So here was clue number two to this week`s theme, the Palace of Versailles, where the treaty was actually signed, within the Hall of Mirrors. It seems very odd that the last card in this series, designed to show the beauties that the war was destroying, should be the site of the last act of the First World War.
The Armistice, or ceasefire, had come into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, but it was not an end to the war, and also it only lasted for thirty-six days, after which it had to be renewed, something that had been done four times by the time that the terms of the peace had been thrashed out in meetings which Germany were not allowed to attend.
This set appears first in our Wills reference book part 3, where the description is :
71. 50 GEMS OF FRENCH ARCHITECTURE. Fronts lithographed in colour; backs in grey, with descriptive text. Two grades of board
a) white, glossy
b) cream, matt
Home issue 1917.
This is reduced to simply "GEMS OF FRENCH ARCHITECTURE. Sm. Nd. (50)" in both our original and updated World Tobacco Issues Indexes.
Now some collectors see this set and think it is just architecture. But it is really a set with a secret, because, yes, look at the fronts and it is a classical building of great historical importance and beauty. However if you look at the date, right towards the end of The First World War, you suddenly realise that this set was propaganda. Look, the cards say, this beautiful building, but is it still, amidst the war and the destruction that rages over France?
There were other "Gems Of" sets just like this, the first one issued being "Gems of Belgian Architecture", issued in August 1915, then there was a fairly substantial gap before "Gems of Russian Architecture" in February 1917, and our set followed fairly quickly along in the November of that year.
Remember that gap? Well, it baffled quite a few people, until the truth emerged in The Cartophilic World magazine, Volume 13, No. 150 - November/December 1960. And this is what was revealed :
This means that it was never recorded in our original Wills Reference Books, nor our original World Tobacco Issues Index. However you will find it listed when the five Wills books were reprinted as a single hard back volume, because Wills did record that this set was due to be issued second in line, some time in 1916, which would have filled that gap.
We do not know why it was never issued, nor whether there was a text prepared but never printed. It seems even more curious that it was not issued and yet two other sets in the same series were. I can only suspect that maybe there was something about the Italian campaign that got this set shelved?
And the obvious question is where now is that proof set, that Mr. Fred Piper discovered?