Newsletter - 2022-07-09

Saturday, 2nd July 2022

Here we have William Flint of Notts County, a “right half-back” and “for many years captain”.  The text also tells us that he “Has been long enough with his present club to earn two benefits” but does not say what they are. A free sandwich and a cup of coffee at half time perhaps? (You can tell from this that I am but a very simple soul). And it says he “Is not very big – he only stands 5 ft 6½ ins”, though that is taller than I. 

His full name was William Arthur Flint and he played for Notts County, though he was also a first-class cricketer, playing for Nottinghamshire; and his brother was also a cricketer. You can read more about that at the Trent Bridge website  but I am not sure if he, or his brother, appear on any cricketing cards – if you know do tell us 

Our Trade Indexes seem to vary with info. The size is given as 76 x 51 m/m in our most modern British Trade Index, whilst our original British Trade Index part one puts medium size in the listing, though it gives the same dimensions in the header.

Then there seems to be a difference of opinion as to the colour of their printing, the original part one calling it brown and the modern version black. Having looked at a few cards now I think we could probably say that the cards vary along the brown/black spectrum.

However the most interesting difference is that in the original part one of our British Trade Index it says there were twenty two in the set and they were dated from the 23rd of January 1926 to the 3rd of April 1926. And our card is dated at the bottom 20-2-26. However in the modern version of our trade index the quantity is given as 24 cards, and it says they were issued one card a week from 25-9-26 until 11-12-26. 

We have had a bit of correspondence on this already, including being shown card number one, which turns out to be Frank Hudspeth of Newcastle United, given with “Triumph” on the 23rd of January 1926. This supports the vintage trade index, not the modern. Likewise card twenty two, which has also been shown, that being Arthur Grimsdell of Tottenham Hotspur, given with “Champion” on the 3rd of April 1926. So why is there a different date in the more recent volume?

The above information also tells another story, as if you look at a whole set of cards you will see some of them say “given with “Champion” and others  “given with Triumph”.

What actually happened was that a different card was given in each of these magazines, making two cards a week. This was a good marketing strategy as the collector had to buy both magazines to get a full set. 

By the way six cards of William Flint are listed at the trading card database

but there are more – including Godfrey Phillips Pinnace brand “Footballers” (1922) card 47, and Clarnico "Footballers" (also 1922). We can add any more you find.
 

Sunday, 3rd July 2022

Here we have the English Springer Spaniel, which the text of this cards tells us “is thought to be the oldest Spaniel, and its origin and that of the English Setter may be closely allied.” In fact the English Springer is the tallest of the land based Spaniels, but they are all very inter-related, the main classifications being the simple ones of height, size and colour. However but for chance the Springer might have been called a Norfolk Spaniel, after one of its early champions and refiners, the Duke of Norfolk.

The company simply called John Hignett was founded in 1790. They changed the name to Hignett, Webster & Co in 1848, and started producing tobacco in the 1850s. A further name change, shortening it to Hignett Bros occurred in 1858, but it seems likely that this was directly related to the departure of Mr Webster. Does anyone know more about this? We also know that a John Hignett was alive in September 1884 because he attended the funeral of Thomas Cope of Cope Bros & Co. in that month. But whether it was the same one seems doubtful, for if Hignett was founded in his name as a babe in arms in 1790 he would be 94 at the youngest at the Cope funeral. 

Hignett`s were based in Liverpool, but they also had a London factory at 74 Aldersgate Street. You can actually see an early billhead from 1894 at Alamy. If you look at the lower boxes you will see that the right hand one mentions Richmond Cavendish and Lorillard, Richmond Cavendish being formed by Hignett for the sole purpose of exporting unsweetened tobaccos out to North America.

In 1901 they were one of the founder members of the Imperial Tobacco Company; though W.D. & H.O. Wills Ltd were by far the largest of the founding group, it is odd that in the records the Hignett was given twice, once as Hignett Bros & Co. Ltd of Liverpool, and then as Hignett`s Tobacco Company Ltd. of London, which actually closed in 1903. Any more information on that would be useful 

To close Ogden bought Hignett Bros & Co in 1930, and this explains why they issued the same sets under different names. 

Monday, 4th July 2022

Here we are “Drying Cocoa in Trinidad” 

This A printing has grey-white matt backs and there were several versions and reprintings, “each number being found with minor differences, particularly in layout of text on back (see “The Bulletin” pages 328 – 331)”. I do now have a second set of unbound Bulletins so I should be able to scan this in some time.

This set has no firm date of issue, in our earliest John Player Reference Book (RB.17) it states that “According to Messrs. Player`s records, issue took place in 1909. Contemporary catalogue indications of issue in 1904 do not agree with the above records but may be correct as regards one of the printings, possibly printing B” [white cards with semi-glossy backs]. The 1904 date was quoted in the London Cigarette Card Catalogues right up to 1950 and possibly for longer – maybe someone with a later edition can clarify this? We do know that one of the printings was definitely issued abroad in June 1905.

To further confuse things, it was also issued by W.D. & H.O. Wills in Australia, (W675-345 : W62-220 : W/54) in about 1913, variously branded for Capstan, Havelock, and Vice Regal, but it does not appear in the list of issue dates that we reproduced at the start of the Wills Combined volume, and these were taken from records that appeared in Wills own works magazine. 

And it was also issued unbranded and anonymously by British American Tobacco; see ZA03-200 : ZA3-4 : W/54D. These non Player sets do not seem to have been reprinted or altered as far as the text. Unless you know differently...?

There were also plain back cards doing the rounds in the 1950s which may have been printers proofs. Anyone with any info on these? 

Tuesday, 5th July 2022

I have to admit that the sundial here is not very visible, but I do know the Church, St. Mary`s in Perivale, one of the earliest in London, though little remains of its first build. The sundial is on the southern side of the tower, actually the West Tower, built, of wood in the 16th century, but the main church is of stone, and parts of it date from much earlier, the 13th century. At the time of this card the sundial carried the date of 1818, and in my girlhood too, but it has since been replaced and is now dated for 1990. Possibly the 1818 was a replacement too. 

Fry has several claims to fame - the invention of the solid chocolate bar in 1847, which was accomplished by putting the fat back into chocolate and experimenting with sugar in a range of shaped moulds – and the so called production of the first ever chocolate Easter Egg in 1873. There is a great site at Companies House with lots of documents.

Now we are sorry to burst your chocolate bubble, but this was not the first ever chocolate Easter Egg, for such were well known in Europe, especially Germany, and had been for almost seventy years. However what made Fry`s egg unusual was that it was made in England, and that it was moulded, like the chocolate bars, but better than that, it was made of very thin chocolate that coated the inside of the mould only and left the interior hollow.  This made it more fragile, but lighter, and better tasting as well

Our British Trade Index Part One tells us that Fry were established in 1728 and at the time of publication (1962) were based in Bristol and London. This information is not entirely correct because J. S. Fry is Joseph Storr Fry, the son of the original maker Joseph Fry, who only started making chocolate in 1759, but perhaps the 1728 date is chocolate for drinking. However Joseph Storr Fry was the one who industrialised the process of chocolate making, by using steam driven machines.  

The first cards listed in British Trade Index Part One were issued between 1908 and 1917 and this does not include our set, “Ancient Sundials” which was issued between 1924 and 1933 and so forms part of group two. It also tells us that the cards are slightly smaller than standard at 65 x 36 m/m

By the time of British Trade Index Part Two, in 1969, there had been a discovery, and it was now known that there were two printings of this set. The first was A, ours, having the series title, number and text on the back, but there was also now a B, plain back cards, numbered on the front, with no series title. 

British Trade Index Part Three is chiefly noted for including many of the advertising postcards and showcards issued by Fry, including their own, and those commercially issued as replicas of famous adverts by the firms of Causton, Matthews and Mansell. And more postcards appear in British Trade Index Part Four. However many of these were removed for our updated version, published in 2006.

Wednesday, 6th July 2022

These measure 123 x 68 m/m when first issued, but like ours were trimmed to the size of the actual card. They are numbered, but when they are cut to that size, or smaller sometimes, the numbers become a casualty, so it was decided to list the cards in our handbook at HC-11

Cadbury Bros was registered in 1899 and they have a particular connection with this set which may not be known to you all. The Guinness Book of Records/Scott tells all.  As it says, this was the first expedition of 1901-1904, not the one recorded by these cards. 

There is a strange fact though, because though Cadbury boasted of being the sole supplier of [eating] chocolate to both expeditions, according to this expedition postcard they were not, for Fry clearly states on there that they supplied both cocoa, and chocolate to the 1910-12 Polar expedition. In fact when Scott’s supply hut was uncovered from the ice they found Fry’s cocoa still in the tins, and some were brought back home to Bristol. 

Thursday, 7th July 2022

I will start with a correction, for this is not Cleopatra, it is Klio, or Clio in the English and she is part of a six card set, which fits in album number four, and is known as Group 173, “The Muses”.

Stollwerck seem to have plucked their set order from thin air, as this set was bookend-ed by Group 172 “Ornamental Shrubs” and by Group 174 “From the Aquarium”; and yet there are more muses, “Artistic Muses”, which would complement these very well, if they were not buried right down at Group 85. 

A muse is someone, sometimes real, but more usually imagined, who provides inspiration for an artist`s work, and these are six of the Nine Muses from Greek mythology, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. namely 1. Polyhymnia, 2. Melpomene, 3. Euterpe, 4. Klio  5. Terpsichore and 6. Thalia. The ones that are missing are Calliope, Erato and Urania.

There are various backs for this set, by the way, as many of the Stollwerck cards. 

A very brief look at Mr Franz Stollwerck finds him starting a business, in Cologne, as a baker in 1839, but for some reason he added chocolate and other sweets, especially cough drops, which were so good that local chemists tried to ban them, but failed. He started all kinds of endeavours, coffee houses, selling cocoa and coffee, one of which had the added attraction of performers and musicians as you drank. His sons also started a company, though this is sometimes unfairly thought to be simply another of his own endeavours; and they were sufficiently skilled to take over his business when he died in 1876, and his sons expanded the business enormously, taking their goods to America, though this was a really good move as a lot of Americans had emigrated from Germany, and would have been more familiar with the Stollwerck name than any American ones.  Another first was a machine into which you inserted coins and out of which came a chocolate. By the turn of the nineteenth century there were thousands of these “vending” machines, handing out cigarettes, gum etc, both in the street, and more valuably, in train stations. 

Like all companies, it was badly affected by the First World War, works were damaged and many staff were injured or killed. It was also affected by the aftermath, for they lost their American subsidiary as part of reparations in 1919. Then in the 1930s, the firm had no choice but to pass into the hands of Deutsche Bank and out of the family. The Second World War was just as devastating, for let us not forget they were based in Cologne, hit so hard by Allied bombing. 

Friday, 8th July 2022

Felix Potin issued these sets in three series, each of five hundred cards, though up to ten additional cards of each are known which have name changes or different pictures of that personality. I suppose, in that respect, they are the European equivalent of Ogden`s "Guinea Gold" or "Tabs", and anyone who was anyone was shown there, not just theatrical personages, but sports stars, royalty, etc.

The backs are blank because their entire purpose was to be stuck into the grand albums that were produced and to sit on a shelf like a photograph album. 

The first series started to be issued in 1898, followed quite quickly by the second series in 1908. Then there was a break for the First World War, and the third series began in 1922. There was also a fourth series, which seems to not be so popular with the collectors of the first three sets, but perhaps that is just because there was such a long gap, right until 1952, and the sort of people who appear are no longer the same. 

Monsieur Felix Potin was born in 1820, at Ile de France in Paris. He started off by buying other people`s products, and rebranding them under their name, which to our eyes seems somewhat odd - but he soon started to investigate how he could make his own products, for less, and he opened his first store in Paris in 1844, which was quite surprisingly called after himself, though he was only twenty-four years of age. The shop became a household name, and by 1860 he was in pride of place at a new store on the Boulevard de Sebastopol, one of the best addresses at the time. 

In 1891 he died, aged just fifty-one. However his wife took the business over and was also a great success. She was the driving force towards home delivery, with horse drawn cabs, and also what we today know as franchising, where former employees were given the chance to operate a small branch of the store where they had moved to. 

It remained in the family , through their children, and their children`s children, until it was sold in 1958.

This card shows "Mistress Lilly Langtry", actress, and muse to Edward VII. She was born Emilie Charlotte Le Breton in Jersey, which gave rise to one of her nicknames "The Jersey Lily". She left the island in 1876 and moved to London; she was newly married to Edward Langtry, six years her senior, and a widower, who was comfortably well off, and whose yacht she had much admired from the moment it sailed into view. One of the conditions she had stressed on agreeing to marry him was that he took her away from Jersey.

She met Edward VII when he was still the Prince of Wales, at a dinner party. He was already married, with six children, but there was immediate attraction and she soon became his mistress. However it did not last very long, less than three years, though they remained thereafter. She had a daughter a short time after they broke up, and despite much speculation the father was never revealed, though investigations seem to prove that child was not of royal blood 

She started to act on the stage in 1881, reputedly being advised to do so by Oscar Wilde, and shorty after that she appeared in advertising for Pears Soap, a simple job which led to her being the first ever celebrity influencer. She enjoyed acting, and would go on to run her own production company.

She was also fond of horses, and even kept a stable in Newmarket. This was partially brought about by her relationships with two racehorse owning men, the American racehorse owner Frederick Gebhard, who gave her some of the horses, and the Scottish George Alexander Baird who was a keen connoisseue of horseflesh and an amateur jockey, who strangely rode under an assumed name of Mr. Abington, and was frequently in the papers for ungentlemanly racing etiquette. He gave her a horse called Milford, who won several races though you will not find her name listed as the owner; instead you will see "Mr. Jersey", and that is because women were not allowed to register as owners.