Card of the Day - 2024-07-07

C S Records of the World
C.S. Limited [trade : confectionery : UK - Slough] "Record Holders of the World" (1962) 16/25 - COM-080 : CAF-22

The clue here was "Record", because we are speaking of record temperatures. 

You may be surprised to learn that these professional records only started to be kept in the 1880s, though we do have records of weather and natural phenomenon from before that time, and we know that they were used by farmers to foretell the signs as to when bad or good weather could be coming, so that harvests may be picked, or animals brought in from the hillsides or far distant fields . However these were kept on a local basis, and they were not scientifically proven.

There is also that famous heat-related saying, "Horses sweat, men perspire, ladies glow", and here we have the first two of the genders. Sadly I do not know if we have all three, and the horse was a mare, for there seems no records of the courageous steed, all I have discovered is that the competitors only met their partners twenty minutes before the event after a random draw, presumably from a hat.  Anyway despite this card saying that Senor Escobedo won the steeplechase, he did not win the entire event, which was actually, though not mentioned here, the Modern Pentathlon, ending up in twenty-second place overall.

So I thought this was the partner to the set we had the other week in our newsletter - scroll down to Sunday the 22nd of June - that is billed as Cadet Sweets` "Record Holders of the World". However in our British Trade Index part two looking at "C.S. Ltd. Slough" has a redirect, to "- see Cadet Sweets". The only problem is that there is only one set listed, as : 

RECORD HOLDERS OF THE WORLD. Sm. 65 x 34. Nd. (50) ... CAF-14

That does not entirely seem to fit our set, which says it is the first series of twenty five cards, and the truth is that if you read this you did not go far enough; it is only if you continue to the next page that section 3 says : 

RECORD HOLDERS OF THE WORLD. 1st Series. Sm. 66 x 36. Nd. (25) ... CAF-22

This is all cleared up by the British Trade Index part three (and repeated in part four), where there is a heading for "C.S. Ltd", but no sets listed, only "- See Cadet Sweets (Sets CAF-21 to CAF-23 in II). And if you do just that, you will find our set.

However, in the updated British Trade Index, you are back to square one, for the only listing is the set of fifty. This puzzled me, too, until I looked for C.S. Ltd. and found them at the front of the "C" section, where it says "C.S. Ltd., Slough - See Comet Sweets."  And under Comet Sweets, there is : 

RECORD HOLDERS OF THE WORLD. 1st Series. Sm. 66 x 36. Nd. (25). `C.S. Ltd` ... COM-080

So now I am confused all over again.