Newsletter - 2022-02-19

Today is World Pangolin Day. These creatures look like they can repel any enemy, with their in-built armour plating, but they cannot fight off mankind, and sadly these beautiful and unusual creatures are seriously under threat for food, medicine, and also because there is a crazy rumour that they might be responsible for Coronavirus. And almost a quarter of all the animals stolen and smuggled across borders are pangolins.

Born Free are trying to do something about this on their website where you can “adopt” a pangolin, and they will use your money to rescue and rehabilitate them as well as send you regular updates and a soft toy. 

Their website says there are eight species of pangolin, but they are very scarce on cards, and I have only found three cards, all by Brooke Bond Tea. The earliest is “African Wild Life” (BRO-170 - BRM-2 : 1961) where card 49/50 shows the Giant Pangolin (Manis giantea), and also calls it "scaly ant-eater", but tells us more facts, that it is the largest of the four species native to Africa, as well as the only one which does, or maybe cannot, climb trees. All eat ants and termites, using their front legs to dig and their sticky tongue to hoick them out. It sleeps curled up like a baby, and its tail fits right around it. Once curled, it is said no man can break its hold. I suppose we could claim that there are five cards, because this set was also issued in Rhodesia with a green back, and in South Africa under the title of “Wild Van Afrika”.

The second, or fourth is Brooke Bond Canada “African Animals” (BRM-32) 10/48, which says it is six feet long, and looks “vaguely like an animated artichoke”

Finally Brooke Bond “Natural Neighbours” (BRM-72 : 1992) No.9, may only show its head, but this card has the benefit of being the Indian Pangolin, which is found in India and Sri Lanka. 

Today in 1872 the New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art first opened in a building occupying 681 Fifth Avenue, and later that year it acquired its first object, a Roman sarcophagus.

Today that site is an eighteen storey office building, for in 1880 the museum moved to  the intersection on Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street.

 Its link to Cartophily is because it is the home of the collection of Jefferson Burdick, who started to donate his lifetime collections to it in 1947. His first contact there was the curator of prints and photographs, a man called A. Hyatt Mayor, and I do not know how they met, unless the curator collected ephemera and was a regular reader of the articles written by Mr. Burdick. To be honest the collection was somewhat out of category for the prints and photographs department, which kind of backs up my theory that the curator was so thrilled by all that ephemera that he blurred the boundaries more than a bit.

I do doubt that he realised just how much there was, (over three hundred thousand items), or how long it would take to house it and catalogue it specifically for the museum and for visitors (from 1947 until 1963, and Mr. Burdick went in to the museum in person every day to do it).

However in the end it proved a visionary act, and today the Burdick collection is the major part of that department. In addition it is now also being used to tell the story of prints and printmaking, so enhancing the prints and photographs that were already in that department.
 

Today is another important day for Americans, wherever they live, as it is Presidents' Day. This honours all people who have served in the office of the President of the United States, and it used to be a public holiday, celebrated on the third Monday of February. This is rather confusing as it is said to celebrate the birthdays of George Washington (born on February 11), Abraham Lincoln (born on February 12), but neither of those dates could ever fall on the third Monday of February.

Now our card is interesting because of the title, for it calls this building "President`s House in Washington"  but it is unmistakeably what we call "The White House", at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., a building which serves as the home and office of whomsoever is the current president of the United States.The first person to live there was John Adams, in 1800

Today in 1857 saw the birth of Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell. He would grow up to be an Army officer, serving in India, Afghanistan, and various parts of Africa between 1876 and 1910, and successfully defend the South African town of Mafeking which was under terrible siege.

At the time that was what he was most noted for, but today he is remembered for founding the Scouts in 1907 or 1908 (sources, and cards, vary), blending a mixture of his military training, and covert operations, with the notion of respecting authority, being kind to others, and doing good deeds. Baden Powell became the self appointed “First Chief Scout”; and when his sister complained that there was not a similar movement for girls, they created the Girl Guides together.

Most early cigarette and trade cards are concerned with his wartime exploits, especially the 1901-2 Ogdens Tabs series of General Interest, O100-215, where he appears on cards A104 and D36. You can see these at the Trading Card Database, along with a lovely American card by Fisher Candy from their “Boy Scouts” Series of 1910 (E42). They give only two more cards in total for him, that being the pair of Brooke Bond “Famous People” (BRO-250) card 20/50, available as a blue back card issued in 1969 or a black back official reprint issued in 1973. However there are many more cards missing, which we will have a chat about here. 

One of my favourites is the full length impression which appears in Ogden “Boy Scouts” first series (O100-412.1 : O2-94.1 : O/41 – January 1911) 50/50, issued with blue or green backs, which also tells us he “was the son of the Rev. Professor Baden-Powell, of Oxford”.

And Cope issued a similar coloured card showing the majority of his length, calling him “The Chief Scout” This is quite a rare card, but one, though creased, is in the Arents collection at the New York Public Library. 

However for real excitement take a look at our top picture, extracted from our original Lambert & Butler Reference Book RB.9 issued in 1948, here, listed as L/26 is “Colonel R.S.S. Baden-Powell The King of Scouts” a black and white card stated at that time to be “the only specimen seen by the compilers”, and figures 10 and 11 show front and back. L/26 lists it as “? 1. Boer War Series (untitled)”, and it is all alone, followed by several groups of “Boer War – Generals (untitled)” to which one imagines it might have been tacked, but it was not. Our original World Tobacco Issues Index partially explains that, it being listed as L8-9, single card issue, small size measuring 64 x 31, which is not the same size as the “Boer War – Generals”, those being 69/70 x 37. Some collectors feel it is from that set, but it might have been trimmed.And our most recent World Tobacco Issues Index puts the matter to rest by firmly saying, under L073-090, “Single card issue”.

We asked if anyone had a proper one we would be delighted to add a scan of it, and here it is, courtesy of Brian Billington.

Today in 1904 the United States of America took over the Panama Canal Zone for $10 million. The Panama Canal  features on several cards, but lets start with Wills “Engineering Wonders” (W675-167 : W62-129 : W/193A) 9/50 which tells us that just one of the feats the builders had to accomplish was to raise the vessel using it by 85 feet to get to the central section, and then to lower it again to enter the open ocean at the other side. It also tells us there are forty of the electric locomotives shown on the card, and these serve to tow the vessel through the canal. 

John Player “Flags of the League of Nations” (P644-202 : P72-97 : P/97 – March 1928) card 37/50 tells us that the first attempt to make a canal unsurprisingly failed, that was overseen by the French diplomat, and successful builder of the Suez Canal, Ferdinand de Lesseps. He died in 1894, and it was his company that the Americans bought the rights of in 1903, though they took until 1914 to open the canal, which also includes a Canal Zone, five miles on either side, which is also under the control of the United States. 

A whole set of twenty five cards, H536-180, was devoted to the Panama Canal by Hignett in March 1914. This follows the route and shows many of its features. 

And the canal also features as a single card in Wright`s Biscuits of South Shields` “Marvels of the World” (WRI-190 : WRJT-3 : 1967) /24
 

This is a great story, all about an invasion of Britain. Now some of our readers may have been told that the last time alien feet set foot on British soil was the Battle of Hastings in 1066 (they were not actual aliens from space by the way, just people from another soil, though to be honest that description applies to Martians and Venusians too, as well as to other planets we don`t have the slightest idea of yet).

The truth is that there was another invasion, today in 1797, by the French, and it was all foiled by a female freedom fighter.

What happened is a very curious tale indeed, for the French did not do the invading themselves, they hired an Irish-American, in his seventies, and gave him an army of approximately a thousand men, some of whom were prisoners given a chance to reduce their sentence if they served France well, and some of whom were too old to fight for Napoleon in any other way. These men were to invade Bristol and hold the town to ransom, at which point the proper French Forces would sweep in and save the day, and the town would be so grateful that everyone would surrender and become French citizens. The original invaders would by then have marched on and done the same to other areas, holding them until the proper army arrived to rescue those held.

Problem number one was that the weather was against the fleet and as they sailed towards Wales and neared the coast one of the coastal defence forts started to fire on them, so they landed on a deserted beach near Fishguard.

Now the story is usually told that when they walked to the nearest town they were confused by seeing people in tall hats, and instead of knowing this was the traditional headgear of Welsh women, they thought they were up against an organised squadron of guardsmen in bearskins waiting for them; but what this tale omits is that the traditional Welsh women`s dress was not just a tall hat, but a red cloak, and that combination, to anyone, let alone tired sailors, was a very good assimilation of the British Army uniform. Even Franklyn Davey “Children of All Nations” cut-outs (F756-530 : F52-22) 50/50 tells us that “the picturesque red and black cloaks, and the white caps and tall black hats of the olden days are rarely met with to-day in the urban and mining districts of Wales. In the more secluded parts, however, they are still to be seen…”

As for the female freedom fighter, that was Jemima Nicholas, aged 47 and a cobbler`s wife, who heard of the landing and marched over from a neighbouring town, capturing twelve Frenchmen and incarcerating them in a local church, whilst only armed with a pitchfork. And she wanted to go back for more, but by then the war was pretty much over. 

I thought I would find loads of Welsh women on cards but sadly all I have come up with is this CBIC-1 Cardiff Prize Choir advertising card of about the 1890s, measuring about 135 x 120, which has been extracted from British Trade Index part four, page 54. If anyone out there has this card, would you please scan or photograph both sides and send it along so we can replace it. Likewise if we mention a person or subject and you can add cards or text, please do, because these newsletters are slowly shifting from just being weekly notes into a permanent reference and gallery, which is actually why we are changing the method of doing our pictures, so that they can be searched for, by code, and in the index which is in production right now, albeit very slowly. 

You may never have heard of it, but today is Yukon Heritage Day; and it celebrates the the smallest Territory of Canada.

And at one time it was the name on everyone’s lips, for as Taddy Cigarettes “Klondyke Series” (T045-250 : T6-18 : T/20) tells us, “There is no doubt that the Klondyke district is the richest gold field yet discovered, It comprises some 192,00 square miles…” The card also says that gold was first discovered in August 1896. This is a lovely set, of just ten cards; the first couple show the boats leaving and the crowds cheering off the gold-diggers, but all of those who thought that gold would just be laying on the surface of a green and pleasant land were in for a shock, and anyone who continued to collect the set would have read “The change from winter to summer and the reverse is very quick in the Klondyke. In winter the days close in very rapidly, until at Christmas there are only three hours of day-light, and the sun is not visible for 12 days, the thermometer standing as low as 70 or even 80 degrees below zero.”  

Some of those hopeful travellers would never return and their remains might never be found or named. But still more came, in their hordes, spurred on by things like “Yukon 'Cut Plug' Tobacco”, manufactured by J. Lemesurier and Sons of Quebec, a tin of which sold at Witherells auction recently. It showed cheery prospectors smoking and chatting at the kind of campsite you might go to on holiday, and the side has an inscription to say that "This box will be very useful for bringing back gold dust, small nuggets, etc., etc."

By the way, J. LeMesurier & Sons, Quebec, Canada issued cigarette cards as well, at about this time, two sets; L355-100, “Beauties” die cut with a floral effect on one top corner, back having the firms name and the words “Special Brands” and “Fine Snuffs”, nine being known of these unnumbered cards; and the other set, or single card, shows a flag, measures 74 x 45 and has no number, but surely it cannot be the only one in existence. So if anyone out there has a card of a flag with the issuer please get in touch. And in the mean time I will try to find out which flag has been found. 

Even more excitingly, right above them in the World Tobacco Issues Index appears LeMesurier Tobacco Co. Inc, Quebec, Canada, surely the same company, but slightly more recent, as they issued untitled cards showing film stars in black and white, and they are 1930s film stars. These are listed in our original World Tobacco Issues Index as L-35.1, and in Burdick as USA/C220 and C221, the difference being the colour of the card they are printed on, cream or white. In our most recent World Tobacco Issues Index it has the code L350-500. 

Life in the Yukon had not got much more hospitable when R & J Hill featured the “Boundary, Yukon and Alaska” in Views of Interest in their British Empire Series of 240 cards, (H46-96.6), issued 1938-40, and in production when Hill was bombed. This card is from “Canada” 48/48 and in case you don’t notice, there is a curious error in the text, for the first line says “In this view you see the stars and strips flying almost side….” And of course they are talking about the American flag, which should be the Stars and Stripes, not strips. Not sure if this is a new discovery in the world of errors and varieties. Do let us know though!