Newsletter - 2022-12-31

Anonymous [tobacco : O/S] "Foreign Birds" (1930) 45/50 - ZB07-340 : ZB6-32 : RB21/215-87A

Now lets slide ourselves into our time machines and return to this New Years Eve in 1759, where a man is just about to sign a nine thousand year lease on a brewery, at St James` Gate in Dublin, at £45 a year. His name was Arthur Guinness. 

I was sure there were advertising cards for Guinness, but cannot track any down. However, in 1935, a new character hopped into his advertising and that was a toucan, usually with two glasses on the top of his beak, and a little rhyme that often ended "just think what toucan do" .(in other words what drinking two [glasses] can do) The concept, drawn by John Gilroy, was to show Guinness with various zoo animals. so there was an ostrich who had swallowed a glass, a sealion balancing a glass on his nose, and a kangaroo who had a bottle in his pouch. There was also a bemused zookeeper. 

There is a link to cartophily, with a few sets of modern trading cards relating to the Guinness Book of Records, a book of comparative facts and feats that was first published in 1955. In America they called it The Guinness Book of World Records, and the cards follow this practise. And it is still a book, but these days it is more likely to be viewed online.  I am sure there are more, but these sets include : 

• "Fascinating Facts - Guinness Book of Records" (1989)  a set of twenty-four cards that were actually issued by Woolworths

•  Pro Set "Guinness Book of World Records" (1992)

And by the way if you think you have the World`s Largest Collection of Non-Sports Trading Cards, apply online 

This set is Foreign Birds, but not the usual one issued by Ogdens in 1924, for this card was part of a set issued six years ;later by British American Tobacco. The cartouche with the title in is identical to the Ogdens version, but the bottom has this delicate little bird on a branch that replaces the "Issued by / Ogdens / Branch of the Imperial Tobacco Company / (Of Gt. Britain & Ireland) Ltd." though strangely it still retains the corner decorations so mirroring the top. 

Anonymous [tobacco : O/S] "Birds Beasts and Fishes" cut outs (1937)  20/50 - ZB07-100 : ZB6-8 : RB.21/200-151D

Now the first day of the year is notable for many things, but it has come to be known by certain hardy individuals as the date of the "Polar Bear Plunge". And they do it all over the globe. What they do is plunge into unheated water at either the ocean or at a lake.

May I say that I have great respect for you all, whether you do it to raise money for charity or whether you believe it wakens yours senses to their absolute height. Though I must add that those of you who take part in Bermuda and New Zealand sound to have a less icy time of it that those of you who do it here. 

Our polar bear comes from an anonymous set  which was issued as both standard size and medium size by several manufacturers including W.D. & H.O. Wills in New Zealand in 1924. Ours is the British American Tobacco version, which was reputedly issued in South Africa, very far away from the land of the polar bear. However,  there is a question for you to solve, as in the reference book it makes much of the fact that version B of the standard sized set is facing the other way, and yet here we have a medium sized set which also faces the other way but is not mentioned as doing so. 

Now there is another link between the polar bear and cartophily which you may not realise and that is that one of the brands which carried the T206 Baseball cards was "Polar Bear", and that was advertised as "is now, always has been, always will be the best scrap tobacco". 

And it was also sold out of a really cool metal counter top display unit, which you can see at Pinterest/PolarBearScrap

Clevedon [trade : confectionery : UK] "Dan Dare Series" (1960/61) 16/25 - CLE-120 : CL2-5 

Today is National Science Fiction Day. And the birthday of Isaac Asimov, who wrote forty-three novels and short stories that became "The Robot Series". The first of these was written in 1940 and appeared in a magazine. It was a one off piece, but the subject intrigued him, and he wrote a few more stories about robotics. When he came to read them back he found that they actually made a larger story, suitable for a book, and this was then published as "I Robot". And in 2004 it became a major motion picture. 

Strangely if you search you will find a trade card of "I Robot" but this is for an episode of "The Outer Limits". It first appeared in 1964 and was remade in 1995. Leonard Nimoy, was in both, and his son wrote the remake. It turns out that in 1939 a story called "I Robot" appeared in a magazine, and this was the story used for the TV series. It was not written by Isaac Asimov, it was the creation of brothers, Earl and Otto Binder, but there is a theory that it influenced Asimov, and that he remembered the title when he came to choose his own. Or maybe he did a deal and bought it? 

Anyway our card is from Clevedon Confectionery`s Dan Dare, a British Sci-Fi comic strip from "The Eagle" and this is a rarer set than that issued by Calvert, a card from which formed part of our 2010Convention Card. The one we show you today is of a Selektrobot, a robot which predates R2D2, and the Daleks, (though perhaps provided their final syllable?), but resembles them both. It comes in two printings, a) with a black back and b) with a blue back. I wonder if they were actually issued in reverse order for the blue is fiendishly light. In fact now it is uploaded I can see I need to make it darker again. 

The text is rather sad, for it tells us that once these robots became friendly they were not treated with respect, but given demeaning tasks like polishing boots and making tea. I have to say that this puts a whole new slant on the title of the story in which they first appeared, for it was called the Reign of Terror. Is what they thought we were doing, as they planned to rise above us? 

Now there was an album issued for this set, but it was a general purpose album, with precut corner slots but no text. That is why the cover has an illustrations that covers all the sets, mostly sporting, though also Dan Dare in his crystal helmet - and you can see one at Worthpoint/DanDareAlbum

Carreras [tobacco : UK] "Gran-Pop" (December 1934) 39/50 - C151-305 : C18-53

Today is the festival of sleep. Now there are many things that make for good sleep, including the right temperature for you, and turning off all blue light equipment for the hour before you turn in, yet the popular idea of a bedtime story still persists as we age, whether we are read to or whether we read ourselves.  However this bedtime story looks like it will keep those poor little chimpanzees awake for quite a while. 

This set was issued as both the standard sized 68 x 36 m/m, and a large sized set measuring 79 x 63 m/m. The actual title on the card is much longer than we quote, it is "Gran-Pop - A series of 50 by Lawson Wood". Gran-Pop was a very popular character based on an Orang Outan, who also appeared on many postcards.  Clarence Lawson Wood was the artist.  

Now if you are not into animal cards, you are missing a treat by not looking at this set, because the reverses of these cards actually give you a tour of the Carreras production unit showing how cigarettes are made and packaged, and they include a picture of the exterior of the Arcadia Works in Hampstead Road, London, NW. 

Echte Wagner [trade : margarine : O/S : Germany] "Lustige Experimente" (1930) Album 3, series 14, Bild 3 

Now be careful whose eyes you gaze into today, for it is National Hypnotism Day. Though it is recorded that you cannot hypnotise someone to do something that is out of their normal character, or to injure themselves in any way. So the idea of this card, where an unsuspecting boy is told to paint his face with black ink, by another boy who is almost certainly unskilled in the art, is a bit of a cliche, just to amuse the collector of the card. 

This is another of those interesting European cards which I have discovered entirely through this newsletter. The title translates to "Amusing Experiments", of which Hypnotism is just one. You can see the rest of the cards at the TradingCardDatabase/LustigeExperimente  - though I am not sure why card 2 shows a game of `draw the tail on the pig`, which is rather like our `pin the tail on the donkey`

But there are other cards on hypnotism, including "Max" Cigarettes` "This Age of Power and Wonder" (141/250) which features probably the most hypnotic tale ever told, that of Trilby. Written by George du Maurier, many people presume that Trilby is the magician and hypnotist who makes a beautiful artist`s model into a singing star. However Trilby was the model, Svengali the man. George du Maurier knew a bit about hypnotism as well for it was not the case that he picked someone off the street who could not sing and made her into a star - instead the model could sing really well, but did not have the bravery in her normal persona to tap into and use her power; however once she was hypnotised, her delight for singing shone through, and she became the singer she always wanted to be.

The word Hypnotism actually derives from the Greek god of sleep, Hypnos, who lived in eternal darkness with his mother Nyx (Greek for night) and his twin brother who was called Thanatos, a strange name that means "Peaceful Death", and refers to the fact that when we fall asleep we are no longer part of our own bodies, but free to roam like spirits. 

Scottish Co-Operative Wholesale Society / S.C.W.S [tobacco : UK] "Feathered Friends" (1926) 10/50 - S256-350.B.a : S44-6

Now today is National Bird Day, and our National Bird is the robin, which I know I have used in these newsletters before. By the way, you may be surprised to learn that we do not have an official National Bird, these results came from a poll, so they only give the votes of those who actually took part. And that the poll took place seven years ago! 

So if we pass over the chirpy little robin, we get to the second bird, who is the Barn Owl. I have a feeling I have chatted about Barn Owls before, for I clearly remember how hard it was to find a card without some poor unfortunate little mouse dangling from its talons. So this card may well change in the future, to the third bird, who was the Blackbird.

This set has three printings, but it does not look like I noted down if they all appeared in the original World Tobacco Issues Index, so that code will be amended; 

• A) Grey bordered fronts, with non- adhesive backs

• B) White bordered fronts, with  a) non adhesive backs

• B) White bordered fronts, with  b) adhesive backs

Now the curious thing about this set is that nowhere does it mention tobacco, and yet the Scottish Co-Operative Society issued their cards with only that, whereas the English Co-Operative Society issued their cards with a variety of grocery and other products. . 

Lambert & Butler "Motor Cars" 2nd series of 25 (June 1923) card 39 - L073-490.2 : L8-61.2

Now today we have gone off on a bit of a tangent, for it is Bean Day, the date that Gregor Mendel did his experiments with peas that led to our understanding of genetics. However there is another Bean that you may never have heard of, and that was a motor car. 

The Bean was made, as it says on our card, by A. Harper, Sons, and Bean, Ltd. of Dudley, though they also had premises in Tipton and Smethwick. The cars were made between 1919 and 1929, but the company had been in business since 1826, making metal goods for industry and the home. One of their main lines were fire grates. In 1907 Absolom Harper and his sons, two of them, added "and Bean" because George Bean joined them. He seems to have gone straight in as the Chairman as well, and it seems likely that he was the brain behind their motoring inspirations for shortly after his arrival they started buying equipment specifically for the motor industry.

However these plans came at the wrong time, because their factories had to be turned over to war service. There were a range of uses for such property, and you might have thought that being an engineering company they would have been ideally set up for engine or aircraft manufacture, but instead they were told to make munitions. Now this was traditionally a job for ladies and children, whose fingers could gently probe into the delicate and tiny places where the fuses and the workings had to nestle. There was a big positive though, because the government extended their premises so that more munitions could be produced. 

In 1919, A. Harper, Sons, and Bean were left with a huge factory, in which they decided to resurrect their dreams of making cars. They knew they had to be quick, before the market was saturated, so they bought the rights and the stock of a rather ill fated Birmingham car manufacturer called the Perry Motor Company. They had also started out making something else, namely fountain pens. They were bought out by one of the partners in the Bayliss-Thomas car company just before the turn of the twentieth century, though they kept the Perry name, and their first car was ready to drive in 1899. However it was a three wheeler, where the passenger sat in the front - and they also made cycle-cars in a similar style. They did move on to a proper four seater, but late, in 1914.

Perry Motors were also stopped for the war, and Thomas disappeared, presumably killed in action. Mr. Bayliss did survive and found another partner, a Mr. Wiley, but his heart was not in it, and he took an offer from A. Harper, Sons, and Bean on everything that was left including the rights of manufacture. They simply made the pattern as given, using the parts, and that made the first Bean. They did travel abroad, hoping to find out how to make cars quicker, but in the end they decided it was better to pool resources with other companies in the same industry. They almost lost everything in 1920, but were saved by a sterling effort and by reducing the prices to lower than they cost to make, which does sound a strange thing to do but it gave them access to funding and cleared out old stock. This worked, for a while, but they had to be rescued in 1926 by fellow engineer Hadfields of Sheffield. At this point the Harper link was lost, and the cars became simply Beans. Shortly after the company did go into liquidation, but was bought out by Hadfields and given a new name, writing off the old company in the process.

After that they seem to have gone away from making production cars, though they were involved in making the Thunderbolt, which, in 1937, broke the World Land Speed Record under the control of Capt. G.E.T Eyston.

George Edward Thomas Eyston appears on several cigarette cards. Two of those sets are by Gallaher, "Champions" (1935) and "Sporting Personalities" (1936) 46/48. His best card is Churchman "Kings of Speed"  where it tells us that he was "a consulting engineer [and] racing motorist" who "has held more speed records than any motorist living" - so perhaps he provided the ideas and Bean the premises and equipment. The card also tells us he was "in his 42nd year .., 6 ft 2, [and] weighs 14 stone".  It also tells us that "In the Great War he won the M.C. and was gassed; that is why he now has to wear spectacles". 

And you can also see the Thunderbolt, on W.D. & H.O. Wills "Speed" (1938) 15/50 

The first set of twenty-five Motor Cars was issued in October 1922, and our set. also of twenty-five cards followed just eight months later. There was also a third series, which was of fifty cards, but that had to wait until February 1926. All these had green backs, like ours. And that was not the end of the tale, for in February 1934 a set of twenty-five cards with grey backs were issued. 

The Bean also appears in two other sets

•  W.D. & H.O. Wills, "Motor Cars"  export issue, to New Zealand (1923) 41/48 

• United Tobacco Co. of South Africa"Motor Cars" (1928) 3/50