Now to chicken-fanciers, this is quite an unusual bird, the most common leghorn being white.
The name is nothing to do with any markings or protrusions on its legs, the birds come from Tuscany, from the city of Livorno, in Italy, and when they were first shipped to America, in the 1820s, they were, at first, just called Italian birds. Then, by the 1870s they have been renamed to Leghorns, this seemingly to be Livorno, turned into American, by a mixture of gradual mispronounciation and misspelling. They first turn up in Britain in 1870, with some excitement, as the first two birds in Britain were a pair which had won the top prize at the 1868 New York Show.
This colour is one of several bred in America, who also started to experiment by breeding the white birds with native dark, and brown, species, then to add in more colourful combinations, which eventually added the pink to the comb (which is the structure on top of the head).
This is yet another variation of a very intriguing set - and you can see just how many of those there are with our Card of the Day for the 27th of October 2023.
Today we tackle the Smith version, which first appears in the London Cigarette Card Handbook of 1950, described as :
- H.64. FOWLS, PIGEONS & DOGS or DOGS AND FOWLS, or DOGS SERIES. (titled, except Edwards, Ringer & Bigg). Fronts in colour, illustrated in Notes & News, Vol.1. No,4.
Pre-1919
- Churchman - Titled "Dogs & Fowls". Series of 38 (April 1908)
- Edwards, Ringer & Bigg - Untitled series of 23. Dogs only (March 1908)
- Ogden - Titled "Fowls, Pigeons & Dogs". Series of 50 (3 variations No.12) Illustrated in "Notes & News Vol.1 No.6 (May 1904)
- Smith - Titled "Fowls, Pigeons & Dogs"..Series of 50 (May 1908)
Their next appearance comes in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, as :
- FOWLS, PIGEONS & DOGS. Sm. Back with I.T.C. Clause. Nd. (50). See H.64 ... S84-10
And this text is identical in the updated World Tobacco Issues Index, save the card code, which is now S548-240.
The one thing which is curious is that it is one of the few sets which was not vari-backed, in other words it was only issued with one brand, "Studio", you cannot collect a set in any other form. Smith`s were renowned for vari-backs, and plenty of them, "Battlefields of Great Britain" having fifteen different printings, "Races of Mankind" having thirty, and "Medals", if you count the pre Imperial Tobacco Company printing and the two versions after it, tops that with forty different backs available!
Now do note that this set was reprinted by the Card Collectors Society in the year 2000. The reprints are very easy to spot though, firstly the reverses are printed in mauve, and secondly, they only have F. & J. Smith`s name at the bottom, where our card says "Branch of the Imperial Tobacco Co. / (Of Great Britain & Ireland), Ltd", the reprint says, in very small letters, "Reproduction Authorised by Imperial Tobacco Ltd. (C) 2000. / Issued by Card Collectors Society". I will show the two backs together one of these years!