Syd, in the Warner Brothers' film "The Better 'Ole", screened in 1926. You can see his portrayal on W.D. & H.O. Wills "Cinema Stars" first series (1928) 4/25 - and it mentions the film on the reverse.
In fact you can find this very image as a sepia postcard, part of "Bystander`s" Fragments From France Series 6 - there being nine series in all, each of six cards. You can read the titles and see all of the cards in an excellent pdf produced by the Wokingham Philatelic Society. However there is a difference between the two though, because the postcard has the text in the bottom border, and inside the image, not on the reverse as in our version - the young lady`s thoughts appearing on the wall of the house to her right - and the soldier`s thoughts above the post and his head. And when it was originally printed as a cartoon in the "Bystander" Magazine, the words only appeared once, in the image. You can see that at the Mary Evans Picture Library
In our original Reference Book to the issues of R. & J. Hill (RB.2), this set is split into three versions. Which I will scan by the newsletter.
Our updated World Tobacco Issues Index lists it as
Fragments From France. Sm. 68 x 37. Unnd. See H.212.
1. Captions in capital letters
A) front in colour
B) front in sepia or buff
C) front in black and white2. Captions in upper and lower case letters. Coloured front only (10)
This is also the system used in the 1950 London Cigarette Card Company catalogue, where set A) is listed for sale at 25/- to 70/- a card, set B) for 30/- to 80/- and set C) just being listed with no price. However they say that the ten cards as set 2 are "different subjects, caption in block", and price them up at between 8/6 and 25/- each or £12 a set.
However in the original version of our World Tobacco Issues Index, issued only six years after that catalogue, it combines the two coloured sets and has set A) as twenty cards, with B) and C) as above.