Greetings to all our readers. It seems amazing to me that we are now a Kingdom, for I have only ever known a Queen. And it looks like we will be a Kingdom for some time, possibly after I have gone. The last time this happened was in 1902, when Queen Victoria died. None of us can remember that, so we must forge our own path into the future. I have to say I admire King Charles III for his ecological awareness, and I am really glad he got a chance to be King. Everyone should at least get a go at things, rather than wait so long that they are too old to enjoy it.
Anyway we have some unusual cards to show you this time, films, glamour, and handcuffs, plus the first ever appearance of an index listing with a link to another card in the newsletter gallery. I think it works great and hopefully, in the very near future, the entire index, at least for the last six months, will be available for you all to use....
So what are we doing this week
Lambert & Butler [tobacco : UK] "Keep Fit" (November 1937) 28/50 - LO73-460 : L8-58 : L.9-63 [RB.9-63] : RB.21-209-63B.
Today is National Gymnastics Day, or #NGD2022. If we are honest, some of us believe that gymnastics is something we cannot do, but it is definitely the case that a movement repeated slowly gets easier to accomplish. Our picture, and its encouraging text, is a great illustration of this in motion, starting with just the kneel and slowly increasing the lean.
There are other cards showing movements and personalities of the sport. And I am quite excited that the website for the day asks for input, adding that "your post may be shared on our official channels". Is this not a great leap forward into showing gymnasts that our cards exist? So go ahead and tweet or insta them, freely throughout the day. And it would be lovely if any of us could show off what is probably the earliest set devoted to the sport. That is Duke`s "Gymnastic Exercises", a set of twenty-five colour cards issued in 1890. The backs can be found in blue and brown. However any cards you can upload might provide inspiration, and perhaps make a new collector!
In our original reference book to the issues of Lambert & Butler, RB.9, published in 1948, this set is described as :
63. 50 KEEP FIT. Fronts printed by letterpress. 4-colour half-tone process. Backs in black, with descriptions. November, 1937
It does not mention that the cards were also issued anonymously by British American Tobacco, in the Channel Islands, in 1939, but they were, and you can compare them, because we used those as the Card of the Day for January 1st, 2024. We know where they were issued thanks to our RB.21 reference book, the British American Tobacco booklet, published in 1952, which also gives us a second, albeit short, description, of :
KEEP FIT
A. Anonymous issue, with letterpress on back
B. Lambert & Butler home issue.
Now the interesting thing about this section is the heading, which is "209. LAMBERT & BUTLER. Additions and Corrections". This means that when the Lambert & Butler reference book was printed the sets mentioned in RB.21 were not yet known - and these sets are "British Trees and Their Uses", "Hints & Tips for Motorists", "Keep Fit", "Who`s Who in Sport" and "The World of Sport". If we compare these listings with RB.9 we find out that quite a lot of information has come to light, especially with "British Trees", which has been suddenly linked to sets by Ogdens, Edwards Ringer and Bigg, and an anonymous version, whilst "Hints", our set, and "Who`s Who" also add an anonymous version each - and the final set is revealed to have also been issued in Jamaica by Machado.
However in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes this has all been added, and the listing for our set reads : "KEEP FIT. Sm. Nd. (50). See RB.212098.63.B"
Amalgamated Tobacco Co. Mills Brand [tobacco : UK] "Aircraft of the World" (1958) 9/25 - A495-160
Today is United States Air Force Day, marking the creation of the USAF in 1947. You might well be wondering at the lateness of the date, but it involves a bit of technicality. The first Air Force was created in August 1907, but not as a separate unit, as part of the Army Signal Corps. In fact for the duration of the First World War it still referred to as the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps. And during the Second World War it changed from the U.S. Army Air Corps to the U.S. Army Air Force, or Forces. It was only in 1947, on this day, under the National Security Act, that it became a separate branch of the American Forces and not just a part of the Army.
Our card does not appear in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, for that was published in 1956, two years before this card slid from its packet. So our code comes from the most modern version.
This is rather an unusual aeroplane as it is part of the B52 family, first used in 1955, but it has an important difference, for, as the text states, ours is a reconnaissance bomber, a conversion of the standard aeroplane which carried a specially designed recon capsule and its crew. who had special ejector seats, designed to fire them out towards the ground, rather than into the sky. Most intriguingly, despite the range of cameras, early electronic devices, and radar equipment that was fitted, there seems to be very little information about what the missions did, or what they discovered.
The first few RB-B52s, under thirty of them, were actually designed so that the capsule could be removed, in an emergency, and the payload shifted to bombs. However after that it was decided to make the capsule a permanent fixture.
The RB-52B was only in production for about ten years. And few survive. It also seems that this is the only Recon version to be celebrated with a card - all the others, as seen in the Trading Card Database/B52 are not.
W.D. & H.O. Wills [tobacco : UK] "Historic Events" Specialities Brand (April 1913) 50/50 - W675-119 : W62/86 : W/74A : H464
We have chosen to mark the sadness of today with the funeral of King Edward VII. I find this a very poignant card, with Caesar, the King`s dog, being led behind his favourite horse. If you look closely you will even see that the King`s empty riding boots are backwards in his stirrups.
Caesar of Notts was a wire haired fox terrier, and he was amazingly popular, appearing on postcards, crested china, and many illustrations and photographs. He was even sculpted by Carl Faberge. In fact, as that website reminded me, he is even curled at the feet of the King on his tomb. However Caesar outlived the King, lasting until 1914.
There are other Royal Funerals on cards. Churchman's "The Story of London" (1934) 12/50 shows Queen Eleanor's Funeral Procession, in 1290.
Today, in Rome, in 1934, Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone was born - but we know her better as Sophia Loren.
She grew up very poor, and her father was absent, for he was already married to another woman. Her mother was only 17 years old.
Her father also gave Sofia a sister, four years later.
When Sofia was aged fifteen she decided to enter a beauty contest. She may have been evasive about her age, but she was certainly already stunningly beautiful. I have not been able to find out if she won, but she did catch the eye of one of the judges, Carlo Ponti, a film producer over twenty years her senior, and he became her mentor, employer and later her husband and father of her two sons; they were married in 1957, though they were technically married twice, as she had the original marriage annulled four years later to help him beat charges of bigamy. Then they remarried in 1966. They remained married until he died.
Her first film was in 1950, in an Italian film starring Toto, one of the most popular comedy stars; she was an extra, but everyone must start somewhere, and she slowly rose up, appearing more prominently, being given speaking parts of ever increasing importance.
In 1957, she went to America, and made many films. She was one of the major beauties of the 1960s and 70s, and is still as beautiful. She also made records, wrote books, including cookery, and is still acting - and winning awards.
Our card is one of the many film star cards that was issued by "Dutch Gum". If anyone knows more about it, do let us know. They form a valuable record of the many stars that arrived during and after the Second World War, at a time when our cigarettes were cardless and our sweets still rationed. In many cases they are both the rookie and the only contemporary cards of that star. And in some cases they are their only cartophilic appearance.
Today is Escapology Day.
Now if you asked most people to name a piece of equipment used by an escapologist most would think first of handcuffs. And they do add an extra layer of excitement to the already hard tasks of getting out of a sealed sack, or a barrel of water.
Houdini first used handcuffs in 1898, and would become known as "The Handcuff King". His personal favourites were made by Hiatt, who supplied police forces and prisons. However he was open to using any handcuffs that were supplied by the theatre or a member of the general public. There was a bit of a hidden secret, as he built up a stock of spare keys of all different types. Then when the handcuffs and key were handed over, his assistant would palm the original key to Houdini and show the audience a key that looked like it. This worked really well because it exploited the nature of handcuffs, for they lock as the slide eases itself through into the closed position, they do not need to be locked with a key. They only need the key to be unlocked.
This card was issued in 2010 by Topps in conjunction with the World Wrestling Federation. I`m not sure what wrestling has to do with handcuffs but will find out.
T. Wall & Sons [trade : ice cream : UK] "Skateboard Surfer" (1978) 1/20 - WAN-9
Today, on World Car Free Day, we celebrate other ways of getting to business or pleasure. If you travel a vast distance, or your frames are not too steady, then this is harder, but if you are able, why not have fun with alternative transport?
The most obvious is the bicycle, but for a bit of fun why not relive your youth and hop on a skateboard?
This set was issued with ice cream and I love the way that the Walls logo is proudly embroidered on this skateboarder`s jumper - subliminal advertising at its best. And also notice that the deck here is wooden, adding to the sustainability of Car Free Day.
By the way this set is almost always sold in dealers catalogues as a set, rather than odd cards, so it may be tricky to make a set from a few odds unless you have many swapping contacts.
Brooke Bond [trade : tea : UK] "Trees in Britain" (1966 blue back / 1973 black back) 6/50 - BRO-330 : BRM-16
Well I am delighted to let you know that Seed Gathering Season starts today. This is run by the Tree Council, and anyone can join in. All you do is look for a tree near you, pick up the seeds, google to see how to grow them and start them off in that way. Most tree seeds just fall onto the ground beneath the tree and start to sprout unseen beneath the soil, which is usually soft and rich because the leaves have fallen there for many years, and decomposed.
Once your tree has become a sapling you can grow it in your garden and in years to come it will also produce seeds for other generations to collect and grow on.
This card is the original blue backed version, as inserted in the tea. They were reprinted by Brooke Bond with black backs, for collectors, in 1973.
This week's Cards of the Day...
have been celebrating Roald Dahl Day, on September 13th, which is an annual event that both marks his birthday and brings pleasure to his many readers, of all ages, whether they are just starting to discover his wonderful world or are long time visitors.
So how did we get to this theme....
Saturday, 10th September 2022
An unusual set to start us off with, issued by the Sunday Empire News, which started off in 1884 as "The Umpire", was only published on a Sunday, and dealt for the most part in sports. In 1917, bought by Hulton Press, it was subtly changed to be called "The Empire", and then "The Empire News". Under that name it was responsible for a long running series of small football statistics yearbooks called the Sunday Empire News Annual, the earliest of which I have found is 1937-38. The paper went through several owners and the Annuals became the News of the World and Empire News Football Annual for the season 1961-1962.
However I have not tracked down that they issued any other sets or cards, unless you know different? Also I have to wonder why this set only appears in our most recent British Trade Index, not the original four volumes, but it was being issued in 1953 right when they were being published . So is it a recent discovery?
As for my other question, who was Mickey Darling, well that has been solved. It is actually Mickey Durling, who not only drew many footballing cartoons and indeed had a regular slot called "Our Pin Up" in the Sunday Empire News, but whose work was also featured in The Charles Buchan Monthly.
The Roald Dahl connection was the team, Cardiff City, which he supported in a casual way as a schoolboy in the 1920s - for he was born in Cardiff, and they would have been his local team.
Sunday, 11th September 2022
This set has an adhesive back, and was designed to be stuck in a special album. There is one very strange fact about this set, and that is that it was not actually issued in Great Britain first; the Channel Islands and Malta had it a month earlier, in July 1938. .
The Roald Dahl connection here is the aeroplane, a Gloster Gladiator, one of which he flew during the Second World War, and crashed in the desert in 1940 during a recce of some Italian aeroplanes. In fact he was hit not by an aeroplane but by a chance strike from an anti-aircraft gun. The aeroplane hit hard and he was badly injured, burns and facial damage, which was not helped by the fact that it took some time to find and rescue him.
Another connection is that he wrote about the crash in the Saturday Evening Post a couple of years after. It was one of his first published works.
Monday, 12th September 2022
The connection with Roald Dahl here is that though he was born in Llandaff, Cardiff, on the 13th of September 1916, his parents were originally Norwegian, and they spoke it at home. He was also christened, Roald Dahl, at the Norwegian Church in Cardiff, built, on the dockside, in 1868, by the Norwegian Mission to Seamen. And he was named after another Norwegian, Roald Amundsen, the leader of the first expedition to successfully reach the South Pole.
In 1918 the family moved away, to what is sometimes described as a large farm in the mountains, and at other times a large imposing house with a farm attached. The farm was 150 acres. I am not sure whether the Dahls farmed it, or whether they had staff and workers. There were also four Dahl children. They also had two half siblings, from the fathers first marriage. Then in 1920 one of his sisters died, and a month later his father also died, reportedly from grief. That left his wife, who was pregnant, to look after all the children, and the farm, and the big house. She decided that was not to be, and they moved back to Llandaff.
This is a very complex set. However it is a good one for a bit of a treasure hunt. The cards measure 64 x 39 m/m. but all other details can be found in the original London Cigarette Card Company Handbook of 1950 and in our own Handbook to the World Tobacco Issues Indexes, which starts with -
This seems a good time to add the list of those cards.
by the time of our latest World Tobacco Issues Index Handbook, there had been a slight alteration to this, as another un-numbered anonymous card had turned up. This was Burma, but captioned "Burmah" (sic). That means that Burma is spelt wrong twice, as it already appears with a typo on the Hill version in the above list. The rest of the entry continues with :
Research has brought up a few curious things. First off is that "Buchanan (Jam)". Whomsoever reported those cards is not known, but this set is not listed against them in either our vintage Trade Indexes, nor our modern one, though Buchanan`s Jam is recorded as issuing another set "Birds & Their Eggs" in 1923. So what happened to these flag cards, which means more than one, which were reported? If anyone can get us out of a "jam", or, dare I say, even a "sticky situation", by supplying proof that their flag cards do exist, please let us know.
Secondly we have found out a bit more about J Livingstone, they were a Consulting Herbalist, in Bristol. and the cards carry the code LIV-1 in the first volume of our original set of British Trade Indexes. By the time that was printed in 1962 it states that ten cards were known, so two had turned up, though I am not sure which they are yet.
Thirdly, the Anonymous cards in "a Foreign Language", is terminology which obviously means an unknown language to the compilers. What is it?
\now by the time of our current World Tobacco Issues Index, a lot more issuers have made themselves known, which are:
Tuesday, 13th September 2022
of course this references one of Roald Dahl`s great characters, Matilda. I wonder if he based her on our Queen here for she was brave and never gave up - but she was also proud, unpopular, and wanted everything to be done as she liked. She even imprisoned her own brother in Bristol Castle.
She actually had two great escapes, once from Devizes, by making out she was a corpse on the way to a funeral in Gloucester - and, as shown on this card, from Oxford, by being lowered down the walls by rope in a blizzard of thick snow and walking to Wallingford. However both these events took planning and also assistance from very faithful friends, so it cannot be true that nobody liked her.
This set is one of the original Carreras “Turf” cards, not to be confused with the blue and white packet issue which came much later. However though they say Carreras, they were actually issued through their subsidiary Alexander Boguslavsky.
The fronts are glazed, which seems to have affected the backs in some way for the backs are almost always tinged with yellow.
The set was issued in three sizes, standard and large, each being sets of twenty-five cards, plus a set of ten selected cards in a size called cabinet, measuring 133 m/m x 70 m/m, and intended to be saved as a work of art.
In the 1950 London Cigarette Card Company catalogue the small and large sizes are priced up at 6d. a card or 15/- a set. However the cabinet size is 1/9d. a card or 25/- a set. I am not sure what the ten selected cards were, as I have never actually seen a cabinet size card of this set, so does anyone out there know more? Do tell us!
If anyone has any of these largest ones maybe we could make a list to show which ten were selected. The names will be sufficient, and many thanks.
Wednesday, 14th September 2022
This card is for one of my favourite of Roald Dahl`s books, Esio Trot, which is tortoise backwards, and the one in the story does one of the most magical things and brings two lonely people together, a rather curmudgeonly gentleman, and the widowed neighbour he has been developing feelings for without being brave enough to say or do anything about making the first connection.
The book was the last of Roald Dahl`s novels; it was published just two months before he died.
Now if you are thinking this back looks familiar you are right, we featured the set before, in its Godfrey Phillips livery. And as a little taster, here is the entry for that from our currently in progress "Gallery Index"
Godfrey Phillips Ltd [tobacco : UK] "Home Pets" (1924) 22/25 -
P521-330 : P50-62 : RB.113/90 : Ha.540
14th August 2022 : https://csgb.co.uk/publications/newsletter/2022-08-13
Thursday, 15th September 2022
Artbox, or more correctly Artbox Entertainment, is a Californian producer of trading cards and other collectibles, most of which are non-sport and film related. They did many sets of Harry Potter cards.
This card comes from a very confusing set with lots of promos and specials. I won`t try to describe them, I will just send you off to nslists.com/charchoc with many thanks to them for doing all this typing!
Charlie and The Chocolate Factory starred Johnny Depp and was directed by Tim Burton. They had worked together before, eight times. Most of those films I dont actually like, I am sorry to say, for they are a bit dark and I am but a gentle soul. However I do like The Corpse Bride very much and I am amazed to find that it was filmed in the same year as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had actually already been filmed for the big screen, in 1971. The title then was "Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory" and Willy Wonka was played by Gene Wilder, though Roald Dahl had really wanted Spike Milligan.
Both films are the same basic story, a poor child opens a bar of chocolate and instead of finding a trade card finds a golden ticket that allows him access to the greatest chocolate factory in the world. Only five tickets were inserted, and the stories of the other children are also told along the way.
Friday, 16th September 2022
An unusual sticker, showing one of the Gremlins from the motion picture that was very popular in the 1980s. This set of eleven peelable stickers were released by Topps in 1984, and they accompanied a set of cards, which we featured as the card of the day on March 9th 2023 - https://csgb.co.uk/cardoftheday/2023-03-09.
If you look around the edge of the little character you will see that there is a place where you can insert a nail and slide the picture off. Then the idea was that you stuck it on anywhere you liked as decoration. The reverse is a rather weird subject, and there are some positions where it looks decidedly odd, to say the least (!) but it is actually the ear of this little guy called Gizmo.
I was not a great fan of the films, but I did have a car called Gizmo, it was a Citroen 2CV with a soft top and decidedly dodgy brakes. And very dented wings as getting it through the driveway gates was a bit hit and miss.
Now in case you were wondering, no, Roald Dahl had nothing to do with this film. But he did write a story in 1943 (as Flight Lieutenant Roald Dahl), called Gremlins, dealing with the little guys who were always blamed by the RAF for anything that went wrong with any mechanical devices, including the planes. In fact, Walt Disney planned to make it into a movie. But in the end this never happened, there were problems with the contracts, with the fact that many of the ideas were things that Roald Dahl had heard other people, and other servicemen, talk about, and mostly that any use of RAF terminology and ideas in wartime was a bit hush hush. It did become a book, and appeared in comic strip form in Walt Disney`s "Comics and Stories" magazine. This was reprinted in the late 1980s, perhaps as a nod to the Gremlins films that our sticker is from. And the book was also reprinted for the USAF to mark their sixtieth birthday.
And there we must close.
I hope that you enjoyed this newsletter, and that it made you think. Best of all that it made you take action towards something that you have your heart set to doing. And if your first arrow fell short, fire another. None of us know how long we have remaining to us, and we all ought to spend it doing things that make our hearts soar.
Oh, I just remembered that I didn`t get around to scanning the Cope details from the handbooks. I will do that early in the morning and add them tomorrow. I was going to type them in but its rather a lot of words, so its quicker and better to scan.