Newsletter - 2021-12-25

Saturday, 18th December 2021

so our first clue was the subject, NOEL Cantwell, Irish footballer and cricketer. As to why, well in France, and French speaking areas like Canada, and some parts of Africa, they would wish you "Joyeux Noel" rather than Happy Christmas. Also in France, Spain, and countries who use their languages, it is Pere Noel who brings the gifts to children. 

This card is titled just Noel Cantwell, but his full name was Noel Euchuria Cornelius Cantwell. He was born in 1932, and died in 2005, and it seems less known that he was also an excellent cricketer, in fact he started by playing cricket, and his ashes were even scattered at Cork County Cricket Ground in 2018. ESPN has his statistics for both football and cricket, and, according to the Trading Card Database he appears on 17 cards, most of which are shown, (and as always they are keen to be sent scans of the missing ones) – however these are all football.

So does anyone out there have a card of him in cricketing mode? Do let us know...

You can see all the cards in this set, front and back, at The Trading Card Database/Bar.A10 - and also the Barratt packets - which cost 3d. each, and contained one card, plus, I think, twelve sweet cigarettes. Just tell me if I am wrong and there were more or less. I tried to work it out using the modern ones which look more like pipe cleaners; and though you get twenty-four in those packets they look half the thickness of the ones that I remember. 

Now these were, rather naughtily, branded as "Gold Flake" - which was the trademark of W.D. and H.O. Wills, though it had been started as a brand of Stephen Mitchell & Son of Glasgow, only being used by Wills from 1901, once under Imperial Tobacco. Even more interesting, the brand was still in production when these sweet cigarettes were made - albeit in India.

This set is merely recorded in our British Trade Index Part II as :

10. Series A.10. 1962. Small. Coloured. (50). Album issued.   

And in our updated version as : 

FAMOUS FOOTBALLERS SERIES. A.10. 1962-63. 65 x 35. Nd. (50). Album issued.

Sunday, 19th December 2021

Our second clue here was that these are the arms of NATAL, a place "discovered" by Vasco da Gama on Christmas Day, 1497. As for how it got its name, well, if you were in Indonesia at Christmas you might well say "Selamat Hari Natal", though some areas of Spain also use Natal or Nadal in their greetings. And if you went to Italy, "Buon Natale" is only a skip away. 

At the time this card was being issued, Natal was in the news, because it was made a Province of South Africa only in May 1910, and given the capital city of Pietermaritzburg. However it was not a free state, and the original inhabitants, most of whom had relocated into the country areas, were slowly pushed out into Cape Town, whilst the more recent arrivals, from India, were also moved to Durban. You can tell that this enforced relocation was fairly successful as by 1960 Natal was the only one of those areas to vote against becoming a republic rather than remaining under British control.  However, over the next forty years, things started to change, often using violence when no words would speak of frustration. And finally, in 1994, ]KwaZulu and Natal Province merged to form KwaZulu-Natal. 

The galloping animals are actually wildebeest, and they had been used as the badge of the colony from 1846, becoming the coat of arms from 1905, though the Royal Warrant to use them did not arrive until 1907, and they were also retained when Natal became part of the Union of South Africa in 1910. However today the emblem has altered, and only one remains - it is now a  lion and a wildebeest rearing to each side of a shield.

This set is part of a group which encompasses many variations but this is the home page because it deals with the first version ever to be issued. Therefore it will have a full description of itself, then a list of the other versions, which will all eventually appear elsewhere and be links to where that "elsewhere" is.

So our set was originally catalogued in our original Wills Reference Book part III - or, more correctly, "RB.14 – The Cigarette Card Issues of W.D. & H.O. Wills Parts I and II (revised) and Part III". This was published in 1949. 

40.  50.  ARMS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. Fronts lithographed in colour; backs with descriptive text. Issued 1910.

• HOME ISSUE - Backs in grey. 
  
  A. With I.T.C. Clause
   
• GENERAL OVERSEAS ISSUE - Backs in black.
  
  B. Without I.T.C. Clause
   
• AUSTRALIAN ISSUES - Backs in grey
  
  C. Without I.T.C. Clause. With "Wills Specialities" advertisement.
  D. Without I.T.C. Clause. With "Havelock" advertisement.
  
  In C and D subjects have been redrawn, similar to A, except for card No.1, in which "Hong Kong" replaces "Hudson Bay Company". In these two issues, the descriptive text has been added in a blue colour shade.
  
  The same basic designs were used for a series printed on satin, medium sized cards mounted on thin board. This series is recorded in section IV of Wills issues. 

Before we race on, we do have a month of issue for our original version, thanks to a list published in the Wills Works Magazine in 1936, which tells us that it was circulated from October 1910. As far as the foreign versions, there is no mention, which means that they were printed overseas.

We also know that our set had a very short run, as it was replaced in December 1910 with the calendar for 1911. This is possibly why, in November 1931, the artwork was reused and the set reissued, in a larger size, though, confusingly, still entitled as "Arms of the British Empire", with a second series, in the same size, appearing in April 1932.

The next appearance of our home issue comes in our World Tobacco Issues Index, which is a listing of every known card issued by a tobacco company anywhere in the world. Because of that there was no space to be so effusive, and so our version is simply listed as :

• ARMS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. Sm. Nd. (50). See X21/200-126.A ... W62-64

As for the other versions, they appear in other parts of the Wills section, and even in the "Z" codes at the end of the book - but those sections appear with the write-ups for those specific cards. The "X" reference is for the handbook to the World Tobacco Issues Index, at first printed as a separate book, then, in later reprints, combined. However it also paraphrases the entry in reference book RB.21, which deals with overseas issues through British American Tobacco, specifically the versions printed on Satin, and which you can read elsewhere on this site in our newsletter - see table below for their location.

The entry for our standard sized set in the original handbook to the World Tobacco Issues Index reads as follows :

• X21/200-126. ARMS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. The recordings under W/40 and RB.21/126 are summarised and amended below. 
  
  1. Set 1. Small cards. 67 x 36 m/m. Front per No.1 at Fig. X21/200-126. Numbered series of 50.
  
      A. Home and Overseas issues. No.1 is "Hudson Bay Company", subjects otherwise as B.
         (a) Wills Home Issue, back in blue-grey with Album and I.T.C. Clauses.
         (b) Wills Overseas issue, back in black, without Album and I.T.C. Clauses.
         (c) Anonymous Overseas issue, back in black with Album Clause (price 25 cents). Reference USA/C.42.
  
      B. Wills Australian Issues. No.1 is "Hong Kong", otherwise subjects as in A but redrawn with minor and major differences in design. 
         (a) Wills` Specialities Issue
         (b) Havelock issue

The rest of the section deals with the silk cards. 

The following is a link section, identifying all these versions, and allowing you to click and visit where they appear. Once there, you will find all the details of that version of the set, extracted from our reference books, catalogues, and contemporary magazines. Eventually all versions below will have a set number in first column, with a clickable link, but they are not all in place yet.

Anonymous Overseas issue, back in black with Album Clause (price 25 cents). Reference USA/C.42.

By the way, some of these are Cards of the Day, where you will go straight to the card - whilst others are part of newsletters, where you will need to scroll down until you find them. 

Monday, 20th December 2021

And our third clue was again the subject, Fred YULE who was not only a popular radio star, but also a very well renowned gardener, whose name lives on in a delphinium and a lupin. You can read about his radio days at wikipedia - and his calmer times in the garden courtesy of Leigh Gardening. Strangely the radio piece mentions that his was the voice that stopped the traffic on “In Town Tonight” so I quickly went to the Churchman set we featured last week, but no, he is not there.

Yule isn`t really another word for Merry Christmas, it refers more to the Winter Solstice, though it has started creeping in to jolly cards for significant others with rather corny messages like "Say Yule Be Mine". And of course there is "Cool Yule", which means different things to different people, younger folk may think of the Bette Midler Album, but probably don`t realise the same song originated with Louis Armstrong in 1953.

These unusual issues, sixteen sets in total, were printed, in various shades of blue, on the inner slides of a packet of cigarettes, as we show here. One card, as here, was printed on packets of ten cigarettes, and two on packets of twenties. More often you find that the cards have been cut to the more usual rectangular cigarette card shape, something that was almost certainly done to make them easier to store and display.

There is a simple reason why these cards were issued in this way and it is all to do with the shortages, including paper and card, and indeed rationing which continued long after the Second World War; printing the cards on the inner slide, as part of the packet, did not exactly "save" paper, but it did make the stock they were allotted go further, and of course being printed in shades of one colour did the same for ink. In addition, whilst Carreras printed one card in the packets of ten cigarettes, if you bought the twenty size you would get two cards on your inner slide. 

The sets started to appear in 1947, the first being "Film Stars". The next year, 1948, there were three sets, including one to celebrate the Olympic Games being once more held in this country, forty years after the last time. From 1949 two sets were produced per year, but in 1953 they only issued one, "British Aircraft". 1954 again saw two sets, "Zoo Animals", and its replacement, "British Fish", but that went from 1954 right into 1955, though it was the only set to have descriptive text, "on the long side panel below the bottom edge of what is the side facing card" (if anyone would like to translate this into proper descriptional terms please do - left and right are beyond me...) The final set "Famous British Fliers", in 1956, had the bonus of being printed in two colours, and it is very attractive for it.

Whilst some collectors might dismiss these, and consider them simply as package issues, they are a part of the cigarette card story, and also have another bonus, for several sport and media personalities of the immediate post war period are there, often making their first, last, or only, appearances.

Tuesday, 21st December 2021

These cards are very slightly larger than what has come to be regarded as standard cigarette and trade card size, being 69 x 37 m/m as opposed to the normal 68 x 36 m/m. As to why this was originally coded as SUM-27 our original British Trade Index (part one, issued in 1962), it is because these cards were listed under "Sumner's Typhoo Tea", as several of the sets carried that name. This has now been dropped, though there is a cross reference between Summer's Productions and The Sun newspaper that says "Sumner's Ty-Phoo Tea - see Ty-Phoo Tea". (Actually there was also a link from Typhoo to Sumner's in the original works)

The more eagle eyed of our readers may also be wondering what the number is on the front of the card; in this case it is "654" and it is actually a printer's number, which several collectors believe is a kind of date code, though some sets also add a date. These standard-ish sized cards were issued, for the most part, before the arrival of the very long cards, the first of which was "Animal Friends of Man" (1927). The only exception is the "Zoo Series", which is cited as having been issued in 1932. The long cards were still being issued in 1939, that set being "Important Industries of the British Empire". A short while after, the Second World War would lay waste to most of those industries, to the British Empire, as it functioned at that time, and also to Ty-phoo Tea, whose next sets, the so called package issues, did not arrive until 1955.

Wednesday, 22nd December 2021

Now if you look at the cards they are actually without any maker`s name and entirely anonymous. That is why we have the curious ZA code at the start. In fact, they appear in our original World Tobacco Issues Index as anonymous as well, being coded as ZA5-2. However in our original R. & J. Hill reference book RB.2, issued in 1942, they are recorded as being by Hill, and appear as two separate listings. The first says it is a titled, numbered, series, issued in 1936, and measuring 2½ by 1 and 7/16ths, printed in black and white from half tone blocks, and that the fronts are unvarnished. The second set is “similar to the above and identical subjects, but fronts varnished to give a glossy appearance”, and this version was supposedly issued in 1937.

They are definitely to commemorate the Crystal Palace fire of November 30th, 1936 (though actually the fire broke out the night before), and the final cards in both versions show the Palace smouldering after the fire. Both sets were printed by W. Oliver, and whilst there is a rumour that the undistributed cards were varnished and hurriedly re-issued after the fire, I dispute this, because the aftermath of the fire is in both sets. And it would be very much easier to varnish an entire sheet of freshly reprinted cards than to try and apply varnish to single ones cut up and waiting to be put in the packets.

However, what is clear is that there are or were many more of the varnished cards available, as in the 1950 London Cigarette Card Company catalogue, the matt, original set is listed at 3d a card and 15/- a set, as opposed to the varnished, which were a penny ha`penny a card and 7/6d a set, half the value of the matt.

Now the Crystal Palace had a far grander story than its being consumed by fire, for it was originally erected in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851. Why it was called the “Crystal” Palace was because it was almost entirely constructed of glass, suspended between an iron framework. It was sold in 1952, and dismantled by the buyer before being transported to a site in Sydenham where it stayed until its fatal conflagration in 1936.

Why we have this card as our Card of the Day is that it deals with “Christmas Entertainments at The Palace”. The text tells us that these were a popular feature and had stage shows to delight the young and old. The large head above the stage is that of Joseph Grimaldi, clown, indeed father of clowns and clowning, and the picture was put there in his memory, for he was no longer alive. The text makes it sound as if he had just died, but actually he died in 1837, aged just 58, and that was fourteen years prior to the opening of the original Crystal Palace.

Thursday, 23rd December 2021

This is such a memory of Christmas for most people, the delight of extra sweets, a box no less. 

Our original British Trade Index part I lists these as part of a group, namely : 

CRICKETERS FOOTBALLERS AND FOOTBALL TEAMS. (A). Sm. 61 x 35. Black. Four backs, all found with and without printers`credit “Hills & Lacey, Ltd. Printers, London, E.C.4.”. Unnd. See D-25. …BAR-45
N. Back “Buy Barratt & Co`s. Sherbert Novelties”.
P. Back “Barratt Sweets are Pure”.
T. Back “Tarrab Brand Rock is the Best”.
X. Back “Barratt`s Xmas Club Boxes are the Best. Order Yours Early.”
1. Cricketers. 70 known.
2. Footballers. 183 known.
3. Football Teams. 3 known

So the exciting thing is that D-25 lists all the cards with the backs that have been discovered, current as to May 1962. However it is a lengthy listing, four entire pages, plus a short piece on the pages fore and aft, way too lengthy to post here. 

I will just mention that one of the cards is Dick, Kerr`s Ladies Football Team, which was, at that time, known only in the Sherbert Novelties, both with and without a varnished front. 

By part II, issued in 1969, there had been additions, under Da.25 - different backs for three cricketers and five footballers, and the names of five more cricketers and a footballer had been added to the register 

At the time that Part III came along, in 1997, the total stood at 80 cricketers and 186 footballers. It gets very confusing too. However if you collect these and would like to ask questions, just email us and we can have a chat. 

In our updated British Trade Index the listing of the names and backs are gone, removed to the Handbook. They are catalogued in here as : 

CRICKETERS FOOTBALLERS AND FOOTBALL TEAMS. (A). 1925-27. 61 x 35. Black. Four backs, those for “Cricketers” found with and without “Hills & Lacey, Ltd. Printers, London, E.C.4.”. See H.25. …BAR-170

Do note that as the Printer`s back is now stated to only be available with the Cricketers this card may change so that all the backs can be recorded. Does anyone out there have this card with the Printer`s back and would be willing to scan just the reverse? If so many thanks in advance. 

Anyway H.25 is our new Handbook, a stand alone volume, and in there is an even longer list, seven entire pages. It also repeats the list of the back designs in front. 

Friday, 24th December 2021

Who could we feature on Christmas Eve but Ebenezer Scrooge, recently getting a re-incarnation as, of all things, a soft toy banana.

Before that, he was a miserly, cold-hearted banker, whose heart is not even melted at Christmas - until he is shown what will happen to him in what may, or may not, be the first instance of time travel ever recorded in literature, masquerading as a dream. This all takes place on Christmas Eve, courtesy of some interference from his former partner who is now removed to the spirit world. Its kind of a fable, but it also tries to show us that money is not everything, and a little kindness goes a long way. 

This is another huge group, and this, because it is the first time any of the sets have appeared as a Card of the Day, will be its home page, holding the details of all the sets and linking out to where the various versions are featured. You will be able to spot the ones we have already used because they will be underlined below.

The first time these sets are recorded is in our original reference book to the issues of John Player & Sons, RB.17, published in 1950. In there, they appear as : 

47. CHARACTERS FROM DICKENS. Drawn by "Kyd" (J. Clayton Clarke). Fronts in colour.Backs in grey, with descriptive text. Home issues.

• A. 25  Small cards, "A Series of 25". Numbered 1-25. Issued March 1912
• B. 25  Small cards, "2nd Series of 25". Numbered 26-50. Issued October 1912 [showing here]
• C. 50  Small cards, "A Series of 50". Numbered 1-50. Issued November 1923.
  Note : Text of card No.5 differs from that in A. 
             No.32 (Silas Wegg) is facing left in B, right in C. Correct timbered leg appears to be his left. 
• D. 10  Extra large cards "10 subjects". First issued June, 1914, reprinted June, 1923. Unnumbered series, subjects listed below with corresponding numbers in small card issues in parentheses ;-

1. The Artful Dodger - Oliver Twist (1)
2. Sally Brass - Old Curiosity Shop (30)
3. Sergt. Buzfuz - Pickwick Papers (13)
4. Capt. Cuttle - Dombey & Son (25)
5. Fagin - Oliver Twist (2)
6. Mr. Micawber - David Copperfield (41)
7. Nell - Old Curiosity Shop (22)
8. Mr. Pickwick (16)
9. Sam Weller - Pickwick Papers (17)
10. Tony Weller - Pickwick Papers (18)

Now in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, this is all changed, and the sets are split up. The A to D identifying letter codes given above are also, oddly, different too. The main reason for this is the dates of issue, as the pre-First World War cards are in one section, and the post-War in another.

So first up, we get A, B, and D from the above list, under John Player section 2.A, for cards issued between 1903 and 1917 - catalogued as :

CHARACTERS FROM DICKENS. See RB.17/47 and H.348 ... P72-25

• A. Small (50) - (1)  "A Series of 25". (2) "2nd Series of 25". Nd 26-50.
• B. Extra large. Unnd (10)

The missing set, formerly known as C, appears under section 2.B, for issues between 1922 and 1939, as : 

• CHARACTERS FROM DICKENS. Sm. Nd. See RB.17/47 and H.348 ... P72-77

This remains the same in our updated version of the World Tobacco Issues Index, except for the removal of the RB.17 references, and new codes, which are P644-060 and P644-162 respectively. 

As far as the retail price of all these sets, in the 1950s, we know that too, courtesy of the 1955 London Cigarette Card Company catalogue, which lists them in their 1888 to 1919 volume as : 

Characters from Dickens.                          odds            sets

• 25  Small card, 1st series (Mar. 1912)... 9d to 1/6d.       35/-
• 10  Extra large card (Oct.1912) ...           2/6d to 6/-       £ 3
• 25  Characters 2nd Series (Jun 1914)... 1/- to 1/9d.      £ 2

... and in their 1920 to 1940 volume as :

.                                                                 odds            sets

50 Characters from Dickens (Nov.1923)    3d.           8/6d

By the way, though this set shows the author`s monogram on each card, as “Kyd”, he was really an artist called J. Clayton Clarke. And, thrillingly, he has another cartophilic claim to fame too, for he also illustrated the set of "Votaries of the Weed" for Gallaher.