Another popular resolution today, “I will stop drinking”. Of course this does not refer to water, but to alcohol. Though curiously there is much support for drinking, in moderation, which actually has health benefits.
I am afraid that the term is not a very happy one, for it comes from a poem written in 1889 by Tennyson, and it refers to our souls crossing between the tide of life`s river and going over into the wide and deep ocean beyond, which is our death. In fact you will often see it in Naval obituaries.
Now this set is in our first ever reference book, though the listing from which it came actually first appeared in the “Cigarette Card News”, in Volume 1, issue 2, dated November 1933. as a section called "The Foundation of a Standard Catalogue". This possibly suggests that Colonel Bagnall had a soft spot for the cards, or maybe the issuer, and the reason why Faulkner was our first reference book could well have been that this ground work was all in place. This first section covers cards from "Puzzle Pictures" (1898) to "Cricket Terms" (1899), and it also lists the titles of the unnumbered cards. It also tells us that the design for the first series of our set was registered on the 8th of July 1899.
Part two of this listing appeared in Volume 1, issue 3, dated December 1933, and that covered sets from "Football Terms" (1900) to the "Old Sporting Prints" (May 1930). And that was still reportedly in circulation at the time the magazine went to press. It alse covered our set, listed as :
1900. 12 Nautical Terms. 2nd Series. Printed by Tillotson & Sons, inscribed "Grenadier Cigarettes'. Terms used: " Lay To" ; " In Tow" ; " Changing Her Course" ; " With the Tide"; "Bringing Her To"; "Crossing the Bar"; " A Sudden Squall" ; "Setting the Jib " ; " Striking Colours" : "Light on the Larboard Astern" ; "Scuttled"; " Hard Astern".
1900 12 Nautical Terms. 2nd Series. As above but inscribed " Union Jack Cigarettes".
In our RB.1, the two second series sets are catalogued together as :
1900. 12. NAUTICAL TERMS. (untitled series). Size 2 3/8” x 1 ½ approximately. Unnumbered. Second Series. Fronts, lithographed in full colours, no border. “Term” above subject, “Grenadier Cigarettes,” “W. & F. Faulkner Ltd. London. S.E.” below subject.
12 NAUTICAL TERMS. (untitled series). Size 2 3/8” x 1 ½. Similar to above but with “Union Jack Cigarettes,” etc., in brown instead of “Grenadier Cigarettes”. Both with plain backs, and both possibly printed by Tillotsons & Sons, Bolton.
[then there is a list of the card titles, as listed above]
Both series are of humorous subjects.
Now the one thing that I need to tell you from the cataloguing of the first series is that it was definitely printed by A. Hildesheimer & Co. who were based in Germany, and had produced other sets for Faulkner`s – including what is thought to be their first ever issue, “Puzzle Series”. We base this theory on the fact that though it is generally recorded as having been issued in 1898, the cards do not have “Ld.” after the issuers`name, and many collectors believe that this set was actually issued prior to, or early in 1896, when Faulkner became a Limited Company.
The other Hildesheimer sets are : “Cricket Terms”, “Grenadier Guards”, “Military Terms”, Policemen of the World”, and “Police Terms” (all issued in 1899), plus both series of “Football Terms”, “Sporting Terms”, and “The Language of Flowers” (all issued in 1900)
By the time of our World Tobacco Issues Index it had been discovered that the first series must have been reprinted at some time, for it is now split into A. Light type lettering, dots under “td” of “Ltd” – and – B. Heavier type lettering, dash under “td” of “Ltd”. Of course this could have merely been a printing problem caused by too much ink, which made the letters thicker and darker and conjoined the two dots into a dash. It catalogues our second series as :
2. Second Series (12). Captions at top.
A. “Grenadier Cigarettes”.
B. “Union Jack Cigarettes”.
This remains the same in our updated version, but a handbook code is inserted, which I imagine is for the titles of the cards. But will check by Saturday...