So I thought I was doing really well with this card, but it turns out that though this card was issued twice, I have used both of them before - one is from the numbered first series, is of Lord Roberts, and was our Card of the Day for the 11th of May 2025 where it was a "set born in May, 1902, and not just that but the earliest issue that we know of having been issued in May, so it kind of wins - whilst the other time was from the same unnumbered third series which we have here. However, not all was lost for the third series was actually a mixture of cards from both the first, and second, series, plus new cards that were only featured in the third; so there was lots of scope for it not being identical, but it turned out the card I used for our Card of the Day for the 26th of May 2023 was also from the first series, of Sir Thomas Lipton. The good news for today`s card is that Sir Thomas Lipton was in a week when we were talking about iced tea, and it is the final card of the week, so I was able to replace that card with a lemon, something most people think of first when they are asked for something associated with iced tea.
And this card gets to stay.
Sir William George Granville Venables Vernon-Harcourt P.C. M.P., better known today as simply Vernon Harcourt K.C. was born on the fourteenth of October 1827. He was a member of the Liberal Party, but also a lawyer and a journalist. who started his parliamentary career in 1868 as the M.P. for Oxford, then moved through Derby, and West Monmouthshire before becoming William Ewart Gladstone`s Home Secretary, and, in 1892, Chancellor of the Exchequer before becoming Leader of the Opposition four years later. For some reason, though he was talented, he did not appeal much to the general public. He stepped down in 1898, and died on the 1st of October 1904, aged seventy-six
The first listing for this set comes in our original Wills reference book part two, or, more correctly, "RB.11 – The Cigarette Card Issues of W.D. & H.O. Wills Part I (revised) and Part II", published in 1948, and it includes all three versions; you will find the complete entry on its home page, with our Card of the Day for the 11th of May 2025. This page only gives the details of the third, unnumbered set, which were listed in alphabetical order of the card titles, and also numbers them, very misleadingly, so I have altered that to show them as bullets. The description, altered, therefore reads :
- 31. "VANITY FAIR" SERIES. The name of this series was taken from a popular Victorian Society periodical [called] "Vanity Fair" which published a great many cartoons of notabilities, and the cards are reproductions of a suitable selection. The caricatures were usually accompanied by racy biographical sketches, and from these most of the card texts were extracted. The cartoonist was "Spy", and his self portrait appears in Series 2, card No.42
Fronts lithographed in colour on stone coloured background. Backs in grey, with texts.
The records of Wills show the issue date as May 1902. Printed by Stewart & Wolf, Germany. There are three series, each of 50 cards.
C) "Vanity Fair" Series. Unnumbered. This series consists of 37 cards from the first, 6 cards from the 2nd, with 7 new titles, as listed below ; -
- "A Flannelled Fighter" (2nd, No.27)
- "An Admiral of the Fleet" (a new title)
- "A Retired Leader" (1st, No.23)
- "Aubrey Tanqueray" (2nd, No.26)
- "Australia" (a new title)
- "Birdseye" (1st, No.10)
- "Bobs" (1st, No.36)
- "Canada" (1st, No.20)
- "Canterbury" (a new title)
- "C.I.V." (1st, No.44)
- "Dick" (1st, No.40)
- "Dover and War" (1st, No.39)
- Dr. Jim" (2nd, No.16)
- "Dublin University" (2nd, No.22)
- "Easy Execution" (1st, No.29)
- "Fair, if not Beautiful" (1st, No.42)
- "Forbie" (1st, No.13)
- "Frank" (a new title)
- "From the Army to the Church" (1st, No.4)
- "From the Old Bailey" (1st, No.3)
- "Hard Head" (2nd, No.43)
- "High Commissioner" (1st, No.18)
- "Jacky" (new title)
- "Khartoum" (1st, No.22)
- "Ladysmith" (1st, No.35)
- "Little Bo Peep" (1st, No.46)
- "London" (1st, No.47)
- "Mafeking" (1st, No.37)
- "Mr. Speaker" (1st, No.15)
- "Our Soldier Prince" (1st, No.2)
- "Oxford Athletics" (1st, No.11)
- "Partnership" (1st, No.1)
- "Peking" (a new title)
- "P.R.A." (1st, No.17)
- "Ranji" (1st, No.21)
- "Redrag" (1st, No.30)
- "Sammy" (1st, No.6)
- "Self Reliant" (a new title)
- "Shamrock" (1st, No.50)
- "Smith`s Leading Cases" (1st, No.9)
- "Thanet" (1st, No.31)
- "The Colonies" (1st, No.45)
- "The Commercial Traveller" (1st, No.25)
- "The Croucher" (1st, No.49)
- "The New French President" (1st, No.24)
- "The Opposition" (1st, No.26)
- "United States Embassy" (1st, No.28)
- "U.S.A." (2nd, No.25)
- "Westminster" (1st, No.8)
- "Yorkshire Cricket" (1st, No.7)
And, in case you were wondering, the difference between the first set of cards and the cards from that first set when used in the third set is simply that the third set are not numbered on the front.
Our original World Tobacco Issues Index lists these cards under Wills section 1.E, for "Issues 1898 - 1902 inscribed "Wills`s Cigarettes". Cards without the full name of firm" :
- “VANITY FAIR” SERIES. Sm. 68 x 36. See W/31 ... W62-58
1. “1st Series”. Nd. 1/50.
2. “2nd Series”. Nd. 1/50.
3. Unnumbered. (50)
This means that without the original Wills reference book RB.11, which by then were in short supply, you would have no idea of the make-up of the unnumbered set. This is almost certainly one of the many reasons why the decision was made to reprint them all in one hard back volume.
In our updated version of the World Tobacco Issues Index, this has been partially restored, and the text there, still under Wills section 1.E, for "Issues 1898 - 1902 inscribed "Wills`s Cigarettes". Cards without the full name of firm", reads :
- “VANITY FAIR” SERIES. Sm. 68 x 36. See W/31 ... W675-083
1. “1st Series”. Nd. 1/50.
2. “2nd Series”. Nd. 1/50.
3. Unnumbered. (50). 43 subjects from the above two series, 7 new subjects.