November is almost here, and don`t forget the clocks do something this weekend. I`m not sure what, my phone sorts that out automatically but whether we go back or forwards I have no idea. However that means darker nights and longer. So we will try to keep you entertained until the clocks start to turn the other way and you will again be spending more time at flea markets and fairs and not having to race home before you are enveloped in darkness.
So what will we be bringing you this week? Well several special events for one thing, watch the newsfeed boxes and if you think you might have missed anything remember you can go back through the newsfeed section at https://csgb.co.uk/news
So lets start with....
On 30th October 1632 Christopher Wren born, he was an English physicist, mathematician, and architect, who is most famous for raising over fifty churches out of the ashes of the Great Fire of London, including a brand new St Paul's Cathedral remodelled in stone rather than its former wood. He died in 1723. You can read his biography at https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Wren/
There are several cards of him, and St. Pauls, you can see the most usual at https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?filters%5Broot-collection%5D=b50ab6f0-c52b-012f-5986-58d385a7bc34&keywords=christopher+wren#
The reverse texts of all but one of these portraits of him (the one is the Carreras blue "Turf" slide, which is a carton issue so is a plain back) tells us that the image comes from a painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller, which you can see at https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw06939/Sir-Christopher-Wren
There are more cards of Sir Christopher Wren than this though, including the non bordered version of Lea "Miniatures" 31/50 which again uses that Kneller portrait. Some cards differ, Ardath "Your Birthday Tells Your Fortune (1937) shown above card 20/50 shows him as a carved bust - and W.A. & A.C. Churchman "The Story of London" (1934) 29/50 is an artists impression of him at St. Paul's in 1684 (8/12 first series large size and 29/50 standard size). Trade cards of him include Brooke Bond Tea "QEI - QEII" 10/50 - Kane "Historical Characters" 38/50 - Lyons Maid (1966) "Famous People" 18/48 - Shell "Great Britons" (1972) Un/20 - and - Typhoo Tea "Homes of Famous Men" (1934) 25/25 which shows instead of St. Pauls, his own home, The Old Court House, Hampton Court, described in the text as "A Tudor Mansion which he rebuilt". For St Pauls itself, his lasting memorial, the earliest cards seem to be numbers 50 and 55 of the 1902 Ogden Tab "General Interest Series C" which show Thanksgiving services at the Cathedral. Another Ogden's pair is Sights Of London 17/50 and 18/50 which show exterior and interior views, and F & J Smith "A Tour Round The World" 22/50 and Cohen, Weenen, Sweet Crop "Interesting Buildings and Views", which both show most attractive artist`s impressions, plus our card John Player "Picturesque London" 6/25 . And there are plenty more if you "look about you".
Now today is Hallowe`en, so we are going to have a few spooky specials popping up to entertain and amuse you. And well done if you were the lucky winner of our gloriously Gothic Fry Eye.. Had a lot of comments about this. Also I tweeted it on mine own site and had lots of "views", if "eye" dare say that. No more puns, honest. Hallowe`en is based on an Irish festival called Sanhain, but the simple fact is that at this time of year the seasons change and suddenly the normal world is filled with bejewelled cobwebs, spiders coming in the house for warmth, the colder weather makes the house creak, and the dark casts shadows. So why not turn it into spooky stories and ghostly goings on for a bit of amusement? By the way I will just show you a few cards above as a taster, and add the links to the specials on Sunday morning.
Today is the first of November. This month has not changed its name, but it has changed its place in the calendar, which Latin scholars will know, "Novem" being Latin or Roman for "nine". It shifted after the arrival of January and February once we shifted to the Gregorian calendar. The flower of November is the Chrysanthemum, the theory being that its rusted colours remind you of the Autumn leaves, but they have actually been dropping for some time. You can take a trip into the story of this flower at https://www.almanac.com/november-birth-flower - and hi to our pals at the Old Farmers Almanac, which is a great site, full of the sort of things I like. The birthstone for November is Topaz, and there is a link to that on the same page, which contains such gems of information as "The ancient Greeks believed that topaz could make a wearer invisible".
Here are links to a pair of beautiful and rare cards of this flower and stone.
Chrysanthemum : https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/423332
Topaz : https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-45ac-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
The first of November is actually All Saints Day, variously referred to as All Hallows' Day, Hallowmas, the Feast of All Saints, or The Solemnity of All Saints and it pays tribute to all saints, past, present, and future, as well as to those who have no recognised date to celebrate them, and to people who should have become saints through their good work but were never officially recognised outside their immediate area. It is also celebrated in many countries and many faiths. The "Hallow" part of these means sacred, and speaking literally the Hallow E`en is simply the evening before the sacred day.
By the way, "Saints" is also the nickname of Southampton Football Club, see our card above, and also the team name of the Australian St Kilda Football Club, as shown at https://oztradingcards.com/cigarette-trade-cards/aussie-rules-cigarette-cards/1910-standards-abrahams-e-series/
Following on from All Saints Day is All Souls Day. Now you know why people blew off steam on the evening before this pair by dressing up and carving scary faces into vegetables. (this was meant to be deleted, it was me rambling on, but its rather amusing so it stays). returning into serious mode, All Souls Day is when we remember friends, and collectors, who are no longer with us. So it is a good chance to get cracking on our archives and to have a think about our latest project to fill your dark winter nights, and that is the start of recording all of those forgotten and dimly remembered branches and clubs. A list of the ones I know of is now uploaded to https://csgb.co.uk/house-of-cards/branches - if you know of any others, or can amend the dates of their operations, or have any memories of them, please email us at webmaster@card-world.co.uk and we will start tapping them into the main branch pages. We also plan to have a blog post where we can summarize the new developments so you dont have to check every branch to see our memories. And if you have any photos, adverts, or other memorabilia do please send us a scan and/or more details
On the 3rd of November 1896, J H Hunter patented the portable weighing scales. This is a great link to something we have not featured before in newsletters and that is weight cards. The British Automatic Company is the one you will come across for the most part, and they were based at 14 Appold Street, London EC2, which was Bishopsgate. In the late 1940s and 1950s the trip to the weighing machine at the local railway station was a real treat, you would have to stand very still and wait for the red hand to drop before you put the coin in. Out would come a small card with your weight shown in stones and pounds, and the date, whillst on the other side was a picture, for instance, "British Locomotives" (1948) "Speed" "History of Transport" . "Space Travel" "Sports" "Dogs" "Olympics" "Famous Trains" and the really great "Racing and Sports Cars (1957). These were usually sets of twenty four cards and sometimes they were overprinted with "WEIGH DAILY". whilst it is even possible to find cards without the weight on which might have been remainders left over from when a set changed. Some collectors prefer them like this, others like them to have been used and imagine who the person might have been from the weight that is given. In fact BAC had branches in Birmingham, Bristol, Dublin, Glasgow and Manchester, and had been in business since the 1880s making not just weighing machines, but platform ticket dispensers, embossing and name plate machines, and food and drink vending machines. They were still in business in the 1960s, maybe longer.
The Players "Weights" advert is courtesy of a reproduction postcard issued by Card Times with a calendar back - but it proves that there are more "weights" than one.
Today is Diwali so let us look at some cards from India and neighbouring countries. The ones you will be most likely to find are from Wills "Ruby Queen", issued in China, India and the East, from 1911 to 1928 and with variances in the star on the back design that suggest they were produced locally not sent out from home - or "Scissors" brand, made to "Special Army Quality", which is proof enough that they came out of garrisons' these were issued from 1904 to 1927 and included several useful actress and cinema star sets - but rarer ones to look for are Peninsular Tobacco Company who operated between 1905 and 1918, and The Imperial Tobacco Co of India, "successors, in India, to British American Tobacco Co Ltd", formed in 1908 who issued cards with "Railway Cigarettes". Many of the Indian issuers did not have text on the reverse of the cards, preferring a cigarette packet design. You will also find in Coronation series several references to the Imperial Crown of India, which was specially made for the Delhi Durbar in 1912 to get around the fact that the crown jewels are not permitted to leave our country. The First World War saw a shift in the perception of India, as Wills "Britain`s Part in the War" card 18/24 talks of how "the Princes and peoples of India spontaneously came to the aid of the Empire..."
Smoking in India is less common than you might imagine, it was one of the first countries to smoke, but that was primarily cannabis, and for almost twenty years they have had the policy of more or less completely banning the advertising of any tobacco products, apart from airports and other areas where westerners are more likely to go.
It is sometimes written that on this day in 1935 Parker Brothers first started to sell a game called Monopoly. However the first version, "The Landlord`s Game", was invented in 1902, by a woman called Lizzie Magie or Maggie, who did it to show that capitalism was basically land grabbing, and very faulty, being good for the landlord but not good for the tenant, who would have to find the rent at sudden notice, as was recreated when a player landed on a square and had to pay the owner of that title deed. Her game was patented in 1904, and submitted to Parker Brothers in 1910, who turned it down. I cannot hope to equal the amazing research that has gone on into the game and its story, so simply direct you to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Monopoly - and I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I did.
Now you may be wondering what Monopoly has to do with cartophily? True it has little to do with cigarette cards, but look hard and you might find a card of "Scenes from the Boer War" by The Turkish Monopoly Cigarette Company Limited - in the mean time check out this one sold by our friends at Loddon Auctions https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/loddonauctions/catalogue-id-loddon10038/lot-5c2bcd2e-9833-4452-92d7-aae900a420e4#lotDetails
Since the 1980s the fast food restaurant chain McDonalds has issued Monopoly stickers, you get one or two stickers stuck to the packaging of each meal, you peel them apart and you might just win a prize. The original award system fell foul of nutritionists, and meals which are seen as less healthy now have less stickers than before with some having no stickers at all (Big Mac is one of those which has none), whilst stickers have been added to salads and healthy food. The prizes include cars, hot tubs, holidays, free meals, and cash.
This week's Cards of the Day...
...are going to be looking at the story of boy`s magazines, because this week (15th of October 1938) marks the first edition of "Radio Fun", a weekly comic published by Amalgamated Press which was a spin off of "Film Fun", drawing its characters from the radio rather then the movies. You may think this odd, but younger children, especially those too young to be taken to the movies, were a captive audience for radio.
On the first edition it mentions Flanagan and Allen, Will Fyffe, Sandy Powell and Clark Gable. The last name may seem an odd one for radio, but he appeared in many radio broadcasts during the 1930s, and 1940s.
The magazine did issue cards, but not many. The one you will find most readily was "British Sports Stars", twenty cards issued in 1956. One to look out for is "Famous Test Cricketers" issued in 1947, but you have to look right at the bottom of the reverse to spot the small "Presented with Radio Fun". As this would not a whole week make, we have decided to chat about boy`s magazines in general.
"Radio Fun" lasted quite a while, right until the 18th of February 1961, when it was merged with Buster.
Saturday, 23rd October 2021
![PIL-040 [trade : UK] Anonymous/Pilot Magazine/Amalgamated Press "Football Fame Series" (1936) Un/32.](/sites/default/files/styles/content_aligned/public/2021-10/23%20dean.jpg?itok=d0Ji5JTx)
This set first appears in the anonymous section of the British Trade Index Part I (1962) as
ZB7-10 FOOTBALL FAME SERIES Sm. 69 x 38. A sample back is illustrated at Fig. ZB7-9 (this was W. McGonagle of Celtic) Unnd. (32). Issued in strips of 4 with "The Pilot". Special album issued.
In our revised British Trade Index it is released from its anonymous title, and appears with the other card issues under "Pilot" Magazine, a weekly periodical of the 1930s, issued by Amalgamated Press Ltd of London.
There was also a special album issued, plus The Cartophilic Information Exchange tell us that in the first week you got the first strip of four cards, plus a hundred page book “The Pilot Guide to Better Football”, edited by none other than W. R. “Dixie” Dean, whose picture appears on both this card and the magazine cover.
In our updated British Trade Index, issued in 2006, these cards have been moved from anonymity and “The Pilot Magazine” has its own entry under PIL, where there are four sets listed, starting with PIL-020 “Britain`s Defenders”, and going on through our set, PIL-050 “The King`s Air Force”, and PIL-060 “Wings over the Empire” (It seems odd that this football set was issued, for all the rest are of, or include aviation subjects, which are much more fitting for the magazine title), whilst our album is revealed to be called “The Pilot Album of Football Fame”. Perhaps it was finding this album that was the key to finally linking the cards to "The Pilot" magazine. The album is revealed to have twenty pages and spaces for thirty two cards, trimmed to fit. This explains why some of the cards found today can be a bit out of square, and how the frequent creasing also occurs. They ought to measure 69 x 38 m/m.
By the way there is another page of the Cartophilic Information Exchange to visit, and this actually shows the album along with a checklist and two complete strips of the cards.
Since this we have had correspondence with a collector who says these cards were also issued with "The Magnet, another production of Amalgamated Press.
Anyway for any of our readers who remembers "The Pilot" as a boy, or anyone who is too young, you can actually view parts of them online at Friardale/Pilot. Now thanks to that website, we also have something else to add, for if you look at this edition of the magazine it is dated 5 October, 1935, and this means our date is wrong, because issuing eight strips of cards would only take eight weeks, and eight weeks on from 5 October 1935 would only go to the 23rd of November 1935, not into 1936.
Sunday, 24th October 2021
These unusual stickers are sometimes thought to have been given away with "The Beano" or "The Dandy" newspaper, because they are plain backed and they say (c) D.C. THOMPSON & Co., Ltd., 1991 on each one. However this is simply the licensing credit for using the copyright image which belongs to D.C. Thomson.
They were actually issued with a cheese substitute which is not named apart from on the application form where it is called just "the delicious alternative to cheese spread". Flora is still active in the vegan cheese scene, and also make "plant b+tter".
These stickers seem to have been designed for the American market, because the set includes baseball, basketball, and American football - but maybe they were paying tribute to the fact that when the paper started it was known as The Beano Comic, most of its content being American style comic-strip cartoons. However the other sports are universal, bicycling, football, and roller skating, albeit in "the old style" with four wheel skates rather than the "inline" fashion of the moment with the wheels in a long line.
All the cards feature Dennis the Menace and Gnasher, and several of the cards also feature a character called Walter, who was first introduced in 1953, two years after Dennis and Gnasher had made their first appearances.
The cover of the first edition was in full colour, and it was published on July 30, 1938. The original first edition of the magazine is scarce and expensive, so there are fakes, and there are licensed reproductions. You can find out how to spot these, and have a look at the cover of issue number one at Beano.com/no-1 - and -do look at that whole site as it combines the new and the vintage into a whirlwind of glorious fun.
And is there anyone out there still has their original whoopee mask?
Monday, 25th October 2021
![[trade : UK] Panini "Dandy & Beano Celebration stickers" (1988) 134/200?](/sites/default/files/styles/content_aligned/public/2021-10/danpair.jpg?itok=Fk0n6fK4)
This set was issued to mark the 50th Anniversary since the publication. Our sticker shows Desperate Dan, a cowboy character from the Dandy magazine, who turned into its figurehead.
He was there right from the start - the 4th of December 1937 - and you can see the cover at BritishComics.com/dandy
Sadly the Dandy is no more, poignantly the last edition was also the 4th of December, in 2012. The main reason for its failure was almost certainly the fact that it started out with many different genres of stories but slowly phased them out until only the funnies were left. Its move to a digital version in 2012 was also unsuccessful and lasted less than a year.
By the way, you can see the entire album for this set, and its contents, at : RetroFootballStickers/Beano - just click on a framed square to enlarge that page.
Tuesday, 26th October 2021
This "set" comprises twenty black glossy photos, numbered, measuring 70 x 44mm, and each showing an individual cricketer, which were issued in strips of four cards, plus three cards issued as single cards which are unnumbered team shots for Lancashire, Notts and Surrey.
Our subject, Lionel Hallam Tennyson, third Baron Tennyson, captained Hampshire and England, and was actually related to the poet, being his grandson. During the First World War he was a British Army Captain in the Rifle Brigade, and in 1928 he became the Governor-General of Australia, replacing his father. And he also appears on other cards
https://www.flickr.com/photos/44841559@N03/9713159423
https://www.ebay.com/itm/233980434947
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47de-48bb-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
"Chums" was a magazine which issued several sets of sports related cards between 1922 and 1925, the others being two groups of ""Chums" Football Teams" (both black and white glossy photos, CHU-2.1 being a set of twenty measuring 70x45 mm and CHU-2.2 being a set of eight, marked "New Series", and measuring 60x 35, which is slightly smaller than a standard cigarette card. Looking back at our "Chums" Cricketers" I can't help but wonder if the intention was for these to be a set of Cricketers portraits and a set of Cricket Teams. If so there may be more of the Cricket Teams waiting out there in your albums, or your cricket ephemera collections, do please check and tell us.
Their other set is CHU-3 and that is ""Chums" Real Colour Photos", footballers, a set of ten numbered large sized head and shoulders portrait cards measuring 94 x 79mm.
According to J.H. Wilson, the Cricketers set actually includes teams at numbers 17 and 19 in addition to the three cards in the Teams set. He also says they issued a "Chums" Photo Album with red board covers and it was a slip in type to hold 160 cards. He also states that only 43 cards were issued to fit it. Now even if the 51 cards issued in the other sets mentioned could be made to fit and added, it still leaves an extra 66 slots in that 160 slot album.
So what were these intended for? Any ideas?
Wednesday, 27th October 2021
![BOY-070 [trade : UK] Boys Cinema "Famous Heroes" (1922) 4/6](/sites/default/files/styles/content_aligned/public/2021-10/houdini%20pair.jpg?itok=PuYfs3Rc)
This card actually shows Houdini - The Handcuff King and it is dated precisely, to have been issued on March the 25th, 1922.
For a checklist of this set, go to Prewarcards/FamousFilmHeroes.
Now in the late 1950s Mr. J. H. Wilson wrote several articles on "issues from periodicals" in the London Cigarette Card Company's "Cigarette Card News" - and Volume 22, No. 264 (May/June 1959) just happens to deal with Boys Cinema, and listed twelve different sets. This set, "Famous Heroes", was first, being issued on a weekly basis from 4th March to 12th August 1922, twenty four cards in all
He adds that numbers 13 and 24 were on unglazed cream card, but not why.
This card is unusual as one of the films listed was never actually made. You can read about that at WildAboutHoudini.
The set was replaced by "Famous Film Heroes" a series of just six, starting on December 2nd, 1923 and continuing over Christmas with the last card being dated 20th January 1923.
Both of these sets were slightly larger than standard, and had descriptive texts on the back of each card. These were the only two sets that had titles.
The next issue was a plain back set, postcard size, which is sometimes known as "Super Portraits" for which the special wallet says "12 Art Plates of Famous Stars". Card no.2 in this set includes the first female subject so far, Lila Lee, pictured with Ralph Graves and Jack Holt in "Soldiers of Fortune". Whilst the first female to get a card to herself was "Joan Crawford, famous and charming as a Metro Goldwyn Mayer heroine" on card no.5.
After this came several more sets of untitled cards, usually known just as "Film Stars". One unusual group is of postcard size and it is perforated so that the heads of the stars can be pulled forward and the background bent backwards out of sight.
The final set was designed for the "Boys Cinema Pocket Wallet of your Favourite Film Stars", the cards are again untitled. These were issued from 2nd March 1940 to 6th April 1940, and the final issue of "Boys Cinema" was dated May 18th 1940.
well there you have it for another week. The monopoly picture will be added tomorrow, no idea why I brought the wrong disc down.
If you missed last weeks newsletter fear not its still available at https://csgb.co.uk/publications/newsletter/2021-10-23
better close - Hallowe`en is calling. Pop back tomorrow midnight for some spooky fun....