Today let us take another look at the industrious beaver, and also add a link to a set we have used before. But first let us explore the issuer of this set, Dunn`s Chocolate. This was a real person, Daniel Dunn, and in the 1830s he became one of the first trades-persons in King`s Row, at number 9. His trade was the production of coffee essence and something called "soluble chocolate", which he claimed to have invented. This was actually cocoa powder, and was for drinking, rather than just melted chocolate.
This date does not fit with the cards, which say the firm had been "established 100 years", unless Mr. Dunn moved to Pentonville Road from other premises - and that would also better explain how he "became" one of the first trades-persons in the street.
Some time in the 1850s he acquired a business partner, Mr. Charles Hewett, and about twenty years later they opened the Dunn & Hewett's cocoa factory, at Nos 136 Pentonville Road. This is thought to have been simply through outgrowing the space they had, though in the 1870s the premises was expanded still further, when the next door premises became available.
Just after the turn of the twentieth century they also opened up their staff tea rooms, at number 140, to the general public when it was not in use by those staff.
However, for some reason, despite all this industry, it closed in the 1930s.
So to our card. This appears in our original British Trade Index as :
DUNN`S, London
Chocolate. "Established 100 years". Cards issued in mid 1920s.ANIMALS. Sm. size (a) 62 x 38 (b) 67 x 35. Unnd. (60). See D/X21-359 ... DUN-1
BIRDS. Sm. 67 x 36. Unnd. (48). See D.11 ... DUN-2
The listing under D/X21-359 appears in the back of the book, actually on the final page before the list of our reference books of the time. Like most "D" numbers, this gives all the other issuers of the same cards. One of these is Hustler Soap, and we featured their version of this set as our Card of the Day for the 18th of January 2023 - where you will find lots more information about all the other versions.
However, the listing under D/X21-359 does tell us straight up that "The recording under Set 359 in RB.21 is repeated and revised below". And if you have both books, the first thing you notice there is that there is no Dunn`s set listed, only A.T.M., J. Knight, and Holloway. The reason for this is that when RB.21 was published, nobody had yet discovered that this set was also out there.
You can see both these listings in full with our Card of the Day for the 18th of January 2023 - and they make quite interesting reading. As for our set, that only appears in our British Trade Index, under D/X21-359 as
Non-Tobacco Issuers :-
(2) Dunn`s. Unnumbered. Size (a) 62 x 38 (b) 67 x 35 m/m. Set DUN-2. [NB. this is wrong, it is DUN-1]. See alphabetical list of subjects below.
That alphabetical list also appears with our Card of the Day for the 18th of January 2023.