Newsletter - 2023-01-28

Saturday, 21st January 2023

Your clue here was the name of the footballer, James Welsh of St. Johnstone - simply because St. Dwynwen was Welsh. Now I have had a hunt but I cannot find any other cards showing this footballer. Do any of you have any? 

St Johnstone Football Club is in Perth and it gets its name from St. John`s Toun, which was a former name of Perth. It was founded in 1884, and they played their first match the following year. However they did not join the Scottish Football League until 1911.

They are one of several football clubs whose nickname is "The Saints" - and because of this they are often also known as "The Perth Saints".

It is quite hard to find anything out about this set, but we do know that there was a special album issued, a rather grand one as well, and you can see it at the Football Cartophilic Information Exchange / Mitchell Snaps

Sunday, 22nd January 2023

This clue referred to the spoons, because one of the ways that Welsh lovers used to show affection, and maybe still do, hopefully, is to sit and carve a love spoon. They often have initials and hearts, and every one is different. This is possibly the origin of to spoon meaning to be in love.Oddly the tradition of carving spoons in this way goes across Europe and into Scandinavia. And at one time they were used within the family just as a spoon. However the more ornate they grew the less likely this was to occur, and so those were just hung on the wall.

Now this set was not listed in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, because that was issued in 1956. However I think the artwork at least for this set must have been done earlier because if you look at the largest spoon the handle has the logo for the Festival of Britain, in 1951. 

Another interesting fact about this set is that card 15 shows "Picture Cards" - the text says that "Ever since firms commenced to issue cards with their products around 1880, the number of enthusiastic collectors has grown into many thousands. A booklet on this hobby can be obtained, price 6d. post free, by writing to the Universal Cigarette Card Co. Ltd, 228, London Road, Twickenham." 

Monday, 23rd January 2023

This clue gave you the love. The symbols are all there, the white, or lilac, dove of peace, the word Peace, and the Ban The Bomb symbol which was designed just before the 1960s in 1958.

In England we called them the Swinging Sixties, and they were the embodiment of youth, bringing much needed fun. However in America  it seems to have been more revolutionary, and more free. I cannot really comment for sadly I was not there - but if I had a chance to be alive in any place and time I would love to have been out there in San Francisco wearing a flower in my hair.

In other words, look out for this card being used as a window sticker in my car. But calming down before I get too excited, there are a few bits of missing info here for you to unravel. So lets go...

The first thing I found out was that the card is not titled. But I found a picture of what looked like it in the original British Trade Index part 2, in the anonymous section at the back of the book. That was set ZJ12-4.1 "Nutty Initials" and the text said it was "one large letter per card - letters A-Z, [or] four initials or symbols per card." So I started to make my notes, but then realised this was not the set.

By the way this listing also includes the Ugly Stickers and a set described as simply unnamed peel off stickers which turns out to be "Mickey Takers". 

Eventually I did find our set in the original British Trade Index part three, where it also had a name. That called it "Love Initials" (A), twenty-six simple initials found in sixty-two variations of design and twenty-two combinations of four, as listed under ZJ12-4.1. And yes this is the same code as the set I disregarded. But we will come back to that in a minute. 

In our modern British Trade Index both sets are listed. A comparison reveals that both sets measure the same size 81 x 56 m/m, and all  cards are unnumbered. However it does tell us that the "Nutty Initials" are "grotesque creatures", and were also issued in New Zealand, whilst the "Love Initials" were issued in Australia. There are more varieties of some of the letters than others, five each of the vowels A and E, four of I, O, and U, but only one C and Y. Most of the cards just have two varieties. Now when we get to the cards with the four smaller peel off stickers the list does indeed follow that given in the original British Trade Index part 2 for "Nutty Initials", with some differences, these being 

• A. E. A. T. (listed in BTI.2, but not in the new version, possibly A. E. S. T. wrongly noted?)

• A. E. E. T. (listed in BTI.2, but not in the new version, possibly A. E. S. T. wrongly noted?)

• A. E. S. T. (listed in the new BTI, not in the original)

• F. U. H. 2. (listed in BTI.2, but not in the new version, possibly F. 2. H. U. wrongly noted?)

• F. 2. H. U. (listed in the new BTI, not in the original)

• I. 4. B. 2.  (listed in BTI.2, but not in the new version, possibly I. 4. B. Z. wrongly noted?)

• I. 4. B. Z.  (listed in the new BTI, not in the original - so is it a number 2 or a letter Z ?)

• S. E. A. T. (listed in BTI.2, but not in the new version)

• U. D. G. F. (listed in the new BTI, not in the original)

Now if you have any of the above cards in bold please do let us know so we can amend our records and cross off cards that do not exist. Many thanks in advance. 

By the way there is more online about these lovely cards at bubblegumcards.org - plus you have the rather exciting chance to press a button and see your name made up out of them. How could you resist? 

Tuesday, 24th January 2023

Here we have the arms of Brecon. And why? Well Dwynwen`s father was a man that is now called Brychan Brycheiniog. However a little digging finds out that he was king of Breconshire, but that there is a twist, for at the time he was king, in the 5th century, the area was known as Brycheiniog. It seems unlikely it was named after him so I think he was simply Brychan and the [of] Brycheiniog got attached to his name somewhere along the way.

Now he was actually born an Irish Prince, but his mother inherited this part of Wales and when his father died he went there. Maybe this was because his father had rather a lot of children for his widow to support, anywhere from twelve to over sixty, and he was married three times, or some say four. This is also supported by the fact that some of his children went to Cornwall, where eleven of them had been born. In fact one of them, a daughter called Anwen, is the Cornish saint of lovers.  

Reputedly our Dwynwen was the prettiest of all, and could have had many suitors, but her heart was set on just one man from the moment she saw him.  And we will read about him tomorrow....

This card is just one of the variations of this fascinating set, which are dealt with more fully in our blog "B for Borough Arms". That tells the differences in all the sets, and one day will include a sample back and front of every one.

This particular card we feature today is from Group 11 - entirely new pictures, but same style as the rest, being numbered 151-200 on the backs, fronts printed in full colour, no frame lines, with "Wills`s Cigarettes" across fronts of cards. Backs with descriptive text, printed in grey.  Cards marked "Fourth Series". 

This fourth series has no other version, unlike the others, these cards only appear in this one final series. There was also an error card, number 170, the Borough Arms of St. Marylebone. W. which has the last line of either (a) "let it be done according to thy word" - or - (b) "let thy word be favourable". The card gives the Latin version of this "Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum" in the banner on the front and tells us that this was the motto of the Portman and Bentinck families who owned so much of the land. In fact they are the words of the Virgin Mary, when she was told she had been chosen to give birth to Jesus, and they mean "Let it be done to me according to Thy Word”, so (a) is the closer translation. Actually I cannot find version (b), so probably that was first to be printed and then changed and reprinted. It does not make much sense to move further away from the translation.

Wednesday, 25th January 2023

To continue our story...

We are not entirely sure of everything that happened, but Dwynwen met a young man called Maelon Dafodrill. Either he fell in love with her but she did not love him (which seems unlikely given what happened next), or she fell in love with him and he did not love her, or both fell in love and her father refused him, possibly because her father wanted to wed her to someone more useful, either to improve the family prospects or add to his territories.

Whichever of these it was, Dwywen was desolate, ran away, and prayed that her love for him would go away. Then there is more confusion. Some say an angel came and gave her something to drink, which somehow turned poor Maelon into a block of ice. Others say that God did the turning to ice, though I am not sure why, because he then answered her prayers and gave her three wishes. Her first wish set Maelon free from his icy tomb. Her second, that all lovers ever more be happy, was also granted, with a bargain that all these lovers would remember her forever more. The third does not sound like a wish, but more like the cost for this because it was that she would never fall in love again or marry, devoting herself to religion instead, and moving to Anglesey. 

I am not sure how she got to Anglesey, possibly she rowed, though the tides are treacherous, and there are four tides every day. It is possible to walk across at low tide, it drops to about calf height, but you must be quick and it is not an easy walk for the sands shift frequently. 

This is the first bridge across the Menai Straits and it was built by Thomas Telford - work started in 1819, and it opened in 1826. It was called the Menai Bridge, and was the first iron suspension bridge in the world. It is still possible to use it to this day.

However there is another bridge in this set, at card number 16, which is called the Britannia Tubular Bridge, and that was built beside the Menai Bridge by Robert Stephenson in order to allow the railway to go all the way from London to Holyhead in Anglesey and pick up a boat for Ireland. It was started in 1846 and completed in 1850, with the final rivet being driven home by Stephenson himself. That bridge lasted for many years, until it was badly damaged by fire in 1970 and then the tubes were replaced by concrete, mainly so that both trains and cars could use it at the same time. 

This set appears in our original World Index as "CELEBRATED BRIDGES. Sm. Nd. (50) See H346". H.46 is the handbook and that says it was issued twice more, earlier by John Player, which turns out to have been in November 1903, and later by Faulkner, which turns out to have been in 1925. The Player cards are not numbered, and you can see an example of that as our card of the day for March 10th 2022 - the other two sets are, and they are also slightly different to the Player set as far as captions, so more research is due. In our original and first ever reference book, to Faulkner, it adds that the printer was Mardon, Son and Hall. A quick look at my 1950 L.C.C.C. Catalogue tells us something else, that whilst the Player set retailed for between 2/6 and 6/- a card, or £15 a set, the other two versions were listed at 1/6 a card and 100/- a set.

Thursday, 26th January 2023

Our Centenary Card
for May 2023

Our original Wills Reference Book part four tells us that these were large cards, measuring 79 x 62 m/m, and the fronts were printed in letterpress in colour. The backs were grey with descriptive texts, and the set was a Home Issue only. 

This is rather odd, for the Universities featured in the set were a mixture of British and Overseas ones, so they would have appealed to collectors in other areas of the globe.

The ones from Great Britain were Aberdeen, Birmingham, Belfast, Bristol, Dublin, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, National University of Ireland, Queen's University of Ireland, Royal University of Ireland, Leeds, London, St. Andrews, Sheffield, Victoria University of Manchester, and Wales. Whilst the overseas ones were Bombay, Cape of Good Hope, Hong Kong, Madras, Melbourne, Queensland, and Sydney.

One interesting fact that you may not realise is that there is a slightly hidden extra connection to W.D. & H.O. Wills within this set. This is card number 5, showing the Arms of The University of Bristol. If you look at the reverse text it starts with "This is one of the modern Universities, owing much to the generosity of the family of Wills." And later in the text it tells us that one of the five symbols is "a sun in splendour" (this is taken from the Wills Arms)."  Wills did more for the University than add the sun to the crest though, and several buildings and Halls of Residence not only carry their name but were provided because of money the family donated. They also gave the land known as Tyndall`s Park, and part of Leigh Woods. 

In addition, for trade card collectors, there is another important symbol, and that is the horse, which represents the Fry Chocolate family, who also had much to do with the founding of the university. Indeed the Research Centre is named after Norah Fry, who was a member of the University Council for half a century. However, for some reason, Fry is not mentioned directly on the reverse of the card; it just calls the emblem "a horse courant" (which means a horse running).

This set replaced "Arms of Oxford and Cambridge Colleges", which had been circulating for quite a while, since October 1922 - and they probably arrived without a lot of people noticing, for those cards are pretty much the same front design as these.  Our set lasted just over six months, and was replaced by "Old Furniture" - the first series of which started in October 1923, and the second series in January 1924. I imagine that changeover may also have gone unnoticed...

There is one thing mentioned on the reverse of this particular card that you may not know about, and indeed you may not understand even if you read it, but I looked it up. The card says that these arms "...are curious. They are an almost unique example inasmuch as the fesse is of the heraldic colour "murrey". Though popular for liveries, its use is almost unknown on a shield."  Now the fesse is the horizontal band across the shield - and murrey is a cross between mulberry and purple, and it is only used as a "stain", this being a non-standard colour only used in post-medieval heraldry. By the way the motto means "The best inspiration is truth". 

And as to why we have this card, well the answer to that is also on this card it says that "...in 1893 the three University Colleges of Aberystwyth, Cardiff and Bangor were incorporated into a University of Wales". And Bangor is the important one as far as our story is concerned, because in the 1960s a student at University College, Bangor, had the idea of bringing back St Dwynwen's Day. She did this by making greetings cards, or more correctly by commisssioning them. Remarkably the idea of a special day for Welsh lovers really took off, so much so that in 2003 Tesco even issued free cards in some of its stores, with prizes inserted amongst them. I have never seen one, but if it was given away then surely this is a cartophilic item?

Friday, 27th January 2023

A bit of a change, for the eel that was here first has slid away into the depths - for it was discovered, whilst indexing, that I had used that set before.

Now why eels? Well after Dwynwen came to Anglesey, she founded a convent at a place called Llanddwyn, and there was a well in the grounds, in which were some kind of eel. After she died, in 465 AD, people would often visit the convent, and look at the eels, and it came to be thought that they could tell fortunes, especially for lovers, and most especially for those who fall in love with someone unsuitable. Now I am not sure how these eels told fortunes but I imagine it was something like tea leaves, that their lissome bodies could bend into a readable shape, or maybe into one of the easier initials like S or C.

I tried to find out more about divining with eels, but it seems that this has to be left to the imagination. I did, however, find out that they seem to have fulfilled rather adult roles in painting and literature, both because their shape and their transmission of electricity - more about which can be read at Wellcome/Eels&Feels

This is a slightly different eel to the one you would have seen when you saw this card of the day on its arrival. As to why, well the indexing revealed that we already had a card from John Player Aquarium Series. So we have kept the same issuer but switched to another set. 

Our original John Player reference book, RB.17, issued in 1950, shows this to be quite an interesting issue with several variations. It describes them as : 

102. FRESH-WATER FISHES. Fronts in colour. Backs in grey, with descriptive text. 
A. 50 Small cards, adhesive - special album issued. Home issue. 
1. Backs pink card - issued November, 1933
2. Backs white card - issued February, 1934

B. 25 Large cards, adhesive. Home issue June 1935
C. 25 Large cards, non-adhesive. Irish issue. 

I am not sure why the pink back was replaced, perhaps to make it easier to read? But do email in if you know. 

Our original World Tobacco Issues Index is up to the ploy of splitting Irish cards away again, and they appear on a different page (as P72-101). That leaves the remaining text as : 

FRESH-WATER FISHES. Nd. See RB.17/102
A. Small (50) Back a) pink b) white
B. Large (25)

And the same is true for our updated version, where the Irish set is coded as P644-210. The description is much the same as above, but without the cross reference to the original John Player reference book though it adds, as the last words of the large version, "No album issued"