This clue was designed to confuse, as it may show the swimming kind of a Perch, but in ground or land measurement terms a "Perch" measures exactly 5 1/2 yards. It is also known as a rod, and it also measures 16 1/2 feet, or a quarter of a chain, which are useful indeed for measuring land into acres.
People more learned than me regard that the first use of the word "Perch" as a measuring term dates from the Middle Ages, some time between the middle of the thirteenth century and the start of the fourteenth. This was inscribed in a book, written in Latin, called "Compositio Ulnarum et Perticarum", which set down the exact lengths of the measurements of a barleycorn, an inch (the length of three grains of that barleycorn), a foot (as today, twelve inches), a yard (three feet), and a perch (five yards), as well as the exact dimensions of an acre, those being forty perches one way, by four perches the other - a total of a hundred and sixty perches in total.
As far as the fish, they started swimming in the Pleiocene age, way back in the story of creation. They are called perch because their family name is Percidae, or Perciformes, and that refers to the fact that their dorsal fin is subdivided into two, the front part usually having spines and the rear being soft. Again we can thank Carl Linnaeus for the name, at least of the European perch, though he was almost thirty years after the Swedish Petrus Arctaedius (1705-1735), "father of ichthyology" had named the local river fish as a Perch.
This is the home page for all the Carreras "Turf" Slide issues, simply because the first set in alphabetical order and the earliest set to have been issued were both used in newsletters, and that makes finding them just a bit harder.
However, the first thing that we need to say is that "Turf" was used twice by Carreras as a brand, firstly between 1925 and 1937, for sets issued through Alexander Boguslavsky, which fall under Carreras section 2.B of our original World Tobacco Issues Index - and then again for our sets, issued between 1947 and 1956, and these are right at the end of the Carreras, under section 3.B for “Issues 1947 onwards”. That section reads :
HOME ISSUES. Printed on inner slides of `Turf Cigarettes` - one on 10s, two on 20s packings. Front in blue. When cut off, cards are `Turf` brand issues. Listed in order of issue.
- FILM STARS. Nd. (50) Issued 1947 ... C18-101 [in newsletter, on Tue 2 January 2023]
- FILM FAVOURITES. Nd. (50) Issued 1948 ... C18-102
- FOOTBALLERS. Nd. (50) Issued 1948 ... C18-103
- OLYMPICS 1948. Nd. (50) Issued 1948 ... C18-104
- SPORTS SERIES. Nd. (50) Issued 1949 ... C18-105 [in newsletter, on Fri 3 March, 2025]
- FAMOUS FILM STARS. Nd. (50) Issued 1949 ... C18-106 [in newsletter, onTue 23 August 2022]
- FAMOUS CRICKETERS. Nd. (50) Issued 1950 ... C18-107
- RADIO CELEBRITIES. Nd. (50) Issued 1950 ... C18-108
- CELEBRITIES OF BRITISH HISTORY. Nd. (50) As Set C18-37, two numbers changed, see N & N, Vol.6, page 17. Issued 1951 ... C18-109
- FAMOUS FOOTBALLERS. Nd. (50) Issued 1951 ... C18-110
- FAMOUS DOG BREEDS. Nd. (50) Issued 1952 ... C18-111
- BRITISH RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVES. Nd. (50) Issued 1952 ... C18-112
- BRITISH AIRCRAFT. Nd. (50) Issued 1953 ... C18-113 [in newsletter, on Wed 22 January 2025]
- ZOO ANIMALS. Nd. (50) Issued 1954 ... C18-114
- BRITISH FISH. Nd. (50). Descriptive text on attachment, Issued 1954-55 ... C18-115
- FAMOUS BRITISH FLIERS. Nd. (50) Blue and black. Issued 1956 ... C18-116
Our set is indeed the only set with additional wording, but if you trim the card right down, as someone has done to mine, they also trim off the wording. I have now been told that our fish was described, in two lines, as : "A beautiful fish with red fins and "cross bars". Found in most / parts of the country. Two pounders are not uncommon."
Now if anyone has this in the uncut form, a scan would be most appreciated - even more so if it is the double uncut form. Or failing that, just a note of which fish swims beside this one on that double slide. With which in mind here is a list of the pairings on those double slides :
- 5. Bleak - with - 39. Sturgeon
I am not sure how far I will get with this list, so all help is welcome.
Now by the time of the updated World Tobacco Issues Index there had been a bit of a change round, I suspect because it was a bit harder to find the sets in the listing. Therefore they have been relisted in alphabetical order, as :
reads :
HOME ISSUES. Printed on inner slides of `Turf Cigarettes` - one on 10s, two on 20s packings. Front in blue. When cut off, cards are `Turf` brand issues. Listed in order of issue.
- BRITISH AIRCRAFT. Nd. (50) Issued 1953 ... C151-620
- BRITISH FISH. Nd. (50). Descriptive text on attachment, Issued 1954-55 ... C151-625
- BRITISH RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVES. Nd. (50) Issued 1952 ... C151-630
- CELEBRITIES OF BRITISH HISTORY. Nd. (50) As Set C151-220, two subjects substituted. Issued 1951 ... C151-635
- FAMOUS BRITISH FLIERS. Nd. (50) Blue and black. Issued 1956 ... C151-640
- FAMOUS CRICKETERS. Nd. (50) Issued 1950 ... C151-645
- FAMOUS DOG BREEDS. Nd. (50) Issued 1952 ... C151-650
- FAMOUS FILM STARS. Nd. (50) Issued 1949 ...C151-655
- FAMOUS FOOTBALLERS. Nd. (50) Issued 1951 ... C151-660
- FILM FAVOURITES. Nd. (50) Issued 1948 ... C151-665
- FILM STARS. Nd. (50) Issued 1947 ... C151-670
- FOOTBALLERS. Nd. (50) Issued 1948 ... C151-675
- OLYMPIC 1948. Nd. (50) Issued 1948 ... C151-680
- RADIO CELEBRITIES. Nd. (50) Issued 1950 ... C151-685
- SPORTS SERIES. Nd. (50) Issued 1949 ... C151-690
- ZOO ANIMALS. Nd. (50) Issued 1954 ... C151-695