Newsletter - 2022-09-10

Saturday, 3rd September 2022

Here we have A. Hitch of Watford, formerly with Queens Park Rangers, in a very curious and colourful strip, which was only worn between 1901 and 1909, though the same colours and stripes were worn vertically from 1898 until 1901. You can see all their kit changes online. There have been a lot! 

At the time our card was issued Watford played at Cassio Road. They moved to their current ground at Vicarage Road in 1922. Now the reason for the card was that I noticed that the Vicarage Road ground was included in the Open House, but I cant find it now and it isn`t on the official map. Things were much easier when they issued a book, I find the website a bit hard to navigate. Anyway if you got Open House Weekend from this well done, and do let us know the link if you found it!

By the way the H.94 code goes to a page of the Handbook which tells us the names of all the cards in the set because they are un-numbered. I will get that uploaded some time.

The reference to "Series No.5" is also rather odd, but it is just that between 1904 and 1909 Cohen Weenen started to add this "Series No." to their sets. Series 1 was "Naval and Military Phrases" (1904), Series 2 "Owners, Jockeys, Footballers, Cricketers" (1906), Series 3 another set titled as series 2 (1907), Series 4 "Star Artistes" (1907), Series 5 "Football Captains 1907-8", and Series 6 "Wonders of the World" (1908).

Sunday, 4th September 2022

Here we have a very special card, because, a hundred years on, we celebrate W.D. & H.O. Wills "Do You Know" A Series - for this was issued in September 1922, and that made it the first new card set, by a major maker, to be issued after the First World War. (The last new set issued by Wills, in case you were wondering, having been "Gems of French Architecture"in November 1917).

Our curious grammar, adding "new" takes into account the fact that some claim this honour should go to John Player, whose "Artillery in Action" was issued in May 1920 - but that was a reissue of the same set they had already issued in 1917. 

The other odd grammatical addition, "by a major maker", tells an even more fascinating tale, as in fact neither of these makers issued the first new post World War 1 set. That honour goes to Burstein, Isaacs & Co Ltd, tobacco manufacturers based at 27a Commercial Road in Whitechapel, East London, right next door to the Fire Brigade Station, and they issued "London View Series" several months earlier in January 1922. However their name does not appear on the cards, it merely quotes "Empress Cigarettes" and "THE BI-CO Company LONDON, ENGLAND". The set comprised 28 black and white real photographic cards with black borders and descriptive backs. You can see a type card front, and a back by clicking down on the gallery below the front, at Flickr/Burstein Isaacs.  Burstein Isaacs also issued a set of "Famous Prize Fighters" in 1923, this again was with "Empress Cigarettes" but once again their own name was reduced to B. I. & Co., Ltd., LONDON, ENGLAND

The clue was Lloyds of London, a building which was featured in the first ever Open House Weekend, thirty years ago. However it was not the Lloyds that they were talking about on this card. In fact originally, in the 17th Century, there was no Lloyds Building, they met in a coffee house. From there they moved to The Royal Exchange. The first actual Lloyd's building was only built after this card was issued in 1928. They moved from there in 1958, but only across the road.

And then there had been a radical new build, completed in 1986, very modern indeed, with the plumbing and lifts amongst the things which were visible on the outside not cloaked within. This led to its rather ungracious epithet of The Inside Out Building, but it also made sure it was noticed, and in a Capital City where space is at a premium it did result in extra interior measurements. It did lead to extra maintenance costs though.

The oddest thing about this set, or sets, is that despite them being so plentiful in odds boxes, it took until part four of our Wills reference book, (RB.16, 1950) for them to make an appearance.

Monday, 5th September 2022

Rather topical with today`s new Prime Minister, but here is your final clue to this week`s theme. And this is here because it is one of the most popular buildings in the Open House Weekend - it is so popular that people wishing to visit have to enter their name in a kind of lottery, and there are just a few names drawn every year.  That closes in mid August, so you have missed your chance this year. But do remember for 2023! 

This card is a bronze plaque, and in this format has no issuer`s name. Indeed in our original World Tobacco Issues Index of 1956 the set is listed at the back of the book under the anonymous issues as ZT1-1. This is because nothing appears on this "card", it is only when you get lucky and find the cellophane envelope that they were originally issued inside that you find out the truth, that being that they were issued by International Tobacco Company Ltd of London. This vital envelope also tells the title, the number of the card, and has text on it about the building. For our updated World Tobacco Issues Index the identity is restored, and it is listed as I635-200, under International Tobacco, so this must mean that the envelopes were discovered after 1956. It was also discovered that there are two different styles of envelopes, one, the home issue, says "International Tobacco Ltd", whilst the other, the export issue, says "International Tobacco (Overseas) Ltd" 

Ha.580 lists all the cards, which are in four groups, so it will be scanned in rather than typed. The first thing you will see is that the cards followed on, so if you wanted the set you had to have large and small card. However what is not shown here, and comes from the London Cigarette Card Company Catalogue of 1950, is that Series B was more sought after - odd cards of series A were 3d each whilst the odds of series B were 6d each. When it came to sets, the cheapest were the large cards of series A, at 8/6d a set, followed by the small cards of series A at 10/- a set, then the large cards of series B were 15/- a set, and most expensively, the small cards of series B at 22/6d.

A curious thing has come to light, as it turns out these cards also appear in our original British Trade Index under the Walsall Lithographic Company, who made them, and who offered them to the trade. I do not know if any trade issuers took them, but this would be the reason for the "cards" being blank and the information being on the much easier to reproduce cellophane envelopes. The company also made other "cards" but none are titled, so presumably they too were only identified by their envelopes, one was a set of 20 Famous Buildings and Monuments of the British Empire and the other was a set of circular plaques thought to be Portraits of Musicians, of which only three are known, Beethoven, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky. They measure 89 m/m in diameter, and I feel that there must be more out there, so if you know of any circular plaques which fit this description do let us know - also let us know if you have any of these three, and would be willing to scan them so we can show a comparison picture to aid their discovery! 

Tuesday, 6th September 2022

Here we celebrate the fact that most properties included in Open House Weekend are in the London Borough of Westminster.

There are two main reasons for this, and oddly, they are directly opposed to each other.

Firstly, the very centre of London it is the oldest continually inhabited part of London, so it stands to reason that some of the buildings are of very ancient age indeed, as far back as Roman buildings, or parts thereof, including the Fort of Londinium which covered twelve acres. However the oldest building in London which is substantially intact is The White Tower, part of The Tower of London, and it was built by William the Conqueror. 

Secondly, London has become a showcase for new architecture so most of the important new buildings however we feel about them personally, have been built there. However these are often built over the top of older buildings, destroying them forever, or shadowing them so much that they become no longer visible.

This card is just one of the variations of this fascinating set, which are dealt with more fully in our blog "B for Borough Arms". That tells the differences in all the sets, and one day will include a sample back and front of every one.

This particular card we feature today is with many thanks to keen Wills collector Andrew Walters, who supplied it. It comes from Group 9 - being the same pictures, and style, as Group 4 - and that being numbered 51-100 on the backs, fronts printed in full colour, no frame lines, with "Wills`s Cigarettes" across fronts of cards. Backs with descriptive text, printed in grey.  The only real difference here is that the cards say "Second Edition" instead of "Second Series"

Wednesday, 7th September 2022

This wistful image is from one of my favourite sets, especially these exterior shots. The Inns of Court are based in London, and they are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. Four Inns exist, Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, The Inner Temple and The Middle Temple. And wherever they practise the law in this land every barristers has to belong to one of these bodies.

There is a bit of a discrepancy here over the date of issue of this set. Our original Churchman reference book lists this as February 1932. But the London Cigarette Card Company Catalogue for 1950 quotes them as being issued in February 1922. I don`t think that can be right because the first major cigarette manufacturer to issue new cards was W.D. and H.O. Wills, with "Do You Know" later in that year. But I am happy to be corrected, By the way the London Cigarette Card Company Catalogue lists the cards at 9d. each for odds and 25/- for sets. And other sources give the date as 1924. This may be closer to the truth, as personally I think 1932 is a bit late, especially as there is another reason I like this card, for it uses a very interesting choice of words to describe the First World War, dare I say much more fitting ones, those being "the great catastrophe". There is a story there, I think, and almost certainly a sad one.

Would it still be as poignant, and lasting, and have rankled there, boiling away all the way to 1932?

I suppose if the love was a strong one, and the loss especially grievous, it may well have been.....

It was printed by Mardon, Son and Hall. 

Do be aware that this set was reprinted by the Card Collectors Society in 2002

Thursday, 8th September 2022

Here we have St Paul`s Cathedral. 

Now I must have been looking at something else whilst I set your teaser as I said "This card was also issued by four other manufacturers - and that is your guessing game for this week". Unfortunately I was looking at "Interesting Buildings". But I will stand up and say I was wrong. I would have liked to find that out earlier, as it is now half past ten - but now it is morning and I can see inside my books. 

I do know that this set was also issued by W.A. & A.C. Churchman in November 1924, in a different colourway, sometimes it looks black and white, and at others a dark sepia. The reference books call it "unicoloured". It was a small size of 25 cards, and also an extra large set of 12 selected cards, measuring 98 x 66 m/m.  The Churchman set is recorded as having been printed by Mardon, Son and Hall. Presumably they either also printed the Hignett version, or bought the artwork - though as the Churchman was only issued in the unicolour, perhaps they just copied from the cards and found the monotone easier to reproduce. In addition the reverses are noted to be "different numbers, but same text, revised". Is this the start of a bigger story? I will do some research on that - and please let me know if you already have... 

Friday, 9th September 2022

Here we have another view of St Pauls, which I mistakenly thought would be either the scene of the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II or the Coronation of King Charles III. However both of those will be Westminster Abbey. Should I change the card? Time will tell. And it also depends on whether Westminster Abbey is included in this set....? Will have to look at that tomorrow. 

St Pauls is one of the few buildings that remain a fixture of the London skyline on every image, even today when more modern, and some may say more intrusive, buildings threaten to overshadow it and edge it from the scene. I hope that the buildings will never grow too tall that it will simply disappear from sight.

To be honest St Pauls is an open house anyway, allowing visitors at most times. It has regular events that all are welcome to attend and a daily service every day, which features the Cathedral choir and often visiting soloists. 

However at the moment it is staying closed, to mark the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. And it will not reopen until the official mourning is over, on the 10th of September.