This may seem a strange theme, but this week all the cards we feature are going to have been issued in the month of February.
Now it is interesting how many months of issue have been set down in our reference books, and sundry catalogues, but sad how many have not. I often come across them, but had nowhere to set them down for posterity. However now we have a blog post, which lists the months of the year as a header, and after that will be recorded the year of issue and the set`s name. It will also function as a second gallery, because as the cards are used on the website, they will be linked into that page too. And as we go through this year, once a month, when I am struggling to find a subject to feature as a theme, I will instead show cards of the month that we have not featured before, and at the same time tap them in from the reference books so that they may be listed for ever.
So our clue cards this week were..... :
Clue one:
Saturday 1st of February 2025
Daily Sketch [trade : newspapers : UK - Manchester] "World Cup Souvenir Cards" (1970) 33/40 - DAI-520 : DAL-2
We have taken a bit of a liberty here, because we know that the first coupon, which was to be sent away for the set, with five others, was printed in the Daily Sketch in February 1970. But we presume that the cards were already printed by then.
Clue two :
Sunday 2nd of February 2025
W.A. & A.C. Churchman [tobacco : UK - Ipswich] "Flags and Funnels of Leading Steamship Lines" (February 1911) 26/50 - C504-260 : C82-19 : C/60 [RB.10/60]
There is a bit of debate as to the issue month of this set, it is listed in our original Churchman reference book, published in 1948, as Sept 1911, but in the London Cigarette Card catalogues, which date before our Churchman booklet, and several other early catalogues, it is listed as having been issued in February 1911.
and lastly, came
Clue three :
Monday 3rd of February 2025
W.A. & A.C. Churchman [tobacco : UK - Ipswich] "Silhouettes of Warships" (February 1915) /50 - C/129 [RB.10/129]
Research suggests that this is actually the Battle-Cruiser HMS Queen Mary, which is a bit of a shame as if it had been HMS Tiger she first saw military action at the Battle of Dogger Bank on the 24th of January 1915, not long before this set was issued.
On which note, if anyone else would like to send us any information from their collection which relates in any way to our theme of the week, or themes we have covered in the past, please do.The e-mail is webmaster@card-world.co.uk - and this is the same for any corrections, or for general cartophilic correspondence and chat.