This card shows Lipton himself, though, as is customary for these cartoons, it does not call him by name, it calls him "Shamrock" - after his yacht. And note the tiny flag in the top right hand corner, which contains a shamrock too.
The back text mentions the fact that he is already on Shamrock III. Now this third version was designed by William Fife and built in Scotland, launching in March 1903. It was again an America`s Cup contender, entered by The Royal Ulster Yacht Club for the 1903 race but lost to the New York Yacht Club`s "Reliance" in every race. It only ever sailed again as almost a pacer for Shamrock IV, and was scrapped once those trials were through.
This may be leading you to question the given date of May 1902 for this set, but if you look at the text on the card it does not appear that Shamrock III had done a lot, if any, sailing, just that "He intends to succeed with Shamrock III".
Now there were three versions of this one set, and we have a home page which details them all with our Card of the Day for the 11th of May, 2025. This page only details the unnumbered set, though it does include any important information relevant to this from the other printings.
It first appears in our Wills reference book part two, or, more correctly, "RB.11 – The Cigarette Card Issues of W.D. & H.O. Wills Part I (revised) and Part II", published in 1948. The description includes all three versions, and gives the cards of the third, unnumbered set in alphabetical order of the card titles, but it also numbers them, very misleadingly, and so I have altered that to show them as bullets. The full description, altered, therefore reads :
- 31. "VANITY FAIR" SERIES. The name of this series was taken from a popular Victorian Society periodical [called] "Vanity Fair" which published a great many cartoons of notabilities, and the cards are reproductions of a suitable selection. The caricatures were usually accompanied by racy biographical sketches, and from these most of the card texts were extracted. The cartoonist was "Spy", and his self portrait appears in Series 2, card No.42
Fronts lithographed in colour on stone coloured background. Backs in grey, with texts.
The records of Wills show the issue date as May 1902. Printed by Stewart & Wolf, Germany. There are three series, each of 50 cards.
C) "Vanity Fair" Series. Unnumbered. This series consists of 37 cards from the first, 6 cards from the 2nd, with 7 new titles, as listed below ; -- "A Flannelled Fighter" (2nd, No.27)
- "An Admiral of the Fleet" (a new title)
- "A Retired Leader" (1st, No.23)
- "Aubrey Tanqueray" (2nd, No.26)
- "Australia" (a new title)
- "Birdseye" (1st, No.10)
- "Bobs" (1st, No.36)
- "Canada" (1st, No.20)
- "Canterbury" (a new title)
- "C.I.V." (1st, No.44)
- "Dick" (1st, No.40)
- "Dover and War" (1st, No.39)
- Dr. Jim" (2nd, No.16)
- "Dublin University" (2nd, No.22)
- "Easy Execution" (1st, No.29)
- "Fair, if not Beautiful" (1st, No.42)
- "Forbie" (1st, No.13)
- "Frank" (a new title)
- "From the Army to the Church" (1st, No.4)
- "From the Old Bailey" (1st, No.3)
- "Hard Head" (2nd, No.43)
- "High Commissioner" (1st, No.18)
- "Jacky" (new title)
- "Khartoum" (1st, No.22)
- "Ladysmith" (1st, No.35)
- "Little Bo Peep" (1st, No.46)
- "London" (1st, No.47)
- "Mafeking" (1st, No.37)
- "Mr. Speaker" (1st, No.15)
- "Our Soldier Prince" (1st, No.2)
- "Oxford Athletics" (1st, No.11)
- "Partnership" (1st, No.1)
- "Peking" (a new title)
- "P.R.A." (1st, No.17)
- "Ranji" (1st, No.21)
- "Redrag" (1st, No.30)
- "Sammy" (1st, No.6)
- "Self Reliant" (a new title)
- "Shamrock" (1st, No.50)
- "Smith`s Leading Cases" (1st, No.9)
- "Thanet" (1st, No.31)
- "The Colonies" (1st, No.45)
- "The Commercial Traveller" (1st, No.25)
- "The Croucher" (1st, No.49)
- "The New French President" (1st, No.24)
- "The Opposition" (1st, No.26)
- "United States Embassy"
Our original World Tobacco Issues Index lists these cards under Wills section 1.E, for "Issues 1898 - 1902 inscribed "Wills`s Cigarettes". Cards without the full name of firm" :
- “VANITY FAIR” SERIES. Sm. 68 x 36. See W/31 ... W62-58
3. Unnumbered. (50)
This means that without the original Wills reference book RB.11, which by then were in short supply, you would have no idea of the make-up of the unnumbered set. This is almost certainly one of the many reasons why the decision was made to reprint them all in one hard back volume.
In our updated version of the World Tobacco Issues Index, this has been partially restored, and the text there, still under Wills section 1.E, for "Issues 1898 - 1902 inscribed "Wills`s Cigarettes". Cards without the full name of firm", reads :
- “VANITY FAIR” SERIES. Sm. 68 x 36. See W/31 ... W675-083
3. Unnumbered. (50). 43 subjects from the above two series, 7 new subjects.