Newsletter - 2022-10-22

Anonymous [tobacco : UK] "Famous Stars" (1934) 19/35 - ZB06-300 : ZB5-4 : Ha.572 : H.604

Today in 1904, or 1905, or 1906, saw the birth of Constance Bennett. It depends on which cigarette or trade card you look at for they do vary. See how many you can find in your collection. 

She was one of the three daughters of an earlier star, Richard Bennett, the others being Barbara and Joan. He started out on the stage in 1891, where he had quite a following from the female audience. He also did vaudeville, boxed, and then went into movies. He was still acting in the 1940s and appeared in Orson Welles` "The Magnificent Ambersons". Constance was his first daughter to enter the movie world, in 1916, when she, and her two sisters, played "unborn soul"s. Her father wrote the film from a story by the co-writer, and he also starred in it. She went on to star on stage, film, and radio, finally moving over to  television too. In the 1930s she was the highest paid female star in Hollywood. She was married five times, including to the Marquis de la Falaise as mentioned on this card. What it does not say is that he had previously been married to Gloria Swanson. 

Our card is anonymous but we believe that it was issued by the Reliance Tobacco Manufacturing Company Ltd.  who were based at 24 Rood Lane, London E.C.3. I have yet to come across the argument for and against this, but it must be in the archives somewhere! Reliance also issued another set, "British Birds", and by clicking the above link you can see that the top part is very similar, however the bottom of the birds has the name of the issuer rather than these decorative swirls. We imagine that this played some part in tying the two sets together. 

By the way, if the card looks familiar to our film star aficionados, you are right, it was also issued by R & J Hill in 1936 as "Cinema Celebrities". And before both that and ours, in 1933, it was issued by Godfrey Phillips as "Stage and Film Beauties"

R & J Heinz [trade : UK] Advertising Card (1880-1904) Un/? - HEI-040.2 : HCO-2 

This is a really great card, so many thanks to Mr. Pine who has given us the scan. It celebrates National Canning Day, which is today. And there is a young female chef, in her white hat, with a very large and most attractive can of beans. Now if you take a close look at the can it actually says Heinz Baked Beans ??? Pork ???. So it looks like this is where "bangers and beans" came from! 

Now you may think that these dates are a bit off, because there are records that shaped die cut cards were first handed out as early as 1843. This early date was in America though. There are still quite a few about, and they appear in many different collections, for some people class them as advertising cards or ephemera, and others firmly believe they were intended to be used as bookmarks, which I guess a lot of them probably were.

Now by an amazing stroke of luck, some of these cards, including ours, was printed for the U.K. market, and they first appear in our original vintage British Trade Index part four, where one is illustrated. The text says that they were issued about the 1890s and are a "Cucumber card (A) shaped, about 125 x 50. Front per fig. HCO-2. Back with listing of products, address at base 99 and 101 Farringdon Road, London, E.C. Also issued in USA and elsewhere without London address."

By the time of our latest British Trade Index, of the year 2000, more had been discovered, one has a girl at the top with a tin of tomato soup, another is a girl chef with a tray (as ours) and the last one has a girl with a jar of pickles. 

Now this last card is really the key, because I have to say I do not believe this is a cucumber, at least not an adult cucumber, for they are much longer and proportionally quite different. To me it seems most likely that this is a gherkin. And I know, a gherkin is technically, and simply, an immature cucumber, but thinking about Heinz, and about its pickling branch, I just look at this and think it must have been designed to be a gherkin.

And, by the way, Christmas is coming, so if you get a day where the television is really awful, you will be able to hold this card against your jar of gherkins and see if you agree.....

Peninsular Tobacco Co. Ltd [tobacco : OS ; India] "Hindoo Gods", untitled (1909) Un/25 - P321-400 : P22-9 : RB21/502B

Today some of us may be celebrating Diwali, and we offer our tribute too. Now Diwali is a longer celebration than just one day, but each of the days have a different purpose; today is known as Lakshmi`s day, and here she is. 

Peninsular Tobacco was an associate of British American Tobacco. They were based in Bengal, India, on the Ganges River in what is present day Bihar, but recent research suggests that the name in the centre of the cartouche on the reverse is wrong, it has always been recorded as MonChyr, when it should have been MonGhyr

The British American Tobacco Reference Book (RB21) simply tells us that these cards can be found issued anonymously, with a plain back.

Our card is the main version, and it is one of those interesting ones which shows a cigarette packet and contents on the back, and on this one is what looks like a shooting expedition for some poor unsuspecting wildlife.

The name Hawa Gharri almost probably refers to the car, because in Indian the word `Gharri` (or Gharry) originally referred to a horse-drawn carriage / taxi which was available to rent for trips. However it also appears in other languages, especially South African, where it was a small truck used as a troop carrier.

There are many translations of `Hawa`, but the one which leaps off the page to me is `intelligence` or `information` - and in 1905 there was considerable unrest in Bengal over its being split into sections. This continued for some time, right through 1909.

I will have to do a bit more research on this! 

Carreras Ltd [tobacco : UK] "Types of London" (1919) 23/80 - C151-030 : C18-3 

Today is International Artists Day, and also the birthday of Pablo Picasso in 1881. However I cannot find any mention that the two are allied. In fact the day is slightly intriguing, as it does not intend you to go and look at paintings in galleries or buy expensive masterworks. Instead it celebrates unknown and local artists, and urges you to seek them out and find out more about what they create and why. 

There are lots of cards showing art, and artists, but we have gone for this, because most of you will have heard of the set without realising they are drawings. Not only that, but they are drawings by Julius M. Price, War Artist and Correspondent, born in 1857. The "M" stood for Mendes, and he served on the French and Italian Fronts during the First World War, however he did his first service as a War Correspondent in Bechuanaland in 1884.

After that had ended he made several important expeditions to Siberia, China, the Arctic, the Klondike just as the Gold Rush began, and the interior of Australia, all under the patronage of the Royal Geographical Society, of whom he was a Fellow - that is why you will often see F.R.G.S after his name.

After that he went again to war, to Greece and to Russia as artist and correspondent for the Daily Telegraph and Illustrated London News. In between the wars, he painted in earnest, and his cartoons appeared in many publications including Vanity Fair. 

He died not long after these cards were published, in 1924. 

Anonymous [tobacco : OS] "Stage and Film Stars" (1926) 43/50 - ZA08-73 : ZA8-30 : X21/200-172B : RB21/200-172A

If you were young in the 1920s, you would have certainly known our juvenile lead from the movies. And if you were young in the 1960s, you would have known him as Uncle Fester. But you would not have known his proper name, which was not Jackie, but John Leslie Coogan. And he was born today in 1914 .

Jackie Coogan made many films, over a hundred and fifty in all. He played Oliver Twist, Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, and Robinson Crusoe. He started as small child parts, but his most famous film role is his third, where he is the small urchin that Charlie Chaplin picks up in "The Kid" in 1921; a very sad film, even if you did not know that it was made out of even more grief and lamented love, for Charlie Chaplin`s son had been born prematurely just before and died at just a few days old. The film ran into problems with censors for inciting juvenile violence; some states banned it, others just insisted that the scenes were removed where The Kid broke windows so his protector could knock and mend them and so earn money to stay together.

When he was 20 years old he was involved in a car accident with his father, his best friend, an actor/writer and the foreman of the family ranch. Jackie Coogan was the sole survivor. His mother had married someone else and they became joint protectors of her son and his career. This did not work out well and the money just evaporated. Later he would take both to court and win the first ever legal protection for child stars and their earnings; it became known as the Coogan Law. He had help from Charlie Chaplin, who also paid some of his expenses, and seems to have regarded him as a kind of son, perhaps even the son his own first born would have grown to be.

He was married four times, including to Betty Grable for just under two years. And he died in 1984. 

Our card was issued in several formats. You will most likely find it issued overseas by W.D. and H.O. Wills with their "Four Aces" brand, or by Thomas Bear, or by Murray. This green back card was issued by British American Tobacco. All the versions were issued in the same year, 1926. 

The X21 reference might be unfamiliar, but it comes from the back of our original World Tobacco Issues Index.

W.D. & H.O. Wills [tobacco : UK] "Musical Celebrities" (1911 or 1912)  6/50 - W675-123 : W62-90 : W/83A

I was not sure this was going to stay, but today in 1782 Niccolo Paganini was born in Genoa. Not sure why this card says 1784 then.....

I had trouble tracking down a card, and I wasn`t sure how much enthusiasm I could raise for him, but here he is. He did play the guitar though, so he cant be that boring!  

He had five siblings, and was kind of the middle child. His father was some kind of dealer, not sure in what, but he made more money with his first love, music, especially the mandolin, which Paganini was also taught. He did not start learning to play the violin until he was five years old. Italy was involved in several European wars and skirmishes, but it settled down and in 1813 he took part in a concert at Milan, which brought him a little bit of fame, though mostly from fellow performers. what we must remember was that there was no nineteenth century YouTube, few newspapers and even few readers. You could live in the next valley and be totally unaware of what was going on just down the road. His first tour was in 1828, across Europe, which included the "Vienna" mentioned on this card, followed by a trip to Britain. 

He seems to have been frequently unwell, and was often nervous about performing. Depression is often quoted. It is hard to find anything out about his private life, yet he is known to have been treated for syphilis. Perhaps that is the clue, but I am not one to reveal such secrets even if I find them out.

In 1834 he gave up his career, donated some of his instruments to other musicians, and went back to Italy. He then turns up owning a casino, and it is well known that he much enjoyed all forms of gambling, but that did not work out and the rest of his instruments and effects had to be sold. He died in 1840. 

This set seems to have conflicting information regarding the date. We have April 1911 in the 1950 London Cigarette Card Company Catalogue, but November 1912 in our Wills books combined, which was taken from lists of dates published in Wills` own "Works" magazine. 

Wagner [trade : margarine : OS : Germany] "Gullivers Travels"(1929) Series 5 Picture 1/6

Let us travel to a strange land where everyone is either tiny or one man is huge. It all depends on your point of view, for some of us read Gullivers Travels and thought it would be fun to be really tiny, and others wanted to be the one who towered above it all.

What you may not have realised as you pondered this, is that the book was written as long ago as 1726. 

Our issuer, Wagner, produced many cards, following the Liebig method of small sets each of six cards.

You can read more about the company at

 https://csgb.co.uk/cardoftheday/2023-02-23

This sub-set here is "Gulliver`s Reise zu den Reisen", or, translated literally, Gulliver going on his Travels. This travel shows Lemuel Gulliver with a far less remembered character, Brobdignag, who was not a tiny Lilliputian but a giant. Just in case you thought Gulliver had grown a beard, no, in this instance Gulliver is the small man on the ground. He actually went on four separate journeys, starting with towering over Lilliput, then being dwarfed by the Brobdignagians, then conversing with the dead on the Isle of Glubdugdribb, and ending up where it is made plain he would dearly have loved to have stayed, amongst the Houyhnhnms, a tribe of horses, who despite living in the same space as a rather rough and ready humanoids called the Yahoos, still manage to maintain a very utopian innocent, calm and peaceful existence.