So here, in the distance, is Wembley Stadium, home of the F.A. Cup Final, and this is almost certainly a card that football fans know nothing of. In fact there are two others in the set, but all are glimpses. There is a description on one though. This makes it even odder that there was not a front, even that front, showing the Stadium.
Anyway our original Churchman Reference Book (RB.10) says :
151. 1922-23. 25 Wembley Exhibition (titled series). Size 2 11/16 x 1 7/16" or 67 x 36 m/m. Numbered 1-25. Fronts in gravure, in brown. Backs in brown, with description. Printed by Mardon, Son and Hall.
That date is definitely incorrect for many reasons.
In 1922 the stadium, and the buildings for the exhibition, were nowhere near this complete.
1923 would have been concievable, and useful, if it was pre-advertising, after all the postal franks advertising the exhibition did start in 1923, but the cards would need to show the exhibition before it opened, whilst here we have people in the streets, and the Railodok transportation system in use, not being tested. Most telling is that whilst the stadium was opened in 1923, just four days before the Cup Final, many of the people who got in without tickets used the ladders and scaffolding from the pavilions which were still under construction. And these pavilions are finished. In addition if we look back at our card, the building on the left is the South African Pavilion, and the foundation stone for that was laid by General Smuts, and it appeared in the Gaumont Graphic newsreel in October 1923, which must have been fairly contemporary to that event taking place. Whilst the other building, on the right, is Malta, which seems to have been a bit ponderous as to whether it wanted to take part, the building`s plans not being drawn up until late 1923 and most of the exhibits only arriving two weeks before the opening of the exhibition. However it was one of the most popular pavilions, which makes it even stranger that they did not return in 1925.
That brings us to 1924, the year that the exhibition opened (23rd of April 1924), and also a really wet year, and it is definitely raining on this card.
On the reverse of our card, the text is entirely devoted to modes of transport at Wembley, in fact the text says "Once inside one has wider choice of transportation than any Exhibition has ever offered". Cited were the Railodok Car, the Never Stop Railway (which worked by means of a screwed track that varied in size to make the railway carriages merely slow down as they got to and through the stations, and even "the ubiquitous Bath Chair, with its well informed attendant."
It is not until card 8 that the stadium is mentioned. That card is : "A General View. In this picture the Stadium towers can be seen in the distance. Once through the high walls which form the Exhibition Facade, its immensity is immediately apparent, It will hold 125,000 spectators on the terraces and stands, and altogether covers a space of more than 10 acres, and is one of the largest sports arena in the world". This is a bit of a curiosity for it seems to ignore the overcrowding of the F.A. Cup Final of 1923, which could support it being issued before that date, but it is the only card that could. Perhaps it is more likely that they were thinking of the events which were to be held in the Stadium throughout the Exhibition, which would almost certainly not suffer the same.
You can also see the stadium on card 9 "Palestine". I will scan these three in some time! Maybe even by Saturday but no guarantees.
On card 16 we have no sight of the Stadium, but we do have another clue to the date because that is for "The Palace of Industry" and it mentions "The Palace of Engineering, opposite". However for the 1925 season the Palace of Engineering was renamed to The Palace of Housing and Transport.
Our original World Tobacco Issues Index simply describes this set as "Sm. Brown gravure. Nd. (25)", However the updated version adds new information, that being that there are two versions, according to the depth of the frame on the back, which is either (A) 59 m/m or (B) just over 60 m/m. I have not checked my set yet to see if I have a marriage, but I will tomorrow. Though it will take all my concentration to work that tiny difference out!