Now this set is a really interesting slice of life because it is not just a circus, it is Bertram Mills' Circus, and it was produced in collaboration with them, though by that time it was being run by his descendants. You see the original Mr. Bertram Wagstaff Mills had been born in 1873. His father was an undertaker who had branched out to include the writing of the Undertaker`s Journal, and the building of the funeral coaches, as well as being one of the first firms in London to offer cremation as an alternative to burial. At that time these coaches were all horse drawn, which is where he developed his skill at training them to perform little tricks.
He formed the circus after he left the Army.
Our issuer, John O. Barker (Ireland) Ltd. were based at Black Rock, a suburb of Dublin.
This set is described in our original British Trade Index as
CIRCUS SCENES. Lg. 97 x 50. Nd. (24) ..... BAO-1
and in our updated version as
CIRCUS SCENES. (1961). 97 x 50. Nd. (24) .... BAP-120
The heading to both books tells us John. O. Barker produced "Barker`s Bubblegum", and that all four of his sets were issued between 1955 and 1965. They also had special albums. However the only one of the four which is original to him is our set; their other sets being also issued by others. These were :
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"Famous People", which was also issued by Lyons Maid, but strangely the Barker set was issued in 1961 and the Lyons version did not appear until the following year.
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"Footballers", which was also issued by Mitcham Foods, both versions being in 1956/57, more or less at the same time as Barker`s.
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"The Wild West" which was issued as three series, each of twenty-five cards. However these were all by different makers and only Sweetule offered more than one part. They seem to have got away with this because each set was numbered 1-25. But there must have been confusion for the collectors. Series one was issued by Sweetule and by Amalgamated Tobacco in 1960 ,and also as an anonymous version which seems not to have a date attached to it. Series two was issued by Sweetule in 1960, by Barkers in 1961, but not by Barratt until 1963. Then we have Series three which was issued by Express Weekly in 1958 and by Barker`s quite a long time afterwards, in 1970.