Here we have our third clue and this is the trickiest of all, the name of the brand, Smith`s "Harvest MOON" Cigarettes.
Lions do not howl at the moon, only in fiction, for effect. And in fact they do not howl at all, they roar, and roar very loudly.
This medal was awarded for service in South Africa, in fact you can read that at the bottom of the medal. It actually says "South Africa Company" and they fought the native Matabele in two wars made up of several separate actions. The first Matabele War was in 1893/94 and the second Matabele War in 1896/97. Both of these took place in modern-day Zimbabwe. Only the bars, which fixed to the ribbon, denoted the field of conflict, but curiously both these bars relate to the second War, which started in Rhodesia and moved into Mashonaland.
This set was issued by F. & J. Smith in several formats, and by other issuers as just a small part of their sets. I have combined several sources to make sorting this all out as easy as I can, and come up with
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Unnumbered cards, twenty in all, with "Glory`s Reward" branded backs, but no mention of the Imperial Tobacco Company. These were issued in 1902, and seem universally regarded as version A.
Now H.71, which is often quoted against this set, actually only refers to this un-numbered version of twenty cards. However it is a bit confusing because those cards were issued as part of a set of twenty-five cards by Mitchell in January 1916, and as part of a set of fifty by Churchman (January 1910) and Wills (in 1906). Now that actually contradicts the thought that Smiths took part of the other sets to make a smaller version, because Smith was first of all to issue it. -
Numbered cards, a set of fifty cards, in three printings, all multi-backed with various brands. At one time this was B., C., and D., and they were cited as being different thicknesses, B. as thick cards, issued in 1902 - C. as paper thin cards saying "The Imperial Tobacco Company" and dating from 1903. These are the most sought after - and D. as fifty thin cards, thicker than C but not as thick as A or B, that also say "The Imperial Tobacco Company", and were issued in February 1906. Today we seem not to mention the thicknesses and have come up with
a) back "Issued by F. & J. Smith, Glasgow", no I.T.C. clause. This seems to fit with the original B. However we now know that the fifty cards can be found with fourteen branded backs.
b) back "Issued by the Imperial Tobacco Co. (of...). These cards can be found with fourteen branded backs, but it looks like one card has not yet been seen. Not sure which yet.
c) back "Issued by the Imperial Tobacco Co. (of...) These cards have twelve branded brands.
And the brands, for all, are
- A. "Albion Flake Tobacco"
- B. Cut Navy Tobacco
- C. "Evergreen" Cigarettes
- D. Glasgow Mixture Cigarettes
- E. Glasgow Mixture Tobacco
- F. "Glory`s Reward" Cigarettes
- G. "Goodwill" Virginia Tobacco
- H. "Harvest Moon" Cigarettes
- I. "Morning Gallop" Cigarettes
- J. "Pen & Pencil" Cigarettes
- K. "Regimental" Cigarettes
- L. "Shooting Lodge" Cigarettes
- M. "Studio" Cigarettes
- N. "Sun Cured" Mixture Tobacco
- O. "Sun Cured" Mixture Cigarettes
- P. "Wild Geranium" Cigarettes
The other issuers only relate to the set of