Now this card may say wheat, but all cereals are being harvested this time of the year. Even the moon is called the harvest moon, and it gained that name very simply, because it provided natural light so that the corn gatherers could work later into the evening and make sure all the crop was in. In the British Isles it comes up on Thursday, September 28 and falls below the horizon on Friday the 29th. Curiously it also rises at more or less the same time every night.
Many tales of folklore surround the harvest, because it was such an important time in the farmers year, and all kinds of superstitions would have naturally sprung up to give a little extra help to the harvest, to make it good this year, and the next as well.
Ancient Romans, Greeks and Egyptians all believed that the harvest was a feminine thing, and it was ruled over by goddesses; in fact it is from the Roman goddess Ceres that we get the name of Cereal. One tradition in many civilisations was to make the last of the corn into a representation of the goddess so that she would bless them. This figure was sometimes kept until it could be buried in the field when the next year`s seeds were planted, or at other times it was burned as a sacrifice in the middle of the empty field when all the corn was safely collected and put away .
Anyway I am delighted to be able to fill another connection gap, because we had the second series of this set a while ago, on the 12th of March 2023, though it is in the newsletter, not as a card of the day, so you will have to scroll down to find it.
Now I started hunting for the description of this set in the World Tobacco Issues Index, but found it cross referenced to RB.21, which is the British American Tobacco Booklet. So we will start with that, because it was issued first, in 1952 - the World Tobacco Issues Index being from 1956. Now in RB.21 all the Westminster issues are housed in section XIII, which covers special groups and other multi-area series - including playing cards, dominoes, Chinese chess and Spanish gaming cards.
The Westminsters are in group 5, entitled "Westminster Colonial Photographic Series" and headed "This group consists of the nine series of photographic cards issued by Westminster. All are small cards, size 66 x 35 m/m, with fronts glossy photoprints in black and white. Backs are in black with descriptive text."
Our set comes first, listed as :
291. AUSTRALIA. First series of 36. Inscribed "Issued by the Successors in the United Kingdom to the Westminster Tobacco Co., Ltd., London." A second series was prepared but not issued; plain back proofs of these are in circulation.
Now on to the World Tobacco Issues Index, where Westminster is split into several groups, and these cards are in Group 4, "United Kingdom Issues - Inscribed "Issued by the Successors in the United Kingdom to the Westminster Tobacco Co., Ltd., London." All black and white photos, small size, 66 x 35 m/m. For Anonymous Issue, see set ZJ5-1. Issued 1925-32. Of course the Anonymous issue is the second series of our set, because the back which would have had the text and the name never got added to the fronts. The description of the first set only here is : "AUSTRALIA. Nd. "First Series of 36" See RB/21/291.