So we have had a bit of a change here, as we have today been sent the joker for this set, many thanks to Mr. W, and so it has replaced the Churchman "Boy Scouts" second series (which was in this space yesterday, but is already in our gallery).
Now there is no mention of the joker card(s) until our original Lambert & Butler reference booklet, RB.9, published in 1948. This tells us that there were three jokers available.
The one showing here is the first of these, and it accompanied the original set of 50 (L/44) the cards of which do not have an underline below the words “Securely Packed”. This joker has no address on it, so was unaffected when the address on the cards was changed from “Box No. 152, London” to “Box No. 152, Drury Lane". We are not sure whether at that time they simply reprinted the cards and not the joker. Does anyone know?
The second version of the set (L/45) which has the two words "Securely Packed" underlined, was not issued with a joker at all. Did they think that the joker from the first set would still be sufficiently in circulation not to need a reprint? Or were they thinking that the lack of jokers would make it harder to get a set and therefore claim the prize?
The other two jokers both belong to the set we showed you yesterday and also have the "end of series" red overprint. These appear in our original World Tobacco Issues Index as "Joker card identical to that described under (44) in (a) black and (b) dark green. 1933".
In the updated version of our World Tobacco Issues Index the jokers are slightly differently described, as "A. Joker card with back in black." and "B. Joker card with back in black or grey".
Opinions please on whether B is green or grey!