Finally we showed you this card, of an 1839 painting called “Dignity and Impudence”, by Sir Edwin Landseer. This card may be in monotone, but the original is in colour, and currently hangs in the Tate Gallery.
The back was the link to our theme though, as that reveals that it is one of the “Academy Gems”, hence giving us another link to the “Academy” Awards – and maybe also the gems hearken to the jewels that are glisteningly sported by the attendees?
This Academy is not the same though, it is the Royal Academy of Arts, and artists who are members thereof are allowed to use the suffix of RA after their name. Our artist, Edwin Landseer was elected on the 10th of February 1831, but was not the only member of the Landseer family to be so, his father John, and brothers Charles and Thomas also were. But Edwin was the only one who was elected President of the whole Academy, in 1866, though, sadly, he had to turn it down, feeling he was not in good enough health to do the position justice.
This set was designed to be swapped for a print, or print(s) if you were a very keen smoker, for, in exchange for forty cards, you would receive “a coloured and mounted enlargement of such subjects available at the time, or framed complete for 200 cards”.
The story of H.C. Lloyd & Son., Ltd., is rather confusing, despite it being the largest employer in Exeter, and also many of those people were female, for their hands were smaller and more careful when it came to coaxing the leaves to roll up and form the future smokes.
Their premises were in Fore Street, but they had been linked to that street for many years before they ever came to sell tobacco. The earliest link so far traced is Robert Cross, who came to Exeter from Bristol, and founded the General Bank, in Fore Street, in 1792. By that time his son, Henry Cross, was aged sixteen.
At the turn of the nineteenth century, the son Henry Cross was listed on a court document as being a tobacconist; snuff maker, and tea blender. Sadly this was concerning the failure of his business and his bankruptcy. A few years later he returns to tobacco, but not for smoking, instead as an aid for farmers to remove mites and insects from their sheep and other livestock. It seems likely that he was also offering smoking tobacco on the side to those same farmers, perhaps as samples, as the next year he started advertising that he was now blending his own smoking mixtures. This was about the same time that his son, confusingly also named Henry, was born.
Now in 1843 Richard Lloyd of London bought them out, and the grandson of the founder of the London business, Richard Lloyd, moved in to the Exeter address.
This is probably where some of the confusion comes from, and it is made even worse by the fact that in June 1886, the Exeter company was taken over by Richard Lloyd`s son, who was called Horace Charles Lloyd and it was renamed H C Lloyd and Son. However, actually Richard Lloyd had two sons, Robert Lloyd and Horace Charles, and they assumed control of the Exeter branch in 1886. Many people think that Horace Charles was the main spur behind this and that is how he got his initials on the company, but he died shortly after taking over, so it could have been a tribute, or a way of remembering him, as his own son was too unwell to work in the trade. Robert Lloyd was a canny businessman and he extended the premises by buying a neighbouring shop when it closed down. He also immediately saw that the shape this created would allow for greater mechanisation of the processes,and somehow managed to install a machine which boasted of making almost five hundred cigarettes a minute.
Despite this, the company did not begin to issue cards until 1899 - and it looks like they only started branding their tobacco in 1897, "Honeydew", "Merrimac", and Ripley" all appearing in that year. However, our "Directory of British Cigarette Card Issuers" (RB.7, published in 1946) has their entry as : "76/77 Fore Street Exeter. Founded 1785. (This was originally a branch of the London business of Lloyd. Exeter opened 1845 - separate business from 1866. Afterwards H.C. Lloyd & Son (1925) Ltd. Trade-mark : Elephant and Castle. Now make cut tobacco only. [Brands] "Typsy Loo", "Yacht Club", "Exeter".
During the Boer War, and during the First World War, they regularly supplied the local regiment with tobacco and smokes, and the same was true of the first World War. However, despite the friendship and regard with which they were held in the local area, in peace time they struggled. In 1921 they went into liquidation - and three years later the assets and goodwill were acquired by Cope Bros.
Then, in 1921 this business went into voluntary liquidation and the stock and premises were auctioned. In 1924 . A few years later, somehow, Cope Brothers came along and bought up the stock and some of the plant which had failed to sell, and it appears that it is they who operated H.C. Lloyd & Son (1925) Ltd.
This set turns out to have many variants too, and is catalogued in our original World Tobacco Issues Index as :
ACADEMY GEMS. Sm. 67 x 36. Front in (a) reddish-brown (b) dark purple (c) green. Unnd.(28). See X1/H.258. Multi backed … L54-1
A. “Broadare Finest Virginia Returns.”
B. “Cherry Ripe Fine Aromatic Honeydew”
C. “Farmville Finest Golden Virginia”
D. “Gold Royal Gold Flake Cigarettes”
E. “Gold Royal Sun-Cured Tobacco”
F. “Lexem Mixture” [the perfect pipe tobacco]
G. “Lloyds Exeter Topsham Mixture”
H. “Old Adjutant Flake”
We also know that Lloyds produced “Tipsy Loo” cigarettes, and that “Lloyds Exeter” was not just a pipe mixture, it was available as cigarettes too. In fact it looks like brand G above is two brands, "Lloyds Exeter" and "Topsham Mixture", perhaps gently separated by a very faint comma or dash. Both these brands are also found on other sets of cards - “Tipsy Loo” on “Star Girls” and “Exeter Cigarettes” on “Actresses and Boer War Celebrities” and “Devon Footballers and Boer War Celebrities”. So it seems odd that neither of these brands have so far been discovered on our set – unless you have them in your collection….?
The link to X1/H.258 sends you to the handbook to the original World Tobacco Issues Index, where there is a table of cards and backs found so far.
This table is slightly altered in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, and it gives the entire title of the artwork, plus the artist, so we may as well include that too. Also, some of the brands that have been noted for each card do seem to differ, so maybe you could have a check through your cards and do a spot of confirm or deny.... with many thanks
