Newsletter - 2022-04-23

Saturday, 16th April 2022

So how did we get to Shakespeare?

Well Clue Number One was our Saturday Soccer Star which showed William Stage of Bury, giving us both “William”, Shakespeare’s Christian name, and “Stage”, representing the theatre, and his famous words “All the World's a Stage”, the starting words of a celebrated and oft-quoted monologue from the Shakespeare play "As You Like It”, written in 1599.

William Stage was a prominent player at Bury, and our card says it was “under [his] captaincy Bury won their way back to membership with the First Division of the League.” Once more it was almost certainly the case that the First World War affected his career for the worse, losing him the youthful years that he could have shone so brightly. He actually has a page devoted to him at a website for Southampton Football Club where it tells us he made just four appearances for them, and scored a single goal. That period of his life is not mentioned on the Gallaher card but the picture shown on that website is very similar. 

The fronts of our cards were printed by letterpress and there was more than one printing, the two easiest to acquire have either a grey or brown backdrop around the head of the subject. The other two are harder to spot, one is on a blue grey tinted board and has a creamier back, the other is on a normal board but still has the creamier back. In our original Gallaher reference book, RB.4, issued in 1944 the sets are not numbered, hence no short code exists. It does tell us that cards 14 ([David] Rollo [of Blackburn]) and 46 ([William] Gillespie [Sheffield United]) can be found "... with both a large and a small head". Having never, luckily, seen a footballer with two heads, let alone ones of different sizes, I can only presume it ought to have read "as either a large or a small head". And thankfully the Cartophilic Exchange website  has a picture of David Rollo that shows I am right. 

These cards were printed by Tillotsons Ltd of Bolton, one of the major printers of cigarette cards, and they also printed the follow up set of fifty colour cards the following year, not just colourful, but accurate, as the footballers wear their club colours.

Sunday, 17th April 2022

The answer to clue number two, showing here, was in the corner, where it says Verona. And that refers to what is usually regarded as the first of all Shakespeare’s plays “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”. No firm proof of a date of its writing exists, but it was penned some time between 1589 and 1593. 

This is a very curious card indeed for it was intended to be a full colour set of cards in the same style as and following on from the other Gems of Architecture, these being Belgian (August 1915), Russian (February 1917), and French (November 1917). The intention behind these, of course, was propaganda, for instance card 8 of “Gems of Belgian Architecture”, tells us "Dixmude, or Dixmulden, was a small town in West Flanders, the scene of some of the heaviest fighting between the Belgian and German troops. It has in consequence been entirely destroyed." 

The oddity is that not a word about this set appeared in any of our original Wills reference booklets, nor the first World Tobacco Issues Index.

Its inaugural appearance waited right until The Cartophilic World vol.13, no.150, p.2195

Image

F. Piper, of course, was eminent cartophilist Fred Piper. At this point it was still a plain back proof sheet, not split into cards, and whether they were coloured or not is not told. They must have been coloured though because my vintage Murray catalogue (2009) offers coloured cards at £150 each but no sets, as opposed to our set which appears at £35 complete, but not as odds.

Our card actually comes from a black and white photographic copy of that proof sheet, made into sets, and given a descriptive back which is identical on each card and not concerning the subject on the front.

I have gone through the Cartophilic World from 1959 to 1964 and these black and white cards do not appear, despite the back saying they were produced in 1960. There is also a question as to who produced them, many say Wills, but the box at the foot seems to disprove this because why would Wills need to print “REPRODUCED BY KIND PERMISSION OF W.D. & H.O. WILLS” on cards that they owned the permission to?  These words can only mean that Wills owned the rights and allowed someone else to produce the cards. All very strange.

Our most recent World Tobacco Issues Index includes the cards, from where the code comes, but no other details. However I am sure that there is someone out there who can tell all....

Monday, 18th April 2022

Our third clue here was the film title, “Romeo and Juliet”, one of Shakespeare`s most popular plays, written in 1595-6.

However Shakespeare did not come up with the story all on his own, as the basic premise had been first written down in the 1470s as Romeo and Giuletta, but had actually come from older tales passed on in person.

This story was then further embroidered by Luigi da Porta, using details of his own thwarted love affair, and in that version are many of the details in the Shakespeare version, the feuding Capellettis and Montecchis, the secret love, the faithful Nurse, Romeo committing murder but going unpunished, the deadly potion, the failure of the written message, and their deaths, though in the original it is a slower acting poison which allows them a short poignant time of togetherness. Shakespeare simply fleshed all this out, added a larger cast of characters, made it less Italian, and made Romeo die first, though it is believed he had even got that angle from a translation in French.

Our card shows Leslie Howard as Romeo and Norma Shearer as Juliet, somewhat odd casting as Juliet was written as a thirteen year old. Romeo`s age is not stated, but he is thought to have been about twenty. This was subtly altered in more modern times so the pair were allowed to be thought of as both being about sixteen. However at the time of Shakespeare`s writing, thirteen was the age of consent. 

This set was only ever issued in the medium size (61 x 53 m/m).It is a very attractive one too. 
 

Tuesday, 19th April 2022

So here we have an unusual card of Shakespeare with his birthplace behind him.

Our card is described in our original British Trade Index part II as "FAMOUS PEOPLE. Lg. 98 x 51. Nd. (24). See D-274". (This is identical in the updated version, except that the date appears before the size). However the heading tells us that John. G. Barker produced "Barker`s Bubblegum", and that all four of his sets were issued between 1955 and 1965. They also had special albums.

However the only one of the four which is original to him is called "Circus Scenes", a really interesting set which was produced in collaboration with Bertram Mills' Circus, though by that time it was being run by his children.

Their other three sets were all issued by others -

"Famous People" was also issued by Lyons Maid but as standard sized cards, smaller than those we show here. 

"Footballers" by Mitcham Foods in 1956

- and -

"The Wild West" actually being three series of twenty-five cards, issued rather oddly, for part one was issued by Sweetule, Amalgamated Tobacco and in an anonymous form, part two by Barratt and Sweetule, and then part three by Barkers and Express Weekly. However they got away with it because each set was numbered 1-25. 

Now you will also find the interior of the very room, of where Shakespeare was born in Westminster Tobacco Co. Ltd`s "A Second Series of British Royal and Ancient Buildings" (1926 - 39/48). The card tells us it is  "The room where Shakespeare was born", being “A first-floor room in a house in Henley St. Stratford-on-Avon” where “The walls are covered with … inscriptions of pilgrims of all ranks, including Byron, Scott, Dickens, Irving, Washington and the Duke of Wellington.” 

There is a very similar view, including the same bust, obviously a later addition, on the anonymous set of "Beauties of Great Britain", but the card is entitled "The Birth Room of Shakespeare" (13/50)

The birth room also appears on John Player “Shakespearean Series” (1914 - 1/25), which has a descriptive text saying that “According to well-verified family tradition, the great dramatist was born in this quaint chamber on April 23rd, 1564.” And it also explains the writing on the wall mentioned on our card as “Formerly visitors were allowed to write their names upon the walls, ceilings and window panes, and many notable autographs are here inscribed”. The first series of the Player cards were issued in 1925. RB21-200-159.1 tells us they were in two formats, unnumbered with no descriptive text, and numbered with a descriptive text. They were already pretty scarce by 1950, when the London Cigarette Card Company catalogue listed them as odds only, the unnumbered version being retailed at 1/6d. each and the numbered version at a shilling each. 
 

Wednesday, 20th April 2022

Do note that these cards say first series, but there was no second ever issued. Whether there might have been if Taddy had not closed the doors has been the subject of much speculation, but it seems unlikely as there were ten years in between the issue of this set and the closure of the company.

Other Taddy sets also say “First Series”, these being “Sports and Pastimes” (T/32 - 1912), and “Terriorial Regiments” (T/33 - 1908).

The same set was also issued in 1913 by Tucketts, who were based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (T64-1 : T815-050 : USA/C113).
 

Thursday, 21st April 2022

And this was a rather topical choice as it was also celebrating the birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, who had been born Princess Elizabeth of York, on April 21, 1926, in Mayfair, London.

However it is primarily here because it shows the Globe Theatre, which started construction in 1597 and was completed about two years later. It was built and owned by Shakespeare's own theatre company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, but the funding came from a man called Richard Burbage, whose father also supplied the timber, recycled from a former theatre owned by the family. However Shakespeare was also a shareholder, and he owned twelve and a half per cent. 

The theatre was in Southwark, on the River Thames; and we are not entirely sure why it was sited there yet.  It was round, held three thousand playgoers, and only had a small roof just big enough to cover the seats, whilst the centre was open to the skies. Below the stage, which had a platform thrusting out into the audience, was a sunken section where anyone could come in and watch - the cost was but a penny. It was not only for Shakespeare`s plays; other dramatists appeared, including Ben Jonson. 

Now the first Globe was destroyed by fire in June 1613. Within a year a new Globe had literally risen from the ashes, and that stayed open until 1642, when Parliament announced that all of London theatres must close until further notice. It was pulled down two years later.

Then, in 1997, a brand new Globe was opened for a whole new audience. It is not quite on the exact same site though.  

This set first appears in our original British Trade Index part III (RB.31, published in 1986) under Brooke Bond Section 4, General Issues 1969-85, and listed as  : "Queen Elizabeth I – Queen Elizabeth II. Nd. (50) Issued 1983, also in joined pairs." 

These "joined pairs" are usually known as double cards; they are larger, because there are two standard sized cards printed side by side on each of them. The numbering is rather odd though, and this card is paired with card 8 of Charles II whereas you would expect it to have been paired with card number three. 

However the set is too late to be included in our updated British Trade Index, which only goes up to 1970. 

The card shows the Globe Theatre, which is a rather canny link to a very rare manufacturer, the Globe Cigarette Company.

I thought they must have been so rare that they do not appear as a manufacturer in our directory of British Cigarette Card Issuers, published in 1946, so they were obviously not known of then, or maybe they were known and not their details, but the truth is that though they were English in language, they were believed to have been issued in India. Their only issue was in 1898, what is probably a set of black and white “Actresses – French” (G375-050 : G38-1), and it is the first item in the 1950 London Cigarette Card Company handbook part one, where it says they were also issued by Adkin (A165-050 : A12-1 - 1898), Ogden (as O100-240 : O/2-39 – “Leading Artistes of the Day”), and Wills (W675-542 : W62-393 : W/16 – as “Actresses – Tabs Type”)  . Only two Globe cards are known in 1950, as shown in this clipping from that book.

They are also in the LCCC catalogue, which I will continue to bore you with until any earlier ones fall into my library, where they were listed for sale as odds, for between 70/- and 200/-  Another card was discovered by 1956 because our original World Tobacco Issues Index says “(3 known)”. And in our most recent version it has become a set of twenty five.

Friday, 22nd April 2022

Here we have an old inn which was purely picked because it was, like Shakespeare, from Stratford-On-Avon. However there is actually a connection between him and this hostelry.

As it says on the back of the card, "at the time when "Shakespeare was born (1564) this fine timber framed structure was in all probability the mansion of a prosperous Stratford merchant". Today we are fairly sure that the building dates back to 1450. It became an inn in about 1560. The card says it was called The King`s Head, but it seems to have been instead either The King`s Hall, or the King`s House. I have not been able to find out the connection with a King, but would it be called that if there were not? 

Now the card muses that "it is quite conceivable that the great poet himself drank his ale or sack here."  And it is indeed, for the brewer, and owner, a Mr. Robert Perrott, had a grand-daughter, who married a young man called Richard Tyler in 1588, and this Richard Tyler was a good friend of William Shakespeare.

The card continues musing how Shakespeare "gazed at the fine mural paintings in what was then the bar parlour. These wonderful frescoes, depicting scenes from the Apocryphal story of Tobit, were only discovered by accident in 1927."  Now you may think there is an error here, thinking it ought to read Tobias and the Angel, and indeed this is quoted on several websites to do with the Inn. However technically the card is correct, because Tobias, who meets an angel without realising he is one too, was the son of Tobit.

Now these frescoes were done for another Mr. Perrot, which leads us to a sadder story, for he only enjoyed them a few years, before he, and almost all his family, died of plague in 1564. For what you may not know is that in that year, Stratford-upon-Avon had a really bad outbreak, losing very nearly a third of its current population, but somehow not touching a little newly born boy, who was christened William on April the 26th, 1564.

In our original Wills reference book part IV, this set is described as 

OLD INNS. Large cards, size 79 x 62 m/m. Fronts printed by letterpress in colour, Backs in grey, with descriptive text. Home issue.
280. 40. "A Series of 40". Fronts greyish-brown, with white border. Issued 1936
 281. 40. "Second Series of 40". Fronts light brown, with white border. Issued 1939

It has shrunk a bit in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes, to just 

OLD INNS. Lg. Nd. 
1. A Series of 40".
 2. "Second Series of 40".