Here we have another March set, our last of the week, and it shows Mr. Dumkins, who is, in addition, "March"-ing to the wicket, to take part in a cricket match between his side, Muggleton, and that of Dingley Dell. I had a lot of choice regarding which card to select, but I was very pleased to use this one, simply because there are almost certainly cricket collectors who never knew that this card of their sport was available.
Mr. Dumkins appears in the novel "Pickwick Papers", in chapter seven, in conjunction with the All-Muggleton vs Dingley Dell match. We are told that All-Muggleton had the first innings, and that Mr. Dumkins strode out with Mr. Podder and selected a wicket each. Mr. Dumkins was the better player so Dingley Dell sent out Mr. Luffey, described as their best player, whilst Mr. Podder was set up with Mr. Struggles. Though later on it strangely tells us that Mr. Podder was "hitherto unconquered", which surely makes him a better player, and a better target for Mr. Luffey. Anyway, when Dumkins was eventually caught, and Podder was stumped, All-Muggleton had fifty-four points whilst Dingley Dell had yet to score. In fact it appears that Dingley Dell decided to give up and concede the match not too long after that, and so ended the match.
As far as the characters from Dickens which were used in the sets, we have a list of those, but have split it, cards 1-25 being shown here and cards 26-50 being on its home page. So the first twenty five cards, which are primarily concerned with the Pickwick Papers, are of....
- The Artful Dodger - Oliver Twist
- Fagin - Oliver Twist
- Mr. Bumble - Oliver Twist
- Oliver Twist [no book title given on front]
- Dumkins - Pickwick Papers
- Luffey - Pickwick Papers
- Major Bagstock - Dombey & Son
- Alfred Jingle Esq.- Pickwick Papers
- Bill Sikes - Oliver Twist
- Mr. Snodgrass - Pickwick Papers
- Dick Swiveller - Old Curiosity Shop
- Mr. Chuckster - Old Curiosity Shop
- Sergeant Buzfuz - Pickwick Papers
- Mr. Justice Stareleigh - Pickwick Papers
- Job Trotter - Pickwick Papers
- Mr. Pickwick [no book title given on front]
- Sam Weller - Pickwick Papers
- Tony Weller - Pickwick Papers
- Bob Sawyer - Pickwick Papers
- Dismal Jemmy - Pickwick Papers
- The Fat Boy - Pickwick Papers
- Nell - Old Curiosity Shop
- Mr. Pecksniff - Martin Chuzzlewit
- Sairey Gamp - Martin Chuzzlewit
- Capt. Cuttle - Dombey & Son
Now these cards were reprinted as number 1 - 25 of a set of fifty, issued in 1923. And you might have imagined that they would have spent some time putting the characters in a better order, for there are characters from "The Old Curiosity Shop" on cards from both the first and second series. And we do know they did some work on it, because the picture of Silas Wegg, on card 32, is now facing right, which makes it look he has the other leg missing, and there is also a different text on card five, of the first series, which, rather thrillingly, is our card - so let me find the other and add them both in as a picture here.
This set comes from a huge group, and this will be the home page for them all, containing the details of all the sets, and linking out to where the various versions are featured so you can see that card and read information specific to that set only.
So the first time these sets are recorded is in our original reference book to the issues of John Player & Sons, RB.17, published in 1950. In there, they appear as :
- 47. CHARACTERS FROM DICKENS. Drawn by "Kyd" (J. Clayton Clarke). Fronts in colour.Backs in grey, with descriptive text. Home issues.
A. 25 Small cards, "A Series of 25". Numbered 1-25. Issued March 1912
B. 25 Small cards, "2nd Series of 25". Numbered 26-50. Issued October 1912
C. 50 Small cards, "A Series of 50". Numbered 1-50. Issued November 1923.
Note : Text of card No.5 differs from that in A.
No.32 (Silas Wegg) is facing left in B, right in C. Correct timbered leg appears to be his left.
D. 10 Extra large cards "10 subjects". First issued June, 1914, reprinted June, 1923. Unnumbered series, subjects listed below with corresponding numbers in small card issues in parentheses ;-
1. The Artful Dodger - Oliver Twist (1)
2. Sally Brass - Old Curiosity Shop (30)
3. Sergt. Buzfuz - Pickwick Papers (13)
4. Capt. Cuttle - Dombey & Son (25)
5. Fagin - Oliver Twist (2)
6. Mr. Micawber - David Copperfield (41)
7. Nell - Old Curiosity Shop (22)
8. Mr. Pickwick (16)
9. Sam Weller - Pickwick Papers (17)
10. Tony Weller - Pickwick Papers (18)
Now in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, this is all changed, and the sets are split up. The A to D identifying letter codes given above are also, oddly, different too. The main reason for this is the dates of issue, as the pre-First World War cards are in one section, and the post-War in another. So, first up, we get A, B, and D from the above list, under John Player section 2.A, for cards issued between 1903 and 1917 - catalogued as :
CHARACTERS FROM DICKENS. See RB.17/47 and H.348 ... P72-25
- A. Small (50) - (1) "A Series of 25". (2) "2nd Series of 25". Nd 26-50.
- B. Extra large. Unnd (10)
The missing set, formerly known as C, appears under section 2.B, for issues between 1922 and 1939, as :
- CHARACTERS FROM DICKENS. Sm. Nd. See RB.17/47 and H.348 ... P72-77
This remains the same in our updated version of the World Tobacco Issues Index, except for the removal of the RB.17 references, and new codes, which are P644-060 and P644-162 respectively.
As far as the retail price of all these sets, in the 1950s, we know that too, courtesy of the 1955 London Cigarette Card Company catalogue, which lists them in their 1888 to 1919 volume as :
Characters from Dickens. odds sets
- 25 Small card, 1st series (Mar. 1912)... 9d to 1/6d. 35/-
- 10 Extra large card (Oct.1912) ... 2/6d to 6/- £ 3
- 25 Characters 2nd Series (Jun 1914)... 1/- to 1/9d. £ 2
... and in their 1920 to 1940 volume as :
. odds sets
50 Characters from Dickens (Nov.1923) 3d. 8/6d
By the way, though this set shows the author`s monogram on each card, as “Kyd”, he was really an artist , born in the Isle of Man, called J. Clayton Clarke. And, thrillingly, he has another cartophilic claim to fame too, for he also illustrated the set of "Votaries of the Weed" for Gallaher. However these images never seem to have been used in a Dickens novel, only in a pair of booklets entitled "The Characters of Charles Dickens Portrayed in a Series of Original Water Colour Sketches by Kyd" (published in 1889) and "Some Well Known Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens" (published in 1892).
Joseph Clayton Clarke was born some time in 1856 or 1857, and very little is known of him except for the fact that he was married in 1889, and would go on to have ten children. In 1892 the family moved to Chichester in West Sussex and he became a freelance artist - though he did work for "Punch", for one day, anyway. By this time he had already published the two booklets we speak of above, and was known as a watercolourist, specialising in Dickens characters.
And he died in August 1937, aged eighty, or eighty-one.