This is a strange little item. and it was only issued this one year, 1903, though it is almost certain that the date of issue ought to have been recorded as 1902, giving time for the full calendar to be usable. We do not know why it was only issued that one year, either - nor whether there was a link with the "Authors" set of photographic bookmarks, which were issued in 1902.
The very idea of this card was that it was used and, when broken, discarded. If you look at an original, you will see a pre-cut, almost circle, enclosing the four central months, and that was designed to open up enough to fit around the page of the book where you had been forced to stop reading, marking your place until such time you could return and pick the story up anew.
Our original Cartophilic Reference Book - No.17 : The Cigarette Card Issues of John Player, published in 1950, describes it as :
- 26 BOOK MARKER. Circular card 42 m/m diam. Front per Fig. 6 in colour, centre portion cut for use as book marker, inscribed "Regd. No. 154011." Back in black, inscribed "Book Marker" with complete monthly calendar for 1903, no I.T.C. Clause. Single card, miscellaneous issue, 1903.
Despite this being in the body of the text in that work, by the time of our original World Tobacco Issues Index, it is removed right to the back of the Player listings, sharing a space with the "Sundry Issues" under section 4.C. It is described as :
- BOOK MARKER. Circular, 42 m/m diam. See RB.17/26 ... : :
And it is even further back in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, under section 5.D, for "Sundry Cards", where it is described as :
- BOOK MARKER. Circular, 42 m/m diam. 1902 calendar back. Single card issue. ... P644-920
There are several interesting things about this card.
The first thing is that it quotes "Regd. No. 154011". You may think that was the registration number of this style of bookmark, but no, it is the registration number of the logo, the Sailor`s head in the lifebelt, and everywhere that this sign appears you will see the same registered number, from the packaging to the large enamel signs, and even when it is used in magazines and newspapers as advertising.
This number marks the change over from, or, rather, the combination of two trademarks - the life belt, which originated in 1888, and the bearded seaman.
However the seaman was not a Player original artwork, it was from a painting, "Head of a Sailor", by Arthur David McCormick, which was painted from life in 1880, and modelled for by a sailor from H.M.S. Edinburgh, by the name of Thomas Huntley Wood.
Even stranger is the fact that the picture had already been used in advertising, and not just by someone else, but for tobacco, namely the "Jack Glory" brand, manufactured by William Parkins & Co. of Chester. However it was all above board, shall we say, as John Player did buy the logo and the rights to use it, in 1885 - though there seems to have been some conditions to this, as John Player added the lifebuoy, which they originally owned the rights to, and the ships, one each side of the sailor. These ships were never identified but it is thought that they were H.M.S. Britannia and either H.M.S. Invincible or H.M.S. Hero - if we go along with the idea that it is H.M.S. Invincible, that would mean that all three ships of the line were featured on this one card, H.M.S Hero being represented by the name on the cap tally which is sported by the sailor. Though there is even discord there, as the H.M.S. seems to have been omitted from that tally.
And historians also point out another rather glaring error, for the Royal Navy has three stripes on the collar, but this image has only two.
Maybe because of this, in 1905, just two years after this bookmark was produced, the name on the tally changed, to H.M.S. Invincible. And you can see that on their 1929 advertising card, which we featured as our Card of the Day for the 19th of June, 2022