This is a really unusual card, showing an animal described as a "Giraffe Camel". And they are not making that up, there really was such a beast. It was huge, too, thirteen feet at the shoulder and an extra six feet for the elongated neck. The size seems to have been evolutionary, enabling the browsing of ever taller trees.
It was indeed related to both the giraffe and the camel., and about nine million years ago it roamed the area which we know today as the state of Florida in North America. There is also evidence to suggest it was also to be found in California, and Nebraska, as our card confirms, but those branches seem to have died out a fair while before the ones in Florida. And I have not been able to trace a link to Colorado, also as mentioned on our card.
It seems to have been rediscovered, from fossils, in the 1880s, by a man called Joseph Leidy, an American biologist, most likely whilst he was studying mastodons.
As for this set, it first appears in our original British Trade Index part II. The header tells us that the cards were issued with "Cooper`s Teas", which we know from the cards, and that the "Cards [were] issued 1958-66. Small size 68 - 69 x 36 m/m. Albums issued". As for our set(s) they are described as :
- PREHISTORIC ANIMALS. Sm. Nd. See D.356. ... CPD-5
1. "First Series" (25)
2. "Second Series". Nd. 26/50 (25)
This is duplicated exactly in our updated British Trade Index, save new codes, COO-190 replacing the card code, and HX-151 replacing the handbook reference.
Those "D" and "HX" codes tell us that this set was a duplicate of one issued by another company. In fact Coopers only issued one original set, called "Mysteries and Wonders of the World", again as a first and second series. Personally I think someone else did issue that too, perhaps by another name, and we just haven`t found it yet.
Anyway. if we go to the back of the book, we find all the "D" codes, and the one we are after reads :
- D.356. PREHISTORIC ANIMALS. 1st (Nd. 1/25) and 2nd eries (Nd. 26/50)
Charter Tea [ & Coffee Co. Liverpool ]- Set CFX-1
Cooper & Co. - Set CPD-5
Sunblest Tea - Set SUQ-2 [ issued in 1966 ]
It seems likely, but not proven, that all these companies were allied. This is partially proven by the fact that this set was issued by all three, and more than suggested by the list of sets issued by Cooper, which were
- "THE ISLAND OF CEYLON" - 1955 - also issued by Badshah Tea, E.H. Booth, Browne Bros, Ceylon Tea Centre, Empson, Esslemont, India & Ceylon Tea, Nicholls Johnson & Bingham, Pitt Robinson & Masters, Poyser Sons & Crouchley, Rowats Tea, Seymour Mead, Swettenham, Warnock, Wheeler Son & Killpack, Whytes Tea, Wilcocks & Wilcocks, Wood & Co and in an anonymous form.
- "MYSTERIES & WONDERS OF THE WORLD" 1st & 2nd - 1960
- "STRANGE BUT TRUE" 1st & 2nd - 1960 - also issued by Charter Tea
- "TRANSPORT THROUGH THE AGES" 1st & 2nd - 1961 - also issued by Charter Tea, and in an anonymous form.
- "INVENTORS & DISCOVERIES" 1st & 2nd - 1962 - also issued by Fine Fare Tea, Sunblest Tea, and in an anonymous form.
- "PREHISTORIC ANIMALS" 1st & 2nd - 1962 - also issued by Charter Tea, and Sunblest Tea
- "DO YOU KNOW" - 1966 - also issued by Elkes Biscuits