Newsletter - 2022-11-05

Saturday, 29th October 2022

This first clue ought to have led you to a Chaplin moustache, which was the sort sported to great effect by the comedian Charles Chaplin.

There is lots of information to follow about this set, but the cards were issued in batches, and every time a group was added the total number on the reverse was updated. Actually this card says "nearly 500" but there is a limit to our title. They are slightly smaller than standard at 63 x 35 m/m. 

I can show you a packet of the "Clips" brand cigarettes, at a most fascinating website entirely devoted to these cards - it is called copesclipsfootballcards  - and it even has the original insert that showed the Robert Crompton medal. You can also read about this at the Football Cartophilic Exchange/Crompton 

Robert Crompton was a native of Blackburn and only played for his local club, Blackburn Rovers - he managed them too. And it is he, un-named, who appears on Ogdens "Football Club Colours" (1906) 27/50

Sunday, 30th October 2022

This second clue was even more cryptic, and hoped that you knew something about the parts of the bicycle, because we were after a handlebar moustache.

Now there is a bit of a query about Askey's. They are listed in our trade indexes as being a biscuit maker, but there is also mention of wafers, and ice cream cones. However the Askey with the ice cream cone and wafer is listed at 290 Kensal Road, London W10, and our cards clearly state Askeys, Stocklake, Aylesbury. I have done a bit of research and it seems to be the same company, founded in 1910 and making ice cream cones, wafers, and dessert sauces. However the site in Aylesbury closed earlier this year when it was not possible to upgrade it to current needs. 

Updated already - apparently it was indeed the same company, but the Kensal Road address was empty by the early 1970s. We know this because it was actually used as the location for the filming of "Steptoe and Son Ride Again", a movie released in 1973. 

Our cards measure 67 x 36 m/m. 

The HX27 and D396 codes simply refer to the fact that this set is an alike series and was issued by other companies too. The D396 is from our original British Trade Index part two, and it quotes those issuers as

• Northern Co-operative Co. Ltd of Millbank, Aberdeen, who made tea, and issued this set earlier than ours, in 1963. Their cards are a marginally different size, very slightly wider at 68 x 36 m/m

• Tonibell, who made ice cream, rather an interesting link there from our cones to their contents!  This version was also issued in 1963, before ours. However for some reason their set was not called Then & Now, but "This Changing World". There are two printings of this set, but this is another curiosity, as it is recorded that one has a Harlow address and the other still has this, but it has been obscured beneath a large black line. The curious thing about this is that the cards with the line are listed as (a) and the perfect cards as (b) so I can only guess that the black line cards were discovered first.... However I cannot work this out as from what I see, courtesy of the Football Cartophilic Info Exchange, there is indeed a card with a black line, but the other printing is actually blank in that space. As to why this set is listed on that site - well there is actually a card showing "Soccer". 

The HX27 code adds another issuer

• Ringtons, who made tea. This is another "Then and Now". It was issued in 1970. 

Monday, 31st October 2022

Here we have the last clue, a Walrus [moustache]. 

Now that is a style which consists of thick and bushy hairs which drop down the side of the mouth like a walrus` tusks. This is a very good illustration of it! 

Our cards measure 60/61 x 53 m/m and have quite a square appearance. The fronts are printed by letterpress in colour and they are embossed, though our original RB.13 says that un-embossed cards are known. It does not say how much of a rarity this is, so have a look and tell us what you discover. We are also told in our original World Tobacco Issues Index that "there are some number variations". but it does not explain this, and the reference to such a thing does not appear in our more recent World Tobacco Issues Index Update. Maybe we should start a list and see what we can find out. 

Now there is a brief note that must be added, because there is another set of Godfrey Phillips "Animal Studies", but that is standard size and was issued in Australia. We spoke about that, briefly, last week so have a look back at https://csgb.co.uk/publications/newsletter/2022-10-01

Tuesday, 1st November 2022

Here we have an actual horseshoe moustache. It seems to be popular with bikers, so is sometimes also called a biker moustache.

As to why it is called this, well that is because it looks like the letter U, curving both sides, and to some people it reminds them of a horsehoe. But it depends how you look at it, because there is a real split of opinion as to the way you hang a horseshoe. Some people say it must face downwards like the moustache, with the open end above the door, so that the good luck contained within it comes out and protects the door that it hangs above - whilst others say hanging the shoe with the open end facing upright keeps the good luck attached to the house and does not let it fall to the floor and run away.

Now this set was issued as part of the 2011 series called "American Pie", as a sub-set. Despite this card being a moustache, it covers all forms of hairiness, and the cards in the set are 

1. Horseshoe Moustache
2. The Mullet
3. Muttonchops
4. Chinstrap Beard
5. Soul Patch
6. Goatee
7. Pompadour
8. Beehive
9. The Rachel
10. Caesar
11. Bob
12. Handlebar Moustache
13. Sideburns
14. Fauxhauk
15. Mohawk
16. Blowout
17. 70s Feathered Hair
18. The Afro
19. Dreadlocks
20. Cornrows 

Wednesday, 2nd November 2022

This moustache is sometimes just called "a painter" but it is more correctly called "a painter`s brush". However it does seem the case that many painters sport a moustache and beard, and in some cases these are as wildly extravagant as the painter themselves, think of Salvador Dali as just one example! The Painter`s brush, I think, gained its name from the fact that is is rather straight, but just gently rounded at the edges, in other words, the simplest form to actually paint on with a brush. And apparently it is also one of the simplest to grow. 

This set is quite an important one, being one of the earliest sets issued by Carreras, the first flush as it were. Sadly there never was a Carreras reference book, though one was planned, which was to also have covered Alexander Boguslavsky. So we know little about the set. We do know that it was either re-issued, or issued in two different brands at the same time - because you can find the front of the cards saying either "Black Cat Cigarettes" or "Carreras` Cigarettes". The latter is scarcer, but I do not know why. Maybe there is a Carreras Connoisseur out there who can explain this to us? If so please step forwards.

We know more about the artist, whose name was actually Louis Raemakers. He was born on April the 6th 1869 in Holland. His father was a newspaper publisher and Louis inherited not just his interest in publishing but his journalistic standpoint against that which he did not feel was right or fair. During the First World War Louis was a cartoonist for a newspaper in Amsterdam, and he had a reputation for making a simple cartoon become a barbed weapon against not only the enemy, but also those who were letting events happen, which included the Netherlands itself, determined to remain neutral. In fact the Dutch government confiscated several of his paintings that were too scathing of this, and too insulting to the Kaiser. As of 1915 it was widely reported that the Germans had been offered a reward for his capture, dead or alive, also, shockingly, offering this reward in local Dutch currency in the hope that a countryman would turn him in. No official proof has yet been found of this, but he was rattled and he left for London not too long after, in November 1915.

The Black Cat cigarette was introduced in 1904 as one of the first machine-made cigarettes manufactured in Britain, though the first items issued were stamps, to be artistically inserted in special albums given away by Carreras, the best of which would win a prize. Their first true cartophilic item was not a card either though, it was a small booklet, called "The Black Cat Library of Short Stories". They appeared in 1909. The following year the booklets were replaced, but again not by cards - this time it was coupons, which you had to collect to exchange for prizes. 

Thursday, 3rd November 2022

A super card, and guess what, a Hungarian is a type of moustache as well as a smoker - according to the experts, this style is large and bushy, completely obscuring the upper lip. The sides are sometimes curled, resembling a large handlebar, and sometimes they are curled down like a walrus. Our card confuses this a bit because although it does indeed cover that top lip, it is straight at the ends. 

I have to say I have really enjoyed researching all these moustaches, there are some great pictures out there... 

Now there are a lot of codes up there, and we have also made a bit of a space saving change as we have RB.[1]18 listed. This is the Tobacco War Booklet, which was originally issued as RB.18 in 1951, but was reissued and updated as RB.118 "later on" (because I forgot to write that date down). USA/33 is from the Burdick Catalogue, in which they are valued at just fifteen cents a card.

Remember that "Bk" means backlisted, where all the cards in the series are listed on the reverse of every card, quite a useful idea really for you know when you have them all, and also you immediately get drawn to certain cards making your hunt more exciting.

And the cards measure 70 x 38 m/m, just slightly larger than standard. 

By the way this set was never issued as a printed album in which all the cards in the set appeared, or at least I have not been able to track one down in any records. If you know of one do let us know.

There is one more exciting thing, as it turns out that Allen and Ginter were not the only issuer of these lovely cards -

In 1900, Japanese smokers got to collect them, courtesy of Murai Bros, who were based in Kyoto. Murai is a very interesting company because they started with tobacco, then travelled all the way to America to learn how to make cigarettes, training which enabled them to produce and sell the first brand of cigarettes ever sold in Japan. This was in 1894. They seem to have kept in touch with America and three years later amalgamated with an American company to form Murai Bros. However this did not last too long, through no fault of their own - in 1904, during the Russo Japanese War, the production and sale of tobacco all across the country was taken over by the Japanese Ministry of Finance.

These cards are un-numbered and though I have not been able to examine all the cards it appears that they all have additional advertising on the front to say "MURAI`S CIGARETTES are the BEST and CHEAPEST". They have a blue back which will appear on here as soon as I can. Until then it is blue and the top says "A DIFFERENT CARD IN EVERY PACKAGE OF CIGARETTES" without mentioning anything about how many that is. In the middle it says "MURAI BROS. & Co. / KYOTO, JAPAN" in two lines. And below that are Japanese characters - anyone out there who can translate this please do, it would be interesting to see what it says, because it could point to the target smoker being both English and Japanese. Also whilst I am asking for assistance, if anyone has a Hungarian in this Murai printing I would appreciate a front and back to add in here. By the way they are recorded as being slightly different in size 70 x 37 m/m. And the codes on this set are M953-090 and M156-7.

Their second appearance came in 1904, or maybe in 1910, I have both dates more than once. This was over in Canada, in packets of Dominion Tobacco Co., who were based in Montreal. The curious thing here is that they are reported as having a slightly different name, this being "The Smokers of the World". Actually this is not really true, the back is untitled, but the text says "50 DIFFERENT DESIGNS OF THESE CARDS, ILLUSTRATING THE SMOKERS OF THE WORLD PACKED WITH THESE CIGARETTES." The fronts are also slightly different, with the smoker`s name in upper and lower case, rather than all capitals. There were also two printings, the first, usually recorded as (A.) black backed with a series title, and the second being (B.) brown backed with no title. They are slightly different in size to the Allen and Ginter but identical size to the Murai, at 70 x 37 m/m. The codes on this set, adding the A and B respectively, are D635-700 and D50-2

Now it turns out that they were also issued with plain backs and neither title nor issuers name. This seems to be credited to Teofani, some time in the mid 1920s.  I will be researching this next. All help gratefully recieved

Friday, 4th November 2022

Our last moustache is a Van Dyck, named after a painter. It is sometimes called a Van Dyk or a Van Dyke, both simply being spelling variants. This style consists of a moustache and a separate small or goatee beard which is crucially not joined to each other. 

This card actually shows a painting by Sir Anthony van Dyck, who was actually Flemish, but became the most sought after painter for the British royalty and society, and was eventually buried in St. Paul`s Cathedral. Some say that this all came because he was already rich, his father being one of the top silk merchants in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe; but the truth is that it would not have happened at all if he had not been such a skilled painter, and more or less self taught from a very young age. 

Now I am sure you are wondering whether the artist sported a Van Dyck moustache himself. Well he only ever painted three self portraits, but in one, that you can see at The National Portrait Gallery/Van Dyck yes, he definitely does. 

There were several versions of this set. They are well summarised in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes as : 

1. ISSUES 1907-16
1A. SMALL CARDS. Size 67-68 x 36-37 m/m

CHAIRMAN MINIATURES. Sm. Nd. See RB.21/200-261.B. "Indexed Album" advertised on backs.
1. "First Series", Nos. 1/50. Inscribed "Chairman Miniatures". 
      Front (a) with gilt border (b) without border
2. "First Series", Nos. 51-100. Inscribed "Chairman and Vice-Chair Miniatures".
      Front with blue border. 

Now actually the cigarettes were called "The Chairman" Cigarettes, and they were straight cut Virginia tobacco, ten to a blue packet. I have been unable to find a "Vice Chairman" packet, which makes me think it may be tobacco. Anyone out there know?