Our final clue card shows someone described as "retired", which brings us to the sort of home that is the most perfectly designed of all, with every feature designed for ease and to suit a range of challenges that come as we slide into older age
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
So I thought I was doing really well with this card, but "Vanity Fair" is a curious set as is proved by 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, which includes all three versions, these being
- a first series,in which the cards are numbered on the front and of which we used the card of Lord Roberts as our Card of the Day for the 11th of May 2025 - where it was a "set born in May," and not just that but the earliest issue that we know of having been issued in May 1902, so it kind of wins
- a second series, entirely different cards from the first fifty
- a third, unnumbered set, made up of cards from the first and second series, but without numbers on the front, and some brand new subjects, also unnumbered on the front. This is the version that today`s card comes from, and that is recorded in our RB.11 as :
- 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)
The bad news was that today`s third series card had already been used in the first series, and I already had one of those in the gallery and index - it was our Card of the Day for the 26th of May 2023, 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.
Returning to our reference books, this set next appears in 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.