So here we have The Boar`s Head, a double header - festive food, and music, for "The Boar`s Head" is the earliest written carol, having been sung since the early sixteenth century. And it is most associated with Queen`s College, Oxford, where an actual boar`s head on a plate, poor thing, has been served on Christmas Day for getting on for seven hundred years.
Angel`s Hymn is earlier, and was first recorded as being sung in the thirteenth century but it was not written down. Therefore it has been ousted in the record books by a single printing of our song, dated 1521.
Now this is not the original series of cards, which, I am very surprised to learn, were issued way back, between 1949 and 1958. Our British Trade Index part II also tells us that the original first and second series were solely produced on aluminium, with the third series being available on either aluminium or board.
All the signs for the original sets measure 76 x 51 m/m. And as to how you tell them apart, well the trick is to look at the title, for the originals are "Inn Signs" but ours are "History of Whitbread Inn Signs".
Our set first appears in the British Trade Index part III, along with three groups of 1950-1958 signs which had been discovered and/or produced after our second volume. Our group is described as
The History of Whitbread Inn Signs. 76 x 50. Rounded corners, on board. Special albums issued, 1973-74. Eleven numbered series.
1. Bournemouth (25 cards)
2. Devon & Somerset (25)
3. Isle of Wight (25)
4. Kent (25)
5. London (10)
6. London (15)
7. Maritime Inn Signs (25)
8. Marlow (25)
9. Portsmouth (25)
10. Stratford-Upon-Avon (25)
11. West Pennines (25)
Now my first thought is why the London sets were split up in such a way, because if combined they also form a set of 25 cards, uniform with the others. So if you know do tell us.
This varies very slightly in our updated British Trade Index, though the listing of the set numbers, after, is the same :
The History of Whitbread Inn Signs. 1973-74. 76 x 50. Rounded corners. Special albums issued, 1973-74. Eleven series, all numbered.