Newsletter - 2022-04-01

Another week older and deeper in debt, as the old song goes. Never mind, for there are pleasures within to melt the darkest heart and cheer the most tired soul. Or hopefully, anyway!

P644-072 : P72-31A - John Player “Cries of London” first series (1913) 16/25

Well today is International Carrot Day – and I thought this would be a fun challenge. And it was, but I have actually dug up a card with carrots on it. Looked at an awful lot of cartophilic rabbits though, I felt sure one would be crunching on a carrot, but they were all empty mouthed and I was empty handed.

Our last dog was a carrot fiend, and it was a fun thing to “forget “ and leave a carrot amongst the potatoes in the basket on the floor in the kitchen, for her to scent out, steal, and lie on the floor holding between her paws as she gnawed it all away. I have been thinking of her a lot lately as my current canine companion starts to show the same signs of trembling legs and neediness as she eventually did before she went on to better pastures and left me to wait behind, holding her lead and harness. I still have it to this day, for one day she will wear it again, and we will run together.

Changing the subject, before I set you into tears as well, International Carrot Day is real, and it has been going on since 2003, every year, on this same date, irrespective of day. It is also truly international, not just within Europe, but America and Japan as well. Our home grown carrots used to come from East Anglia, where the ground allowed best for their roots to grow straight without forking into odd and humorous shapes, and they still grow there but more recently the carrot has gone up North to Scotland.

You can grow carrots at home but they do have that long taproot which makes growing them in a pot challenging, unless you go for the small round varieties that seem to have originated in France.

Our card (if you still remember that?) comes from P644-072 : P72-31A - John Player “Cries of London” first series (1913) 16/25. The title is “Turnips and Carrots Ho” and it applies to the cry of the vegetable seller. The first thing I pick up on from the card is that the cry was “Whyt Carots, Whyt!”. And yes, apparently the first carrots were white, the orange ones came later. The card goes on to say “In more recent years the cry was “Two pence a bunch, young carrots, ho!”. This would presumably mean that by then the carrots had changed into the colour we are more familiar with today.

However, white carrots are still used in baby food, because otherwise the orange comes out in the skin. This sounds rather alarming, but it must be true because it says so on a super website which is actually run by The Carrot Museum.

Go on and visit! You really must...

This week's Cards of the Day...

This week our cards took us off to the Boat Race, which is on Saturday 3rd April. Some people believe this is an outdated sport, only for the privileged, and that may be true, but rowing is a sport that anyone can do, whatever their abilities or inabilities, and gliding along in a boat amongst the water and birds can be immensely soothing. Like most things, the fact that someone younger can do something faster than you should never stop you from giving it a go if you get the chance.

The Boat Race started in 1829, when it was run along the Thames on course of just two and a quarter miles. This was a one off race though and the next was not until 1836; after that it was also in no way regular for the next twenty years, taking right until 1857 to become an annual event. There were no races during the First World War, but there were some held during the Second World War, both on the Thames and on the Great Ouse in Ely; sadly these crews were never given official recognition and they are still not included in the official tally. It was also cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, but was relocated to the Great Ouse, near Ely, last year, which would have been the perfect time to add those missing names and dates in to the record books. Don’t you think?

A.Keeping of Fulham Football Club also appears on Ardath “Famous Footballers” (A745-350 : A72-24 - 1934) 48/50, where he is A.E. Keeping and on Churchman “Association Footballers” (C504-410 : C82-32 - 1938) 22/50, which is a great action shot not just a portrait.
His full biography can be found at wikipedia and this reveals his full name to be Alexander Edwin Michael Keeping.

Our clue was his club, Fulham Football Club, which is the nearest ground to the start of the Boat Race, in fact if you watch the race on television (rather than tuning in on the radio, like me) you will clearly see it passing by.

There is something on our card that younger readers might find amusing, and that was that Mr. Keeping, despite his International fame, was also still “engaged in the motor trade”. In other words he was not a highly paid football star who only plays football and has more than enough to live on, like some are today, he still had to hold down a regular job in order to make ends meet, and in fact if asked he would have almost certainly said his work was with cars and his football was just a hobby. However the wikipedia page reveals that this was not just tinkering, for he reportedly “owned a couple of garages”. I will try to track this down.

This “Association Footballers” set is not to be confused with the set by the same issuer, of exactly the same name, that had appeared in November 1935, but was more widely circulated in 1936. The way you can tell them apart is that the earlier set has framelines separating the text from the sides of the card, and our later set does not. Both these sets were first listed in our Wills reference book part four, as W/134 and W/135.

Our set is a bit different again because it is the Irish version, and how you can tell this is all on the reverses – firstly that they have no brand advertising at the bottom ; secondly that they are not “sticky backs” with pre gummed surfaces ; and thirdly that they do not say “This surface is adhesive …” at the top, instead they say “ALBUMS FOR WILLS PICTURE CARDS CAN BE OBTAINED FROM TOBACCONISTS.” and that was a peculiarly Irish printing. They were slightly more expensive than the standard home issue in the London Cigarette Card Company 1950 catalogue as well – 2d. a card rather than 1d. and 10/- a set rather than 4/6d.

There is also a curiosity with this set as regards our original World Tobacco Issues Index, for the Irish set is listed apart from the home issue as W62-116 under section 2B, this being for “Issues 1922-1939. Excluding cards with adhesive backs”. The adhesive backed home issued comes under section 2C and has the card code of W62-192, a code which contains the earlier, frameline version as W62-192.1 and the later, non-frameline version as W62-192.2. This system continues into our latest World Tobacco Issues Index, with our Irish non adhesive issue as W675-152 and the two adhesive issues as W675-235.1 and W675-235.2. Another oddity is that this page of text suddenly tells us there was no album issued for the non-frameline set. Bit of investigation due on that, I think!

In between these two sets, other sets were issued – in fact, across the Wills brands, and counting large and standard sized cards, there were twenty-five new sets to collect in those three years. That is almost certainly the reason why the 1920s and 30s are referred to as the golden age of card collecting!

In our original Wills reference book RB.19, which is part five with revisions to the preceding volumes, this is the last set listed in the section showing the dates of home issues. The book was issued in 1951, so at that time cards were still not yet back in the packets. However three standard sized sets and one large sized set were prepared in the 1950s and not issued, these appear in our most recent World Tobacco issues Index. The standard sized ones were W675-786, “Life in the Hedgerow” a set of fifty cards, W675-788 “Military Aircraft” (which says “reprints only studied”) another set of fifty cards, and W675-790 “Pond and Aquarium” (which says there was to be a first and second series each of twenty-five non adhesive backed cards – though one card has turned up from the first series which is on thinner card and also adhesive backed.) The large sized set was W675-792“Puppies” by Lucy Dawson, a charming set of forty cards measuring 79 x 62 m/m. One of these appeared in our auction not so long ago. I must have the image and will add it.

Of course in the 1980s Wills issued larger sized sets with Embassy branded cigars, and continued into the 1990s with Castella branded Cigars. And this is getting longer by the minute so I will halt there….

The reason for Miss Dorothy Bagnall is that the end of the Boat Race course is at Chiswick Bridge, and Chiswick was the original location of the London Cigarette Card Company, run by Colonel Charles Lane Bagnall and later his daughter Dorothy.

We are not sure how Colonel Bagnall first became involved with cigarette cards, but in 1927 he founded the British Cigarette Card Company, which operated out of his home in Wellesley Road, Chiswick. This was a company purely for dealing in cigarette cards, quite a big step for the time. Unfortunately it was almost immediately renamed The London Cigarette Card Company, because there was already a British one.

Their first “catalogue of prices” was issued in 1929, and in 1933 they started a regular magazine/newsletter for collectors which they called "Cigarette Card News". This is still issued today, though it recently changed its name to “Card Collectors News”.

And though the company is still called the London Cigarette Card Company, it relocated to Somerton in Somerset in 1977.

This card was given away to members at our 1993 Cartophilic Convention which took place in Hove, Sussex. And if anyone can supply any souvenirs or memories of this event, please do, so that we may add them to our archives.

And here we have the first bridge on the course, Hammersmith. The crews have usually been rowing for between six and seven minutes by that point. And if you look at the card, is that the Boat Race passing by, there are certainly eight rowers and a cox, plus the attendant boats watching the progress and waiting to step in should there be incident. I am not sure as to the month this set was issued, so I cannot tell if this is the 1902 or 1903 race, however Cambridge won both of these events.

The cards are numbered from 1-25 on fronts, and those fronts are lithographed in colour, whilst the backs are in olive green with an advertisement for "Myrtle Grove" rather than text. #

The earliest code of T/34 relates to our original checklist of Taddy cards, reference book RB12, written by Mr. Edward Wharton-Tigar, who was now writing our reference books, having taken over from Eric Gurd. This volume was published in 1948. Two years later in 1950 the London Cigarette Card Company listed these cards in their sales catalogue at between 12/6 and 30/- each for odds. Complete sets were also available at £35 each.

This bridge was not one of the original London bridges, it was built because of the considerable distance involved in detouring to Putney or to Kew, and building started in 1825. It took two years to build. This bridge lasted until the 1870s, when, of all things, the sight of crowds amassing to view the Boat Race passing directly below and then changing sides all at once to see it emerging on the other side, led to a decision to build a stronger bridge. This was opened in 1887.

The same bridge still exists, but it is no longer allowed that cars and trucks can cross it, only cycles and pedestrians. Whether this is a permanent move remains to be seen, though it seems unlikely that motor vehicles will be ever again be granted access.

These cards measure 79 x 62 m/m and they were only issued in mainland Britain.

Wills issued several other large sized sets on a similar subject, these were "Arms of Universities" (W675-151 : W62-115 : W/132 - May 1923), "University Hoods & Gowns" (W675-225 : W62-184 : W/337 - May 1926), "Public Schools" (W675-208 : W62-167 : W/295 - November 1927), and a pair of "Arms of Public Schools" - first series (W675-149.1 : W62-114.1 : W/130 - August 1933) and second series (W675-149.2 : W62-114.2 : W/131 - March 1934)

We started with Cambridge simply because they head most of the statistics. They have won five more of the men's races and fifteen more of the women`s. They also hold the most consecutive victories, thirteen, in the 1920s and 1930s, and have won by the most lengths, an amazing thirty-five, though that was many moons ago in 1839.

Researching this, in our second reference book on the works of W.D. & H.O. Wills, I learn for the first time that "This series comprises City, University, Town and Borough Arms; it is perhaps best known under the title "Borough Arms" although "Civic and University Arms" might be a more accurate description."

I wonder how many of our readers knew that?

The cards were printed by Mardon, Son and Hall, starting in June 1904, and there are different sets of fifty cards in all, ours is version two, which is similar to the first issue of fifty cards, but it is now numbered, by a circle on the front, and though the subjects are the same they have been redrawn. This card also appears in the third version of the set, in which there are no circled numbers to the front, they are now moved to the backs, and a descriptive text has been added. The third version was also renumbered, and this card of Oxford University is now number 16.

Many of the same images also appear in the seventh set, or "Second Edition", which has an album offer on the cards. Sadly our card does not, it was replaced by "Kensington"

This is a bit confusing but in our most recent World Tobacco Issues Index it says that the first fifty subjects were available as 'A' a scroll back where the fronts are a. unnumbered and b. numbered and 'B' a descriptive back with a. plain numeral and b. numeral and "Second Edition".

Lets start with the obvious, for this card does not say Sports Records anywhere on it, however when cards turned up numbered from 26-50, and titled “Sports Records – Second Series”, it was assumed that these were the missing cards from the first series.

They were a bit careless with titling for the front as well, which says simply “ROWING” – it is only the back text which suddenly reveals it to be the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race (which probably means it is missing from lots of Boat Race collections, especially as the front makes me think it is New York, or is that just me?).

The text tells us it was “instituted in 1829”, and that it is rowed “about a week before Easter” (I am not sure why this is?) I am also not sure why the card text says “Including 1923, Oxford have won 40 races, Cambridge 34, and 1 dead heat (1877)” when it was issued in 1925, so surely the 1924 race would have been won by then too?

Anyway the card says it shows the 1911 race, (held on April 1st) at the finishing line, when Oxford, the reigning champions, and winners of most previous races, won in the record time of 18 min. 29 sec, so maybe that is why that year got the nod for the text.

Cambridge currently holds the record time in both the men`s and women`s races – the men`s being 16 min. 19 sec., timed at the 1998 race, and the women`s being 18 min 33 sec, this dating from 2017

I have suddenly noticed a strange thing with this card, look at the address, where it says “55 PICADDILLY” – when it ought to be Piccadilly. So now the hunt is on to find all the other sets and see if any other has the same fault. If you spot one, do let us know.