so here we go again, its newsletter time, and we have some great cards to show you, some of which are new to me too. Thank you to everyone who sends in cards, and if there is an anniversary coming up in your specialist subject please send us a small piece of writing and a back and front scan. You can do this quite anonymously, or your name can be attached for all time.
So let us have a quick trip through our diary - which will tell the tales of a motion marvel, a scarce stamp and even scarcer penny, a curious cheese, glorious "girls" who need more investigation, a Canadian challenge, a premiere of payment, and brilliant brassicas
Lets start with :
Gum Products. Inc [trade : O/S : USA] "Adventure" (1956) 28/100 - R.749
Today is International Snowmobile Ride Day - and it is every second Saturday in February. Now we hope that by using this card we will not bring down the snows, for they are forecast.
Snowmobiles are basically any vehicle which can be driven or propelled across a landscape that has been rendered inaccessible by snow. They are used by rescue services as shown on our card, and also for pleasure.
The earliest were simply car bodies, often the old Model T Ford that was abandoned in the shed, mounted on some kind of skis, and they had the rather odd name of motor sleighs. The first patents were in 1911 and 1915, in Canada. The first actual snowmobile was the name attached to a conversion kit for Model T Fords, aimed to show people without the know how how to join the folks who did. These kits were also sold at Ford Dealerships, which is pretty amazing.
Today most snowmobiles are commercially produced and have all the modern needs, like heating, as well as being much faster - specially modified sports models can reach over 150 mph. And compared to their ancestors they can be huge.
Surprisingly most snow mobiles on cards are not from the Americas but from the Antipodes. In 1961 one was featured in Shell "Transportation". And you can see a couple of very strange looking versions in the Sanitarium/Weet-Bix`s 1966 set of "Snow Holidays" which are used for tourism including the Snow Cat, on card 20/25, which is even made by Porsche, its red as well. And according to card 21/25 they are used as buses in the ski resorts. I have not found any on cigarette cards yet, so that is your challenge!
Now our set of cards is quite scarce and getting more so because it contains sports cards as well, and a full write up plus a gallery of all the cards, can be found at skytamer/adventure
Gum Products, Inc. seems to have been founded in Boston Massachusetts as a confectioner and sweet maker in 1940. It was bought out by Moxie, a fellow candy manufacturer in 1971, and they seem to have retained some of the same brands, but their main interest was in gum balls, which were retailed from penny in the slot machines on the high street and in fairgrounds.
This set appears in Jefferson Burdick`s catalogue, under R.749. He tells us that it is called "Adventure, Action, etc", and that ninety-nine cards have been seen, but he does not mention the one lacking which is a great shame for we will never know the one that was so elusive and made his heart beat so fast when he finally found it. He does give it a date of 1959, but to me it looks it says 1956 on the cards. So perhaps it was a long running series and some can be found with other dates? Do have a look for us please. Sadly he only values them at 0.04 cents each.
Topps [trade/commercial : O/S : USA] "Famous Americans Stamps" (1962) 19/80
Now I am not sure how relevant "lost penny day" is in our post-covid way of life where we only swipe the plastic and not get cash from our wallets, but it is a fun story and we can feature a very odd cartophilic curiosity indeed.
National Lost Penny Day happens every year on this date and the idea behind it is to see how many pennies you can find in cupboards and down the side of the sofa or in the car.
As to why we have Abraham Lincoln that is because the penny concerned is not a penny but a cent, which is called a penny in popular plainspeak in America. Not only that but today is the birthday of Abraham Lincoln as well, and his head has been on those cents or pennies ever since 1909, thousands of them, billions of them, which almost certainly makes him one of the most viewed images in the United States.
In fact one of the rarest coins in the world is the 1943 cent. And you can read why at Time/penny
The thing that surprises me is that despite the connection between Abraham LIncoln and the cent W.D. & H.O. Wills` "Time & Money in Different Countries" (1908) card 46/50 shows him with a dollar and not a cent. It is also quite odd that this card shows a famous person for most of them are national costumes. Even more so that he is not identified as Abraham Lincoln! I think they missed a chance to do something really special there.
The "stamps" we feature are proper gummed-back stamps, but they are not legal tender for posting. Reportedly they were issued in a packet called "Stamp Gum", where they were folded around the gum, often this has resulted in creasing, and sometimes in gum-related staining if the packet got hot and the gum became sticky. In addition they are hard to find like our example, with the picture centred, on the stamp, for most seem to have the picture so close to one end, or the other, for it varies, that the perforations are inside of the border if not the picture.
In case you were wondering, the subjects are not all Presidents, and one especially sought after stamp shows Babe Ruth. There is a checklist of sorts at PSA/TFA but maybe one of our readers knows of a full one. Also it keeps coming up that this was a "test set" so if anyone would like to educate us about that please do. I know that in the 1960s and 1970s there were several experiments including tattoos, die cuts, embossed cards, puzzle cards, coins, and posters.
And I also found the pen and ink artwork for one of our stamps, it was sold at auction some years ago; see that online at Hakes/FamousAmericans
W. & F. Faulkner [tobacco : UK] "Optical Illusions" (1935) 23/25 - F150-780 : F14-34 : Ha.560
Today is National Cheddar Day. A bit of a tangent here, but the shape is unmistakably Cheddar. And it is hard to find many cards featuring cheese.
I do not know why February 13 was chosen for a Cheddar Celebration, but oddly it was not created in England, where Cheddar is from, but by the Tillamook County Creamery Cooperation. Which, after a bit of a round about search turns out to be in Oregon. And I kind of knew it would be, because right now I am getting Oregon off the wall, everything I look at seems to come from there - I just have completely no idea why, but I imagine it will reveal itself to me one of these days and I will be able to say oh THAT is why!
Do we have any readers from Oregon?
Now this set is rather later than those lovely Faulkners that we feature whenever we can. And it was also issued by Ogdens, earlier in 1923, as well as Edwards Ringer and Bigg in the year after ours, 1936.
The Faulkner Reference Book, RB.1, was issued before the idea came to number the sets in those books, so there are no card codes from here. However it tells us that it was "Size A, Numbered 1-25 both sides of cards. Fronts printed in full colour with grey background and white margins. Backs in dark grey with description and title. Similar to Ogden. Printed by Mardon Son & Hall"
The thing that I notice from this description is that the Edwards Ringer and Bigg is not mentioned there. Yet the booklet was written in the early 1940s. So for some reason they did not pick up that version at the time. I will have to research that too.
Now today it is International Book Giving Day which sounds like a great opportunity to introduce non collectors to the wonders of our world. And this is a really wonderful card, with a beautiful lady resting in the library before she leaves for a masked ball, but it holds a deeper truth, because there is a bit of a dig here at learned females, and if you look at her stockings they are blue.
Now originally, in the mid eighteenth century, the Bluestocking Society was a group of literate ladies who wanted to know more, and would meet to educate each other on books and current events, To this end they would invite guests, authors and scientists and even royalty, who were men. Now this seems to have caused great misunderstanding and bluestocking became rather a derisory phrase, that the ladies had books but did not actually read them. So here we have a lady in a library, not reading but posing artistically.
It was about a century after that which saw the phrase return, and the idea, which inspired the beginning of what would turn into the Suffragettes. They also wanted women to learn, and to read all books, whatever she chose, not what she was given.
This card was sent to us for selfie shelfie day but I needed to do a bit more research. That is hard to come by but I think I have found the starting point, again with Jefferson Burdick, who lists something called "Kimball Girls" under H.236. He says they are four and a quarter inches by six inches which is very large, postcard almost, and that they say Bien Lithos, which is another trail to chase. Though a very quick search finds a Julius Bien, Lithographer on Wikipedia/Bien - and that seems to have a few leads to follow, he was born in Germany, and studied lithography there, but left for America in the late 1840s and came to New York, establishing a printing works in 1850.
There is one problem with these cards, for they are totally plain on the back, and some people think they were, or were intended to be, box labels. That might make them not strictly cartophilic? But they are undoubtedly important to the Kimball story.
The Burdick catalogue says that ten of them had been seen and he valued them at 40 cents each. I cannot find them in our books, but will happily start to list the ones we have and see if we can get more than ten, as well as giving them a permanent record of existence.
Anonymous [tobacco : O/S] "Flags of Empire" (1928) 19/50 - ZB07-330 : ZB6-31
Now today is National Flag of Canada Day, so you might think we are showing it here, but we are not. And this is a curious tale indeed. There are several discrepancies that might make you think this is the flag, firstly it is mainly called just "the national flag of Canada", though many people call it "the maple leaf", and there is a maple leaf here, on our card.
The main reason for the confusion was that it was not until 1964 that there was an official Canadian Flag. In fact when this card was issued, in 1928, there were all kinds of Canadian flags, our naval Red Ensign, and the flag of the Royal Military College, to name but two. It was not even standardised as having a maple leaf, for that was also decided in 1964, and the maple leaf was just coincidentally the most liked design out of the final three that came before the selection committee. And afterwards the designer freely admitted he had based it on that Military College Flag.
The new flag was officially hoisted on February 15, 1965, which is where our date comes from.
Now as a bit of a treat we get to see another version of our card of the day from the 5th of February, namely the series of 50 cards, numbered 1-50, but with anonymous backs. This was the general overseas issue, released in 1928.
The first thing you notice is that on the front where that card says "Wills Cigarettes" at the top, our card says, rather oddly, "Flag of The", and this is continued at the bottom with "Dominion of Canada" (whereas the Wills set has the unbroken title all in the bottom border). I am not sure why they did this, they could have either left the top border blank, or even left it off entirely.
Then on the reverse the top box is much plainer and simply has the set title. The bottom box has gone and there is a rather space wasting decorative design. Why not just make the text bigger?
Wand Confectionery Limited [trade : confectionery : UK] "Commemoration Stamp Series" (1962) 12/25 - WAN-050 : WASF-2
Today in 1659, the first ever cheque was used in Britain, signed by a Nicholas Vanacker, and paying the sum of £400 to a Mr Delboe. That sum is equivalent to almost £76,000 in today's money.
And as to why we have Westminster Abbey, for some reason as yet unknown, that cheque is now housed there.
Now I do not yet know much about these people but in Bonhams fine books and manuscripts sale of March 2017 were sold three other cheques by Mr. Vanacker, using the same bank, Clayton and Morris.
The Bank of England also owns one of his cheques, which again tells William Morris to pay £200 to the same Mr Delboe.
There is a London Merchant of the 1670s called Simon Delboe, and there is evidence that Mr. Vanacker was also from a family of Turkey Merchants. This does not mean turkey birds, hopefully, I think it is more regarding items from Turkey, like fine silks and carpets.
Clayton and Morris were top drawer of the London Banking scene, and importantly they specialised in giving credit to landowners, especially at the time of the English Civil War. So it seems likely that Mr. Vanacker had some kind of property and estate. And his will pronounces him to be Sir Nicholas Vanacker.
He died in February 1702.
Imperial Tobacco Company of Canada Limited [tobacco : O/S : Canada] "Gardening Hints" (1923) 41/50 - I 205-560 : I/6-25 : USA/C.15
Today is National Cabbage Day. Now cabbage is part of the brassica family and grows really well in the cold. Bet you didn`t know there were over four hundred varieties either? Or that the humble cabbage is the oldest vegetable known, first being grown in China approximately four hundred years before the birth of Jesus Christ. The Chinese ate it but also used it in medicine, believing it cured baldness, and had many other health bringing effects. Today we realise they were right, as we know it has lots of Vitamin C, which helps fight bone problems like arthritis, and makes your skin less prone to toxins. It also grows healthy nails and can reduce the appearance of those white marks that we call lack of calcium stripes. And it is also known to lower the risk of getting cancer, because it is high in fibre.
Though cabbage can be unpopular, the main reason why is that it is frequently overcooked, and this reduces the amount of Vitamin C too. It is very easy to grow at home though and was one of the main foods grown for Dig For Victory in the Second World War. It grows on most soils and does not need a lot of looking after. And if you get too much you can always shred it and pickle it.
Now if you are wondering whether cabbage can be grown in Canada, the answer is definitely yes, for it likes cool weather. It has two growing seasons, Fall, which is September to November, and Spring, which is February to April. So our Canadian readers ought to be planting it now. They seem to specialise in the quicker growing varieties and harvesting them as soon as they can, to which end they rely heavily on compost and often use the no dig method piling the compost up year on year and not digging it at the end of the season. And they also seem to plant the seeds directly into the ground rather than starting them in pots like we do. Or in egg boxes like I do.
This week's Cards of the Day...
were all about the Dreadnought which was launched in 1906, and also has a claim to Cartophilic Fame, because it gave its name to an entire set by W.D. & H.O. Wills.
Saturday, 4th February 2023
So here we have J. Easson and he played for Portsmouth. And H.M.S. Dreadnought was launched at Portsmouth, on the 10th of February 1906, by His Majesty the King (Edward the Seventh). It had been a very quick build, just four months long, then there were trials, for speed and for performance. But on passing these, she became the flagship of the Home Fleet in April 1907.
Now when I mentioned this set to someone I was told it was an interesting one, but it turns out that it is actually one third of what is more correctly an interesting group of sets.
First to be issued was a set called "Famous Footballers", that is a set of fifty cards with grey brown backs which have the top title box as a white line drawing of a goal mouth, and the bottom box as a white line drawing of a football, crossed pennants behind the F.A. Cup (I think it is the F.A. Cup) and a pair of football boots. The thing that is most unusual is that there is not a word on the card about the set being issued by Godfrey Phillips, and therefore it ended up at the back of the World Tobacco Issues Index under ZB5-3
Next up came our set, "International Caps", and that is virtually the same as the above, except for the back design - and four cards -
19 (FF - H. Carter of Sunderland / IC - A Geldard Everton)
21 (FF - A Young of Huddersfield / IC - E Hart Leeds United)
31 (FF - E J Drake of Arsenal / IC - W Alsford Tottenham)
34 (FF - R Barclay of Sheffield United / IC - T Cooper of Liverpool).
Presumably the first names listed from the Famous Footballers set were not international players, and so they had to be subsituted. However is there anyone out there who can confirm this? And if anyone has the entire pair of sets, can you confirm that all the other subjects are the same, and the texts are identical? Many thanks.
Lastly, and not issued until 1937, came a set called "Soccer Stars" and that is again based on the two sets above, but there are lots more changes, cards -
2 (F/I - B. Williams of Everton / SC - Walter Boyes of West Bromwich Albion)
3 (F/I - T Griffith of Aston Villa / SC - Jack Bowers of Derby County)
5 (F/I - C Jones of Birmingham / SC - Joe Bambrick of Chelsea)
8 (F/I - J. Bray of Manchester City / SC - Fred Worrall of Portsmouth)
10 (F/I - R John of Arsenal / SC - Tommy Walker of Heart of Midlothian)
11 (F/I - F. Keenor, Tunbridge Wells Rangers / SC - Ralph Birkett, Middlesborough)
12 (F/I - L Jones of Coventry City / SC - Peter Doherty of Manchester City)
13 (F/I - C Britton of Everton / SC - Harry Hanford of Sheffield Wednesday)
17 (F/I - T Mills of Leicester City - SC - Ted Sagar of Everton)
20 (F/I - Crayston of Arsenal / SC - Jimmy Simpson of Rangers)
23 (F/I - W. Evans of Tottenham Hotspur / SC - Bob Mc Phail of Rangers)
26 (F/I - R. Westwood of Bolton Wanderers / SC - Alex Massie of Aston Villa)
30 (F/I - D. Duncan of Derby County / SC - Jimmy Connor of Sunderland)
32 (F/I - S. Lawrence of Swansea Town - SC - Jimmy McGrory of Celtic)
39 (F/I - E. Bowden of Arsenal / SC - Willis Edwards of Leeds United)
41 (F/I - J Jackson of Chelsea / SC - William Richardson of West Bromwich Albion)
42 (F/I - T Waring of Burnley / SC - Tom Cooper of Liverpool)
46 (F/I - J . Allen of Aston Villa / SC - Ellis Rimmer of Sheffield Wednesday)
47 (F/I - P Gallacher of Sunderland / SC - Lewis Stoker of Birmingham City)
48 (F/I - A James of Arsenal / SC - Charlie Napier of Derby County)
49 (F/I - N. Dewar, Sheffield Wednesday / SC - Harold Hobbis, Charlton Athletic)
That was quite a "tackle" but I am delighted to say there were several throw ins, for which many thanks.
Sunday, 5th February 2023
This was the White Ensign, the flag of the Royal Navy. In fact it is exclusively for them. save the Royal Yacht Squadron and on the rare occasions when one of the Trinity House ships either has the Sovereign on board, or is escorting her. Our card says that it was "a grave offence" for any other to fly it and is not only "liable to be boarded by officers of H.M.`s service" but also that "the owners or captain (or both) [would be] liable to a penalty of £500". A quick calculate online tells me that the £500 quoted when this card was printed is equivalent to about £39,000 today.
This card turned out to be a much longer story than I had imagined. It starts very simply, in our original Wills Reference Book part IV, where it tells us that this set had the "fronts printed by letterpress in colour, Backs in grey with descriptive text." Then there is the makings of a curious tale, which I have attempted to unravel. The main discovery in that booklet is that this set was issued in three versions.
-
215A was a series of 25, numbered 1-25. Wills name and I.T.C. Clause at base of backs, home issue 1926.
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216A was the second series of 25 as above but issued in 1929.
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216B was a series of 50 cards, numbered 1-50, but with anonymous backs. This was a general overseas issue and it was released in 1928.
Now the problem is that also in the same section it tells us that the first set of 25 was issued in November 1926, overseas, with Flag Cigarettes. However if it was overseas surely it would not have the I.T.C. Clause? Then, in March 1929, "the balance" - by which I guess they mean the remainders - were issued here at home. Now for some reason, maybe because there were not very many left, it had a really short run, and just the following month, April 1929, that second series of 25 cards was issued.
Wills book 5 complicates this still further because it tells us that an Australian issue had been seen, and so the recording in the last book requires revision as follows :
-
215A (i) is the home issue, with the Wills name and the I.T.C. Clause at the base.
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215A (ii) is an Australian issue with the Wills name and "World Renowned Cigarettes" at the base, but without the I.T.C. Clause. No second series has yet been seen.
This system was then followed by the 1956 World Tobacco Issues Index. They give W62-135.1 as a series of 25 and W62-135.2 as the second series of 25. But at the back of the book they have the anonymous set of 50 cards listed under ZB6-31. And this is the same in the year 2000 World Tobacco Issues Index apart from the codes which are W675-173 and ZB07-330
Monday, 6th February 2023
Now here we have Admiral Lord Fisher, and the very last lines of the back text say it all, for it says "He is the originator of the Dreadnought type of vessel".
Admiral Lord Fisher, or John Arbuthnot Fisher, First Baron Fisher was born on the 25th of January 1841. He much preferred being called Jackie or Jacky. He was in the Royal Navy for sixty years, and he is chiefly acknowledged today for his wide ranging reforms to the entire service, from gunnery to ship design and construction, as well as to brand new craft. The Dreadnought was one of his first chances to put these beliefs in to practise before the build rather than to try and retrofit them to an ancient vessel. He had only been First Sea Lord for two years when Dreadnought was launched.
This is a lovely set, and the sculptural quality stands out, yet I am sure some readers may find it uninspiring in its greyness.
Our 1956 World Tobacco Issues Index tells us that this set was issued in two versions. Both are small cards, measuring 68 x 36 m/m and they are summarised as "black and white reproductions of busts. Nd. (35)" However it then splits the set into the two versions,
A. titled "Famous Officers"
B. titled "Hero Series", but only cards 1-21 had been seen, not the full set of 35 "Famous Officers"
Singleton and Cole were founded in 1870, and were still trading at the time of this volume.
In our updated World Tobacco Issues Index it still says much the same except it calls them "imitation busts". And oddly there have been no more cards discovered of the "Hero Series", it is static at just cards 1-21
Now there is an oddity because neither of these mention something which appears in the London Cigarette Card Catalogue of 1950. They have the set listed for sale in three versions. The first is A1, "Famous Officers" back, toned card 1915. This is listed as being retailed for between 6/- to 17/6 for odd cards, and £30 for a complete set in that printing. Then they have A2. "Famous Officers" white card, which are listed at between 12/6 and 40/- for odds but not available as a set. It seems very odd that there were enough of the white cards to list them separately, so where did they go and why were they not included in our index? Then lastly they have the "Hero Series", listed at 100/- to 240/- for odd cards, but no sets.
Tuesday, 7th February 2023
This set would probably never have been named "The World`s Dreadnoughts" without our ship, though Dreadnought had been a name used by several vessels in the past - and will almost certainly be used in the future, for it is currently being sported by a ballistic missile submarine.
The first ship to carry the motto of "Fear God and Dread Nought" was a galleon and she fought the Spanish Armada during her lengthy career of over seventy years. Another famous Dreadnought was at the Battle of Trafalgar with Admiral Lord Nelson. But these were just single ships, one offs, whereas our Dreadnought saw her name given to a style of heavily armoured battleship all over the world.
Our set was issued just four years after our ship had been launched. In our original Wills Reference Books parts III and IV they appear as W/115. They are described as "25 The World`s Dreadnoughts" Fronts lithographed in colour. Backs with descriptive text. Issued 1910." Already there were several versions known
Home Issue
A) backs in blue-grey with Imperial Tobacco Company and Album clauses
Australian Issue without Imperial Tobacco Company and Album clauses
B) backs in blue-black with "Capstan" advertisement
C) backs in blue-black with "Vice Regal" advertisement
General Overseas Issues
D) backs in blue-black without Imperial Tobacco Company and Album clauses but with "W.D. & H.O. Wills, Bristol & London" at foot
E) backs in blue-black without Imperial Tobacco Company but with Album clauses. Album clause reads "...price 25 c each" No brand advertised and an anonymous issue.
Wills part IV gives a bit more information about E) and says that it was issued in Canada, and is listed on page 141 of Mr. Burdick`s American Catalogue as item C65.
By the time of our World Tobacco Issues Index, published in 1956 the home issue is listed as W62-105 and it simply says "Sm. Nd. (25) see W/115A. This is repeated in our updated version, but the code has changed to W675-138.
Running late tonight, so I will have a look at the overseas versions of this set, tomorrow for they are in different parts of the Indexes.
Wednesday, 8th February 2023
This set is most attractive, but by the time it was issued our Dreadnought was no more. Despite her importance to the evolution of the Battleship, she had only been involved in one event, when she sank a German submarine, and that was not done by superior fire power but by ramming it.
She missed out on the Battle of Jutland because it occurred whilst she was out of action, being refitted, and after that she found herself patrolling the English Channel. She did eventually get out into the action again, but not until 1918. The following year she was demoted to being a reserve, and renamed Hercules.
in 1921 she was sold for scrap, at just over £2 a ton. And they either failed to feel her importance, or just did not care, for they kept no artefacts for posterity. According to Wikipedia/Dreadnought1906 all that remains is one of the decorative plugs that sealed her guns against the waters and the rains.
There never was a Cartophilic Reference Book to R. J. Lea but we know that they were founded in 1865 in Manchester. Later on they moved to Stockport. Their most popular brands were "Chairman", "Golden Knight", "Honeydew", "Navy Cut", "Tournament", and "Vice Chairman". The cards in our set measure 66 x 35 m/m, and are numbered 1 - 25
Thursday, 9th February 2023
Wm. Clarke & Son [tobacco : UK] "Marine Series" (1907) /25 - C560-460 : C90-13 So here we have another stirring view of H.M.S. Dreadnought, and this one was issued in 1907 so it is a very contemporary image indeed. Wm. Clarke and Son are a very interesting company for they were based in Liverpool and London, which I do not think is purely in alphabetical order as so many lists are. My reasoning behind this is that in 1923 they moved everything to Dublin because of the changes to the borders and their effects on trade, and I just feel this would have been easier to do from Liverpool to Dublin. But I may be wrong and if so please say so! In our original World Tobacco Issues Index this set is simply described as "Sm. Nd. (25), referring to the size (small, or standard), the fact that each card is numbered, and the number that makes a complete sets which appears in the brackets. However there is one interesting point that may be gleaned for the set is in the section for cards issued between 1907 and 1915. Our set, from 1907, is the only one which does not have an H. number with it, and that most often tells us that the set was issued by another. So the rest of the sets in this section are "Army Life" 1915 (which was issued by Davies, Player, BAT and Wills "Scissors") "Butterflies and Moths" 1912 (also by Adkin and Player) and "Royal Mail" 1914 (also by Ogdens).
Friday, 10th February 2023
Our original paperback Reference Book to the issues of Ogdens Ltd is a fount of knowledge. Not only the basic description : "fronts printed in letterpress in black and white. Backs in black, no descriptive text. Home issue 1915." but it also adds that "Many of the cards in this series are found with two or more different numbers"
There is a list, which I will scan and add, but our card, showing as number 44, can also be found as card 25. It seems that 44 is the most usual printing. Now if you look at card 25, the most usual printing of that is on a card called "Dropping bombs from aeroplane". It seems that there is no alternative card 44. However you may spot it once the list appears, and you can also check your sets!
Another fascinating fact within this section is the fact that there were similar issues by Wills (Australia) and Sweet Caporal (Canada)
Now a bit of extra research tells us that the Wills set is actually two, because it can be found with "Wills Specialities" and with the "Havelock" brand.
And the Sweet Caporal was issued by Imperial Tobacco of Canada, with a very similar back to ours, though the album clause "Albums for these picture cards can be obtained / at 1/- each through all tobacconists" and the bottom panel "Issued by the manufacturers of Sweet Caporal Cigarettes" are different. The front is also slightly different for the panel read "Sweet Caporal" Cigarettes rather than Ogdens.
Well there we are, I almost managed to upload this on time. It is 00.09. There were a few distractions, but we got there. Hope you found something of interest, and if you have any comments, corrections or additions do get in touch with us at webmaster@card-world.co.uk
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