this year`s Card Convention returned to East Anglia, and to the same venue we used for our 2018 Card Convention - namely Alive, which is part of Lynnsport Leisure Park, Greenpark Avenue, Kings Lynn PE30 2NB. This is a leisure complex, which meant easy level access for all of our visitors, good lighting, and full catering facilities, plus free car parking, and great links with public transport.
There were twenty six dealers including one who had come over specially from America, and three who were collectors who had decided it was time to start to part with some of the items they had picked up over the years. And what plums were contained.
These dealers occupied sixty five tables in total.
Estimates of the attendance vary but it was between three and five hundred, and again included many collectors who had travelled in from America and overseas.
This year the Sunday was almost as busy as the Saturday, and as it was free admission to all on the Sunday this was the day we stressed on social media, so that those who were curious to come along and see what cards were about could do so. And many thanks to all the dealers who were able to explain our hobby to people who had never seen such amazing items before.
Next years venue is still being investigated to make sure it fits us perfectly, but we will reveal it as soon as we can.
This was actually our third trip Norfolk-wards, because for our 2008 Card Convention - and the Seventieth Anniversary of the Cartophilic Society - we visited Norwich, which all cartophilists will know as the home of Lamberts Tea - or, more correctly, F. Lambert and Son Ltd, who were founded in 1762 in a premises in London Street, and then moved to Orford Hill before sadly being regarded as a bit too old fashioned against the modern supermarkets, and closing in the late 1970s.
We are indebted to Mr. Clarke who has sent us a few memories of Lamberts.
The first thing we were surprised by is how large their stock was, for they were not just tea merchants, blending their own special house tea called B.O.P., but they were also coffee grinders, confectioners, grocers, and tobacconists.
The shop was probably what today would be termed as a delicatessen, offering dried foods and meats, which you could get sliced to any thickness you required by rather a frightening looking machine, especially to a small child. Another thing that would surprise today`s customers was the unavailability of tea bags.
And as well as food to "take away" there was also a restaurant upstairs.
They issued several sets of cards, and on some very unusual subjects. Their first set was the very popular "Football Clubs and Badges", issued in 1958. However this set, like the vast proportion of their issues, was an "Alike Series", this being sets that you can find from other companies too. Check out this listing :
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"Football Clubs and Badges" (1958)
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"Before Our Time" (1961) - also by Esslemont
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"Birds & Their Eggs" (1962) - by A1 and Lyons Maid
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"Cacti" (1962)
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"Pond Life" (1964) - by Bishops Stortford Dairy Farmers, Musgrave Brothers, and in Grenada by A.C.W. Francis
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"Sports and Games" (1964)
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"Interesting Hobbies" (1965) - by Amalgamated Tobacco
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"Passenger Liners" (1965)
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"People and Places" (1966)
The only sets that were totally and only issued with the Lambert`s name were :
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"A Series of Car Registration Numbers" (1959), with a Second Series a year later
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"Butterflies and Moths" (1960)
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"Historic East Anglia" (1961)
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"Game Birds and Wild Fowl" (1964)
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"Past and Present" (1964)
Our Local Representatives
There are two Branches in this area, The East Anglian Card Collecting Club, based at Diss, and The Lincolnshire Branch from Boston. You can read more about both of those, and see the dates of their forthcoming meetings, by clicking the relevant bold links here, but the East Anglian Card Collecting Club actually maintains its own website as well, which you can visit at http://www.eaccc.co.uk
Anyway here is a copy of our poster, which contains further information:
