This card, of a camel, relates to one of the nicknames of that long suffering animal, "ship of the desert". There are many reasons as to why, but the best one, in my view, is that as they traverse the expanse, disappearing and reappearing behind the sand dunes, with their heads slightly bouncing, they do resemble a ship, bobbing along on the surface of the wave, rising the with the crest and falling out of sight as the movement of the waters takes them down.
I cannot believe that this is the first time that any version of the set has appeared on this website - but if it is, this will become the home page for all the issues. However for tonight we will only concentrate on the version at hand, by Churchman
This first appears in our original reference book RB.10, devoted to Churchman issues and published in 1948. In there, it is recorded as :
- 153. June 1907 50 WILD ANIMALS OF THE WORLD (titled series). Size 2 11/16" x 1 7/16" or 67 x 36 m/m. Unnumbered, no indication of number in series. Fronts lithographed in colour, on white background. Backs in blue, with descriptions. Printed by Mardon, Son & Hall.
Numbered below for convenience (titles from backs)
Also issued by Adkin, Franklyn Davey, Player, United Confectionery Co., and Wills.
Now I will type in that table (but not tonight) and then add the titles from both the fronts and the back to see how they differ.
In our original World Tobacco Issues Index, in which were collated all those books, and more, worldwide, cards besides, the entry is rather smaller, only :
- WILD ANIMALS OF THE WORLD. Sm. Unnd. (50). See RB.10/153 and H.77 ... C82-30