Newsletter - 2022-11-26

Saturday, 19th November 2022

For our first clue of the week we had this card, showing Paul "Ride Out".

This set is listed in our British Trade Index part IV, issued in 1997, with four sets of "Football Candy Sticks" cards, and it reads :

Football Candy Sticks. 65 x 35. Four sets, each Nd. 1/48" 
1. 1986-87 issue. Back without compilation date
2. 1987-88 issue. Back"compiled up to March 31st 1987."
3. 1988-89 issue. Back"compiled up to April 30th 1988."
4. 1989-90 issue. Back"compiled up to May 31st 1989."
    Back in two shades of red".

And they are too modern for our updated British Trade Index. 

For some reason, and I have to say rather excitingly, there were four different boxes available for our set, all of them a different colour, and not only that, all of them had a different picture.

You can see them all at The Trading Card Database/Bassett Box 89.

Whilst you can check out a very scarce promotional leaflet at The Football Cartophilic Exchange/ Bassett89

Now, going back to something we touched on earlier, in our printed magazine -edition dated January/February 1989 (Vol.16 Issue 153) - as part of the New Issues section, we actually call the previous series of these cards, issued for the 1988-89 series,  "Footballers Candy Sticks" as well. And here is the clipping from that edition

I have already had a very prompt response to say that the 1987-88 series is known as "Footballers Candy Sticks" too. 

As far as I have been able to find out, the words "Sweet Cigarettes" were replaced by "Candy Sticks" in the 1970s. Anyone know any more about this? 

Sunday, 20th November 2022

This set shows the power of possibility, and that the forthcoming war would need everyone to stand together. So here we have a volunteer, a non military man even, on a motorbike, which, or so it is suggested, was the one he drove every day, for work and for pleasure. Yet he is a vital part of the delivery of an important message, for the wardens cannot leave their post to deliver it. Look, they are running to him. Without him, the war may be lost. And, to stress this, the artist has put him right at the centre of the card, not just partially seen at the edge, as a shadow.

If you had a bike, and you got this card, you would want to be there, playing a modern day knight, with a new kind of horse power. 

As a brief note, the text says "Note the shading device on the lamp of the motor cycle".  This was a kind of shutter, which allowed the lamp to function normally when not in blackout conditions, but to comply when it was. They actually used these on four wheeled transport as well, though on those the idea was that you only used one of these shading devices, the other headlight being blacked over entirely with paint. However this meant that the roads were full of cars that could not be seen and the blackout was a disaster for pedestrians. Injuries and fatalities soared. It is known that in 1940, eight and a half thousand civilians were killed on the roads, and the following year it had risen to over nine thousand. And blackout still remained until April 1945.

Now this set may say Hignett on each card, but it is entirely identical to the set of the same name issued by Ogdens, as well as to all the other issuers which are recorded in our blog A for Air Raid Precautions. The most important difference though was that this Hignett one was the last of all those versions to be issued. As to when, well, all we know is that it was some time in 1939, the year after all the rest. 

There was no reference book devoted to Hignett either, so it appears first in our original World Tobacco Issues Index of 1956, with the rather scant description of "AIR RAID PRECAUTIONS. Sm. Nd. (50). See Ha.544" 

Ha.544 takes you to the handbook, but all that does is give you a list of the sets which were issued by both Ogdens and Hignett.

We do know that the Hignett versions of these sets are scarcer, and therefore more costly, but that is simply because Hignett cigarettes did not sell in such quantity as the Ogdens. 

Monday, 21st November 2022

This is a set you probably have not seen before, unless you are reading this in Australasia. The cards measure a pleasing size too, of 83 x 58 m/m. And it contains several stars that are hard to find, like John Wayne (10/30) and Marlon Brando (30/30), as well as a card of Marilyn Monroe (11/30)!

Number 8/30 is also interesting, for it shows Maggie McNamara, born in New York in 1928, nominated for an Academy Award for her first film, but dying, of an overdose, aged just 49 .

You can find the full checklist, and see most of the cards, at tcdb/popular vita-brits

Cereal Foods, based in Carlton, Melbourne and several other regional centres, was an amalgamation - of Cereal Foods, Kornie Food Co, and Purina Grain Foods, whose brands were Crispies, Kornies, Purina Rice Flakes, Vita Brits, and Weeties. That is why you can find the set with three different fronts,
A. Crispies - Vita Brits
B. Crispies - Vita Brits - Kornies
C. Weeties - Vita Brits - Crispies

If you were a tacker in the 1950s I imagine this brings back all kinds of breakfast memories! 

The amalgamation happened some time in the 1950s, but it only lasted a short while before it was taken over again by Nabisco, in 1961. 

By the way most of our information comes from our Australian and New Zealand Index, RB.30, issued in 1983. It is an excellent volume, but hard to come by, and it deals with all cards issued in the Antipodes. There is a follow up volume too, part two. 

Tuesday, 22nd November 2022

A very exciting card for you today, which refers to riding a horse.

The first thing you will notice is that the card has no margin and when that happens it is pretty certain that it is designed to be put on a flat surface and butted up to other cards to make a larger picture. The panorama in this case is rather spectacular, and you can see it for yourself by galloping along to Worthpoint/ScissorsDerby  - now if you want to gauge the size of this completed item, each card measures 63 x 35 m/m. 

There are several versions of this set, which could be why there is no firm date of issue, it being generally regarded that they were issued between 1910 and 1915. Some dealers do put a date of 1914 though. As an aside 1910 could not be right, because the course was not railed off from the spectators until the 1911 race. Then 1913, of course, was the Suffragette Derby. And from 1915  to 1918 the race was not held at Epsom but at Newmarket, because the grandstands were being used as hospitals, and the Epsom area was home to a military base.

The basic Wills versions in our World Tobacco Issues Index are catalogued as: 

A. Back says "Derby Day Series"
B. Back says "Series A", no mention of a particular race
C. Cards with a Star and Circle back design
D. Anonymous cards with large lettering

For our original RB.21 there was a bit of a change - versions A and B were combined as A1 and A2. The vacant B was then given to the anonymous cards with the large lettering. And the C seems to have disappeared, so if anyone has any of these cards with a star and circle back do let us know. 

This was not the end of this set, for it turns up being issued by African Tobacco Manufacturers of Cape Town in South Africa, some time later in 1923. However it has a new title, of "The Racecourse". Some catalogues say the set is not quite the same as the Wills version, so if you have any info on this do tell us. 

Wednesday, 23rd November 2022

Coopers were based in Glasgow at the most amazing premises I have seen in a while (check out The Glasgow Story / Coopers) and issued cards between 1958 and 1966. However you might find 1955 given - more about this later.

These cards measured 68/9 x 36 m/m, and special albums were issued with a colour front and a black reverse, and outline drawings on both. This set consists of two series of twenty-five cards, with the first series as 1-25 and the second following on as 26-50. 

The HX and D reference number shows us that this set was also issued by another maker or makers - in this case that was Charter Tea & Coffee Co Ltd of Liverpool, and as an anonymous version with what is described as "a letterpress back". If anyone has this version it would be useful to have a scan of it.

I have not been able to trace any mention of Charter Tea, and it does not help that on those cards the address is only a P. O. Box 32, Liverpool. However on eBay there is a tea canister for them and that has a different address, which, very intriguingly, is Herbert St, Glasgow NW - which, to save you looking back up the page, is the same address as on these cards! 

Would be interested to hear from any Liverpudlian or Glaswegians who can add more info. 

Now there is another burning question because I have found a reference to Coopers Teas issuing a set called "The Island of Ceylon" in 1955, and then a later reference to say this is incorrect, and had come about because of confusion between Coopers & Co Stores of Glasgow (1871) and Cooper & Co of Jersey (1890), and it definitely does not help that there is no address on these cards. However you will still often find "The Island of Ceylon" listed under Cooper & Co Stores in dealers catalogues. It appears that this was the only set issued by the Jersey company as well.  

Thursday, 24th November 2022

Here we have "riding a tram" . And if anyone out there has the much scarcer red backed Musgrave version of this card do send us a scan of front and back and I will happily replace this - giving your name or alias if you like as well. 

The first ever tram, worldwide, was much like the one on this card, operated by a horse; it was known as the Swansea and Mumbles Railway and it first plied its trade in 1807. It closed in the early 1960s.

Horses were soon seen as old fashioned, and there was a limit on how long they could work, so they were phased out in many places in favour of steam and then electricity. In some places a cable system was operated, hauling the cars along. This seems to have worked very well on slopes, hence the San Francisco Cable Car. Electric trams  needed another form of cable, and a lot of these were delivered overhead, this is the system which is still used at Blackpool.

For some reason trams were not seen as a way forward and many were removed. Manchester was the first to get rid of its trams entirely in 1949, and replace them with buses. Other users took advantage of owning a car. Then things started to change as we became more aware of the climate and how we were changing it. Parking was also impossible. The first new trams were built in Europe, and became very popular. We opened our first tramway system in 1980, when the Tyne and Wear Metro opened. And seven years later trams returned to London, with the Docklands Light Railway.

This is the original blue back card, which was issued with Brooke Bond tea in 1966. The official Brooke Bond reference number for it is B.16. Then there was a black backed version, this was not issued with the tea, it was reprinted officially by Brooke Bond in 1973 in order to supply sets of cards that had gone out of print. These black backed sets were sold to collectors through the order forms that appeared in the centre of each album. 

There was a wallchart and an album for the original set. The album can be found in three versions, which is somewhat odd. The difference seems to involve the order form, which is printed in red. It seems that at some time the tag on that form was shifted from being on the left hand side to the right hand side. However the third version has no tag, and that is because it was not issued in an album, it was sent back with your purchase by Brooke Bond so that you could buy something else if you so desired. 

The HX.158 and D.413 codes tell us that this set was also issued by another manufacturer and that was Musgrave Brothers Limited, Tea Blenders of Cornmarket Street in Cork. They were founded in 1876 and are actually still going very strong, in fact they are Ireland`s biggest grocer, and they also operate in Spain. They apparently also used to own Budgens and Londis. Their cards can easily be told from Brooke Bond because the Musgrave versions have reddish-mauve backs, or at least these and the Butterflies do. Musgrave made quite a habit out of re-issuing cards that other manufacturers also produced, and in fact they also issued other Brooke Bonds, these being British Birds by Frances Pitt, British Wildlife, and Butterflies of the World. Other sets that sound like they might be Brooke Bonds turn out not to be (especially Tropical Birds and Wild Flowers). This set was issued in the same year as the Brooke Bond version, 1966, and the album for it - and possibly the others - has the word  "Musgrave" on the cover. 

Friday, 25th November 2022

Here we have "to ride the waves", which closes the week on a hopeful note, with a bit of a rebellious surfing mindset. You can chill out for the weekend by reading some surfer quotes at SurferToday/WaveQuotes 

The set shows many very extravagant buildings, starting with The Palace, Lahore. Our card looks a very idyllic scene but at the time it was inserted into cards the Indian continent, especially the area surrounding Bengal, was undergoing ,massive change socially and politically.

It seems odd that there is no one year date of issue, which makes me think the set could have been issued overseas. However Godfrey Phillips, despite being founded in 1844, seem not to have had Indian holdings until 1936, when Godfrey Phillips (India) Ltd was first founded. Personally I think you can discount the 1914-18 period of the date; it was wartime and almost certainly older cards were still turning up in packets of pre-war cigarettes.