Today we are going to look at the fourth largest tea producer, but the third largest tea exporter, in the world, which is Ceylon/Sri Lanka. Though they are a relative newcomer, tea only arriving in the country in 1867
Like Kenya, their tea tends to be dark and strong, but Kenya seems to market theirs better, and is slowly taking over the lion`s share of sales. Strange then that if you want to buy Sri Lankan tea, you need to look for the Lion; this is a logo, owned by the Sri Lanka Tea Board, which means the contents are pure tea, meeting regulated standards, and entirely picked and packed within Sri Lanka.
To its credit, Sri Lanka is trying to turn this around, with better advertising and also in sponsoring sporting events, as well as their men`s and women`s cricket teams. And in 1995 it exported more tea than any other country, however the next quarter of a century saw them dropping back in the ratings table.
Our card for today comes from Tetley, which at one time was owned by two Yorkshire brothers, Joseph and Edward Tetley, though it was only ever called "Joseph Tetley", and they added the "& Co" in 1837. In 1856 they moved to London. Then there was a falling out, and the brothers split up. In 1871, Joseph Tetley again took on a partner, his son Joseph Tetley junior, and he took over on the death of his father in 1889.
Whilst researching this we were told that they were the first company to sell tea in teabags. This is not strictly true, as the invention of the tea bag was an accident, or rather a misunderstanding, in 1908, when a man called Thomas Sullivan sent samples of tea out to his prospective customers in silk bags, but with no instructions as to the fact that the user had to remove the tea from the bags. This mistake led to a brief flurry in the popularity of using tea in bags, but it died out. However it does seem to have been Tetley who brought the custom back, in 1953 - and we also discovered that Tetley invented the round teabag, in 1989.
By that time, they had been sold, to J. Lyons & Co; that happened in 1973. Then, after several changes of name and ownership, they became part of the giant Indian company Tata.
Our bookmark card makes no appearance in our original British Trade Index parts one or two, in fact Tetley only appears for the first time in part two. In part three, published in 1986, however, it suddenly pops up, as :
TETLEY Tea - TET in II
1. Issues about the 1900s.
- Book Mark. 147 x 60. Old lady drinking tea, caption "Old Friends are Best" ... TET-0.5
Now we need to explain that curious card code. The problem is hinted at by the first line of that entry, the "TET in II", because that means that Tetley have an entry in British Trade Index part two, which they do, a set of die cut "Tetley Tea Party" models, issued in the 1950s. But at that time it was the only set known, so it got the card code of TET-1. Then along came our bookmark cards, which dated from half a century earlier and therefore needed to go in front. Online, you can just do a bit of tweaking, but in a book that`s not so simple, hence our bookmark cards got coded as TET-0.5.
As the the bookmark card we show today, well that must have turned up in the forty years between that work, and the revised British Trade Index, published in the year 2000, in which it is catalogued as :
TETLEY Tea
Issued in 1900 - 1970
- ADVERTISEMENT CARDS (A). 1900s, 147 x 60, bookmarks. ... TET-030
1. Old woman drinking tea, `Old Friends are Best`
2. Girl in hat holding slate, green pack of tea on her lap.
In actual fact, I am told by a reader that there are actually three bookmarks, the third being another small girl - but they doubt that the old lady is part of the same set.. Their reasoning, and I agree, now I have seen their cards, is because of two reasons. Firstly, the frame on the old lady is straight, whilst the frame on the two girls is an inverted comb shape, jagged into the picture, on the picture side. Secondly, the wording below the picture is different, the old lady reading "Old friends are best TETLEY`S TEAS Stand the test of time always satisfactory (BOOK MARK)", whilst the two girls both read "This bookmark will help to remind you that JOS. TETLEY & CO. can suit U TO A T. SEE OTHER SIDE."
We also know that there are two different backs. Back one is ours, which is also found on the card of the old lady, but not on the other girl. Back two is found on both the girls but not the old lady, yet, and it has a picture of a box of tea near the top, which I will add as soon as the scan arrives.