Newsletter - 2022-12-17

Master Vending [trade : cinemas : UK] "Tommy Steele"  or "The Tommy Steele Story" (1959) 28/36 - MAS-200.

Tommy Steele was probably the first home grown British "teenage idol". He was born today in 1936, as Thomas Hicks. His career kicked off with a chance discovery, for he was first heard at a Soho coffee bar, and was felt to be the alternative to the American stars, like Elvis, who were rocketing up our charts. This was also partially to do with the fact that he was not outrageous in any way, and looked presentable. This may amuse younger readers, and some of his songs may sound odd to modern ears as well, for they include "Rock with the Caveman" (his first record, of 1956) and "Little White Bull" (from the film "Tommy the Toreador", in 1959)  A year after his first music release, a bio-pic hit the big screen; this was called "The Tommy Steele Story" and its soundtrack was the first ever Number One Album. 

Before the end of the 1950s he was appearing in musical films, and glided into stage musicals in the 1960s, followed by several films.  In 1962 he was card number one in ABC Cinema`s first set of ten "Colorstars" - Elvis was only card four. By the way this set is often referred to as "The Tommy Steele Story" because that is the title which appears on card one. And it does make a pleasing link to the title of his film biography.

He was awarded the OBE in 2020 and is a keen supported of many charities. 

Our card, issued by Master Vending Co. Ltd, of London, NW3, shows him performing at the London Palladium, but I have not yet been able to track down the date of this. It must have been pre 1959 though. The autograph may be in a different colour, but it is a pre printed facsimile and appears on all copies of this card.

Strangely, though other sets by Master Vending appear in our original set of British Trade Indexes, forming sets MCA-1 to MCA-6, this set is not there. This is why only one code appears above.

W.D. & H.O. Wills [tobacco : UK] "Wonders of the Past" (September 1926) 32/50 - W675-227 : W62-186 : W/348A

Tonight, Sunday the 18th of December, will be the start of Hanukkah, and it will continue until Monday the 26 December.

This is not the card I wanted, but it is connected because it shows a model of the original Solomon`s Temple at Jerusalem, and Hanukkah remembers the re-dedication of the second temple in Jerusalem and the revolt of the Maccabees against the current rulers and their deeds against them. It is celebrated by a special light in candelabra form, called a Menorah, and is often known as the Festival of Lights. The light is because the events also include a miracle, when it was discovered that there was only enough oil to burn candles for one night, they refused to go out, and lasted for eight days, the same eight days that are celebrated to this day and marked by adding a new candle every night and lighting that too.

The miraculous oil is also celebrated with, and in many of the foods that are consumed, including doughnuts and pancakes. 

By the way, the events of Hanukkah, but not the name, actually appear in the Christian bible.

In case you are wondering why the original Wills books have an A suffix, it is because this card was also issued overseas, anonymously. 

Harvey & Davy [tobacco : UK] "Birds & Eggs" adopted title (1905) Un/50 - H246-100 : H22-1 : H60

A bit of a tangent here, but today, December 19th, 1915, Edith Giovanna Gassion was born into a performing family, if not a dynasty, with much circus blood. You would know her better as Edith Piaf, or as "The Little Sparrow", and she was one of the most famous French singers ever, if not the most famous during her lifetime. Her songs were moody and full of regret, and unforgettable. Few knew that the Edith was a tribute to Nurse Edith Cavell, executed a short while before our Edith was born. 

For some reason her mother more of less abandoned her at birth, and she was farmed out to her grandmothers, on her maternal, then her paternal side, who was a madam, without the title. During this time Edith lost her sight, but the girls clubbed together their earnings and took her to the shrine of Saint Therese, after which her eyesight returned. Once her father returned from the war they toured together as street performers, and she started to sing. The duo were joined by his other daughter a year later. 

In the early 1930s she fell in love and had her own daughter, but, in a strange twist, could not look after her. The father agreed to take care of her, but she died of meningitis aged just two, without her mother ever returning. Instead she was carving out a singing career in Paris, from where she gained the name "The Little Sparrow". She sang through the war, and after; her biggest hit, La Vie En Rose, was written by her, for her, in 1945. Because she stayed behind, and performed to the enemy, she was brought before a court on charges of collaboration, but her friends revealed that she had worked behind the scenes with the resistance and escapees from camps, and she was freed. 

In 1949 she suffered a great shock, and some say it caused her death, for she was a good friend, and maybe more, of France`s top boxer Marcel Cerdan, and he was killed in an aeroplane crash on the way to meet her. Not only that but she could not mourn openly because he was married to another, with three children. Two years later she had the first of three automobile accidents, which led her into the fatal web of medicinal and other drug abuse. A friend tried to help, and she married him shortly after, with the press making much of the fact it was her first wedding. However they divorced five years later. She took a second husband in 1962, but died young, on October 10th, 1963, aged just forty seven.

Our set was issued several times. and it has a main page entry where all the versions are discussed, and will eventually be accessible through links. The Harvey and Davy version has no title, but two of the other issuers titled their sets "Birds and Eggs" so that name was attached to this as well. The Gallaher version is identical to this, also untitled, and sometimes it is this, for there are Gallaher cards that have been changed into Harvey and Davy ones with a sticky label. 

W. & F. Faulkner [tobacco : UK] "Kipling Series" (1900) Un/12 - F150-140 : F14-7 : H158 (which lists the cards)

This card comes from a series based on a poem called "The Absent Minded Beggar", written in 1899 about the Second Boer War by Rudyard Kipling. Sometimes it is referred to as "A Gentleman in Kharki" but that was just one of the lines. You can read it in full at The Kipling Society. It was written for the Daily Mail to raise money for the soldiers and their families, and was the first ever charity appeal for a war. And that is why one of the lines of the chorus mentions "pass the hat". 

The postcards and cigarette cards and other ephemera, plus commemorative china, and many other items, all showing "A Gentleman in Kharki", from a painting by Richard Caton Woodville is also a by product of this appeal  - which exceeded £250,000. You can see the Kinnear Ltd of :Liverpool`s black and white single card, also issued in 1900, at J.S. Cards / Kinnear / GIK

Now here is the relevant section from our first ever Cartophilic Reference Book, RB.1, devoted to the issues of W. & F. Faulkner. Note that as the cards are unnumbered, they are numbered here in alphabetical order. It is a curious set because some of the fronts of the cards, like our one, are plain of background, whilst others are half, or fully coloured. Have a look for yourself, courtesy of the Arents Collection at NYPL/Kipling

Anyway, if you tune into the BBC, at 7pm on BBC Four, tonight (20 December) you will see a programme called Winter Walks. What you may not know is that this is a tie in with a regular off screen event called The Festival of Winter Walks, which takes place every year from the third Saturday in December through to the first Sunday in January.

We can thank the Ramblers Association for this, as thirty years ago they saw all the people home from work, eating and drinking, and getting bored, and decided to give them a festive alternative - a series of short and easy walks to get them into shape whilst being distracted by beautiful views of the countryside. To aid this the walks were free to all, and you did not have to be a member of the Ramblers to take part. And here is the link where you put in your location to see what is on near you: 

https://www.ramblers.org.uk/go-walking/group-finder

 Cohen Weenen & Co [tobacco : UK] "Interesting Buildings and Views" untitled (1902) Un/20 - C633-210 : C102-17

Here we have Brighton, but you may not guess the reason, and it is a lovely one. For the last twenty years, residents and visitors of Brighton and its environs come together to the beach and mark the shortest day of the year whilst also looking forward to the New Year and coming Spring.

What they do is to make lanterns of willow and of paper, carry them through the city, and then put them into a bonfire on the beach, along with anything in their hearts that they wish not to carry forward into that future. And at the same time they remember those they have loved and lost.

The organisers are Same Sky, a community arts charity, who make it easy for anyone to take part by producing kits for the lanterns and allowing them to be purchased in local stores.

And you can read about them, and the work they do, at their website https://samesky.co.uk/what-we-do/  - where there is also a shop, selling wonderful art! 

The cards of this set are listed at H.96 in the 1950 London Cigarette Card Handbook. There is also a curious variant, because you can find the cards as we show, sometimes called A, or with gilt framelines to the front, called B. I do not think I have ever seen those. Another curious thing about these two printings is that the plain fronted cards measure 63 x 38  m/m, whilst the gilt framed ones are 69 x 43 m/m

Peninsular Tobacco  Co Ltd [tobacco : OS : India] "Famous Warriors"

Took a while to find anything for this date, but then we hit an the amazing fact that today, December the 22nd, the first Prime Minister of Japan was elected, a Samurai, called Itō Hirobumi.

The full story is really intriguing, for he was born Hayashi Risuke in October 1841, one of the sons of a farmer, who became bankrupt just five years later. The family were split up, but four years later they were brought back together. However it sounds like money was still tight as he was sent away to school, and adopted by a Samurai servant. A short while later this servant was taken under the charge of a Samurai soldier, who adopted both Hayashi Risuke and his father, renamed them, and allowed them to become part of the Samurai class. 

Little is known of his father, but the new Ito seems to have become very involved with politics and with rebellion against the British. Despite that, when an opportunity came to travel here and study, he was chosen to take part. The five studied at University College London, and there is a hint that the idea behind it may have been for him to observe our failings and weaknesses and report them back on his return. However instead of that he became enamoured with our ways and returned with new enthusiasm to westernise Japan. 

As the 1870s approached, he found himself governor of a part of the modern day Honshu, a junior councillor for Foreign Affairs, and on the way to study in America. He came back and pretty much single handedly set up the Japanese Tax office and the entire system of taxation. He became a full councillor and chaired the first assembly of governors, rising to the post of Home Minister after the current postholder was assassinated. By 1881 he was the leader of the Government in all but name. And after he had left the post of Prime Minister, that Privy Council was part of the new Japanese Constitution that he designed. Eventually he would be Prime Minister four times, and Resident General of Korea. However in 1909 he was assassinated, by a Korean Nationalist, on the 26th of October, 1909, at a railway station, and he died more or less on the spot, a sad end to a brilliant career. 

Now a bit of a confession, because the card is actually a Chinese Warrior, but if anyone has a Japanese Samurai, do send us a scan of front and back to webmaster@card-world.co.uk

Hignett [tobacco : UK] "Interesting Buildings" (February 1905) Un/50 - H536-150 : H44-24 : H.70

I really wanted "The Night of the Radishes" here, but could not find a radish so you, and I, will have to make do with what follows. However if there is a cigarette or trade card of a radish in your collection please send us a scan at webmaster@card-world.co.uk  - and I will happily discard what follows in its honour! 

Our space filler marks the fact that today in 1788 the American State of Maryland gave land to form a Capital area. It is not recorded whether it was a Christmas Present or a coincidence of date. 

In actual fact two states gave land, these being Virginia and Maryland, which were either side of the Potomac River, but it was decided not to proceed with Virginia`s land at some time and in 1847 it was returned to them. It is not certain whether this started the grumblings that still continue, about returning the part that was taken to its donor, Maryland, but they do continue, and also wax and wane depending on the popular feeling of the current President. 

H.70 tells us the other issuers of this set, these being Churchman, Mitchell, Williams. and Wills, with Capstan brand in Australia.