Now the clue here was very elusive, until you see the reverse, for this is Hairy Bear, from the Winnebago tribe - and a Winnebago is an often much enlarged motor home, with all the mod cons you can imagine. Expensive too, buy one new and their smallest, cheapest model starts at just under $144,000. It is almost eighteen feet long.
Ooh, and it comes in red, that`s changed everything then! I didn`t think much of the white one I saw first.
My tent cost me £10 - and so far that has reduced, by usage, to £2 a night.
The first thing to clear up is that the brand on this set "G.P." was simply the initials of George Payne. I have not found out why it was "Government Tea", though it could be something to do with the fact that I have seen an advertisement that says a shilling duty had to be paid to the Government on every box .
This set is described in our British Trade Index part II, as :
AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES. Sm. Nd. (25) See D.206 ... PCH-11
D.206 leads us to the back of the book and to another issuer, which is The Stamp Corner, in Doncaster. The listing tells us that they were primarily known for using cards as advertising, which all had the reverses inscribed "Wanted to Purchase collections of coins, stamps, cards, medals..." with the Bowers Fold address. The full details of these reverses are a bit more interesting still, because they were plain, and simply had the Stamp Corner printing on, sideways, as it were. And the advertising text reads "Wanted to Purchase collections of coins, stamps, cards, medals. Good prices paid. If you return 25 of these cards to Stamp Corner, 23 Bowers Fold, Doncaster, (Phone 3623), you may choose a 1/- set free." However this set was issued as a standard set only - and it was the only set which was not used for advertising.
After that mild digression,the text is slightly altered in our updated British Trade Index, to add the date and change the code :
AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES. 1962. Nd. (25) See HX-28 ... PAY-040