Our fish, of course, is the Dover Sole, for Dover Castle, one of the standard first class stamps in the new issue. In fact the Dover Sole refers only to the fact that this was the port at which most of them were landed in the nineteenth century - its actual name is the Common or the Black Sole, and it lives in the Northern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. It is a flatfish, which means it spends most of its life on the sea bed, where it burrows in waiting for something tasty to swim past. There is a really curious fact about all flatfishes, and that is that they are born looking like normal fish, with an eye on each side of their body, but when they get a bit older one of the eyes move across the head until both are on the same side and together.
The White Fish Authority was actually connected to the government, and was established as part of the Sea Fish Industry Act of 1951, which aimed to regulate and maintain the industry of catching, preparing, and selling white fish. Now a white fish means that its meat is white, or light in colour, and it has no strong taste nor aroma. The main benefit of white fish is that it is very low in fat, and there is a reason for that, because the fat in these fish is stored inside their liver, and does not form part of the muscular structure of the fish.
These cards show the sort of fish that the Authority was trying to make more appetising, and they were issued in 1954, just three years after the Sea Fish Industry Act. At that time they were based in Knaresborough, in North Yorkshire, where they stayed until 1955, and then they moved, to London so they could work more closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, which had just changed its name to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and undergone much change at the same time. The next change came in 1981, the White Fish Authority merged with the Herring Industry Board, founded in 1934, to form the Sea Fish Industry Authority. And now, since 2018, this is known simply as "Seafish"
This set is first listed in our original British Trade Index part two, as :
The WHITE FISH Authority
Cards issued 1954.
- THE FISH WE EAT Sm. 67 x 35. Nd. (25). ... WHIM-1
A. Back in black
B. Back overprinted at base with red illustration of fish marked "GOW".
It next appears in our updated British Trade Index, as :
The WHITE FISH Authority
Issued 1954.
- THE FISH WE EAT Sm. 67 x 35. Nd. (25) Backs a) normal in black, b) overprinted in red at base with red picture of fish, and name of retailer. ... WHI-230
The last bit is an interesting change, because it suggests "GOW", from the first book, was probably a fishmonger; however I have not been able to find anyone who has a card with any red overprints. So if you do, please get in touch, and we can find out what the overprints were all about