This card was born in June 1906, two years after the one above, but it is very different, much more crowded to the front, and also the back is now a descriptive text.
Here we have Penrhyn Castle, in North Wales, a building which is much younger than it looks, for it replaces a fifteenth century manor house. That was still in place when the Penrhyn estate was acquired by Richard Pennant, the first Baron Penrhyn. There is confusion as to how he came to get the land, some say through his father, and others that it was connected with his wife; whilst there are also rumours that it was acquired not entirely legitimately, in connection with one of the slave plantations he owned in Jamaica. You could say that he seems to have had more heart for the local area, as he pretty much set up the slate mining industry in the area - or, alternatively, that this was another kind of slavery.
Anyway, towards the end of the eighteenth century. he decided that he wanted a better house. That was built, incorporating parts of the former manor house, but this is not it, for when he died, in 1808, his second cousin inherited the estate. His name was George Hay-Dawkins, and he dropped the Hay part and took on the Pennant part of his relative`s name. And he also kept the antelope crest which appears on this card. Most of all he added to the castle, the large tower, as seen on our card, designed to look like a Norman castle. In fact this tower is a copy of the castle at Hedingham in Essex.
It took fifteen years to build, starting in 1822. It was also expanded quite a bit about ten years into the build, when the owner was compensated for having to give up his interests in the West Indies as part of the Slavery Abolition Act. This included lands, but also the ownership of almost eight hundred slaves, men, women, and children.
Before it was finished, however, he gave the estate to his new son in law as a wedding present. He was the "Douglas" quoted on the back of this card, a Grenadier Guard, who added the crest of the boar by the tree, and the unusual motto "Lock Sicker", which means "Keep secure". He also added his wife`s surname, or the Pennant bit, anyway, to his name, making the family name Douglas-Pennant.
The new owners, thankfully, were not permitted to keep slaves, but they seem to have tried to add a number of impositions on to their slate workers, and were vehemently opposed to any whiff of Trade Unions, so their quarries were frequently closed due to strikes. The longest of these lasted for three years, and still holds the record for the longest industrial action.
It does not seem as if this couple had any children, for, in 1866, the estate went to someone who seems to have been quite a distant relative. He had the castle for only twenty years, and then died, but he had a son, who took over, and who lost several members of his family during the First World War. One of them, at least did survive, and he took over the castle until the late 1940s, at which time it was left to a niece. But she seems to have also died, very shortly after, and, without anyone to leave it to, or to pay her bills, the castle, and a large proportion of the estate, was acquired by the National Trust in 1951, via the Treasury, in lieu of death duties.
I have been waiting to use one of these cards for a while, but it is a complex set and better as a Card of the Day, at least as far as the first fifty cards are concerned.
The first thing about the set is that it has no title, "Country Seats and Arms" being the title chosen for the set by early collectors in order to classify it.
In addition, the second series was definitely reprinted, at least twice, and it is probable that the first, and possibly the third, were too.
Then there is an anomaly with the date, our original reference book to the issues of John Player quoting May 1909, and the London Cigarette Card catalogues quoting June 1906.
Anyway let us start the card chat with our original John Player reference book, RB.17, issued in 1950. This lists all three sets together, as :
- COUNTRY SEATS AND ARMS (adopted title). Small cards. Fronts in colour. Backs in blue, with descriptive text. Home issues.
56. 50 Series of 50. Numbered 1-50. Issued May 1909.
Error card - No.9 (a) ROSNEATH (b) ROSENEATH
Minor caption varieties have been reported, at No`s 7, 10, 21, 38, 42, 44, 48
57. Second Series. Numbered 51-100. Issued May 1910.
A. First printing - Nos. 51-75 only
B. Second printing - Nos. 51-100
The two printings can be distinguished as follows :-
First printing (caption in two lines).
Second printing (caption in one line)
Nos. 51-55, 58, 59, 64, 66, 67, 69-84, and 86-100.
In other cases both printings bear captions in two lines, and the distinctive difference occurs in the alignment of letters in the second line of the caption.
58. Third Series. Numbered 101-150. Issued September, 1910
This is slightly altered in our World Tobacco Issues Index, to :
- COUNTRY SEATS AND ARMS (A). Sm. ... P72-30
1. "Series of 50". Nd. 1/50.
2. "Second Series". Nd. 51/100. Two printings of Nos. 51/75, see RB.17/57
3. "Third Series". Nd. 101/150.
And in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index it appears exactly as above, but with a new card code, of P644-070.
As far as retail values, the three sets were listed in the 1950 London Cigarette Card Company 1950 catalogue as follows :
- first series - odds 1/- to 1/6, sets 70/-
- second series
first printing - odds 1/- to 3/-, sets £4
second printing - odds 9d. to 1/6, sets 70/- - third series - odds 9d. to 1/6, sets 70/-