Well this week has been very exciting, and included a day at a not so local market selling my wares. Hope to do it again next Thursday as well. I really need to clear out before I have to give up my unit at the collectables centre at the end of this month, after being there since 2011. I could kvetch about the ULEZ, but instead, as I am being frequently told by my morning tarot, sometimes you must give up your old life in order to embrace, more fully, the new life which is coming.
So watch this space.
Now, you may be wondering what do we have in store this week. And the answer is quite a lot of flying. It just worked out that way, or maybe this is a sign that my future is far away...
Better prepare for take off then.
John Player - Doncella brand [tobacco : UK] "The Doncella History of the V.C. (1980) 21/24 - P644-382
Today we remember not just Guy Penrose Gibson, V.C., who was born today, in India, in 1918, but those who were forever affected by the events of that mission; not just the fifty-three aircrew who were killed and the three who were captured, but the almost thirteen hundred people who met their deaths through the bursting of those dams, to say nothing of the animals, both domesticated and not.
Only Wing Commander Guy Gibson received the Victoria Cross for the raids.
As for Barnes Neville Wallis, who designed the bomb, had to wait until 1968 to get a knighthood, though he also received the sum of ten thousand pounds for his contribution to War Work. Tellingly he did not use a penny of this, instead he gave it to his old school, setting up a scholarship scheme which would allow for children of lost or disabled airmen to attend.
I have found no cards of Barnes Neville Wallis. And the only other card of Guy Penrose Gibson is one of those very large cards which were intended to be filed in a military history file. You can see it as the Trading Card Database /Gibson. With my antique dealer`s hat on, for the second time this week, I can tell you that I know all I need to know about those, and that is that they are impossible to sell. I would like to be able to tell you that is because we are thoroughly fed up of the waste of war, but the news says otherwise.
Now this set is not in our original World Tobacco Issues Index simply because this set is much later than that book. However it does appear in the updated version where it is described as : "THE DONCELLA HISTORY OF THE V.C. Nd. (24) and unnumbered set Completion Offer card offer expiring 31-12-81." The completion card is the same size by the way, and it is usually sold separately.
Burger King [trade : restaurants : UK] "The Empire Strikes Back - Everybody Wins trading cards" (1980) Un/36
Now this is one of my tangents, but today I am allowed to look at the world in a different way, because it is Left-Hander`s Day. And here, believe it or not, we have a left-handed Wookie, Chewbacca.
I love it when heroes have, not flaws, but things which make them different, for these give encouragement to those of us who are also different in the same way, to make us feel like we are not alone in our otherness, and that we too may rise. And also, sometimes, it is the different one who is the only one who can save the world.
Now according to the Trading Card Database / Chewbacca there are 2002 cards, and counting, with ever more Star Wars films, comics, and tv series on the way.
This cards were issued in twelve strips of three, with dotted lines between the first and second, and second and third card. However there are uncut sheets about, if that is your sort of thing. Now as you can see on our card, collectors tended to cut them closer to the card so that these lines were removed.
The cards were actually the lower band of prizes in a scratch card game called "Everybody Wins!". The prizes were 21,328,887 trading cards, 487,559 Star Wars Flying Saucers, and 14,554 hand held electronic games. Then there was a sweepstake for an Atari Video Computer System. Coca-Cola was involved with it too, so maybe if you bought a drink with your burger you got a strip of cards as well. But the back of the cards also say that the "Game ends July 30th 1981, or when game card supplies run out."
Ardath Tobacco Co Ltd. [tobacco : UK] "Empire Flying Boat" (January 1938) 5/48 - A745-320 : A72-21
From one Empire to another, for today, a hundred years ago, the World`s first flying boat passenger service set off on its maiden trip. The operators were the British Marine Navigation Company, who had been formed in March 1923 - and which was partially owned by Southern Railway. The flying boat set off from Woolston, Southampton and headed for the Channel Islands. It seems to have landed at St. Helier, but researching this seems to be taking almost as long as the flight!
Now you may be wondering what happened to the British Marine Navigation Company. And the answer is that they became Imperial Airways, in 1924.
This later flying boat is not here by coincidence though, for there is also a rather interesting card in another Ardath set "Speed - Land, Sea and Air" which also shows the Empire Flying Boat, and reveals it to have been operated by Imperial Airways.
I do, however, freely admit I love these odd sectional series, for though you get a miniature world on every card that was ever issued, with these you have to guess at the parts you cannot see, until, slowly, and tantalisingly, it is revealed in all its glory, and also demonstrates just how wild and wrong an imagination can be.
So the first appearance of this set, so far, is in RB.6, published in 1943, just five years after the cards were. Sadly there were no card codes included in that volume, but there is a very good description, which is :
Jan 1938. EMPIRE FLYING BOAT (Sectional Picture) (titled series.) Size 1 7/16" x 2 11/16". Numbered 1-48. Printed in four colours from half tone blocks. Backs titled adhesive, printed in blue with descriptions. Folder issued, price 1d. Also issued in February, 1938, in Jersey.
Now I do not know whether the Jersey cards differ - perhaps you do. Or whether there is some connection between Imperial Airways, whose route went to Jersey.
Also I have yet to see the folder.
Before I dash on, given the issue date was 1938, it is very possible that I may be able to find an original New Issues Report to beguile you with.
Now this set also appears in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, and the updated version, where it is described as : "EMPIRE FLYING BOAT. Sm. Sectional series. Nd. (48). Special folder issued." There is no mention of the Jersey connection here, which suggests that the cards were just a standard reprint.
Carreras Ltd [tobacco : UK] "Famous Airmen & Airwomen" (1936) 11/50 - C151-240 : C18-41
So today in 1923, a hundred years ago, you may read that the first United States Naval Reserve Air Station was founded at N.R.A.S. Squantum, Massachusetts.
However it was not a case of digging the ground from scratch, because it had been used as an airport in 1917, and by the U.S. Navy, for seaplanes, in a rather neat link to an earlier card. Before that it had also been an airport, albeit a civilian one, known as the Harvard Aviation Field, which was first used in 1910, and was quickly taken over by the Navy when America joined the First World War.
However in 1923, our man, Lt, Richard Evelyn Byrd found the site, and the large hangar which was becoming derelict, and thought it would make a good place to train the Naval Reserve. He, and some friends and volunteers, some of them Naval veterans, cleared the site and looked at the hanger. They then started training, but on seaplanes; we do not know why but it appears that the field was very rough, for it took until October 1929 to make it suitable for aircraft to land and take off.
.Our original and updated World Tobacco Issues Indexes describes this set as simply "FAMOUS AIRMEN & AIRWOMEN. Sm. Nd. (50)"
However the aeroplane shown here is very interesting because it was the Curtiss Wright used for many of his Antarctic Expeditions, which took place from 1928-35, and if the writing on the sides was clearer, or larger, it would plainly say "Byrd Antarctic Expedition" on the top line. Richard Byrd explored the Antarctic from New Zealand over almost thirty years, and he came to love the country and its peoples that though he said it was his second home it was pretty much his first. He did return to America, but in the late 1930s tried to go back on another expedition. However this was short lived, and then the Second World War put it to rest. He did have his wish though, and another exploration took place in 1946-47 which led to him remaining there off and on until the late 1950s.
He died at his home in Boston in March 1957. His body was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, but his spirit haunts his other memorial, on Mount Victoria, in Wellington, New Zealand
Carreras Ltd [tobacco : UK] "Famous Naval Men" (1929) 18/24 - C151-455 : C18-80
Today in 1923, yes another centenary, this man, Viscount Jellicoe, and also currently the Governor General of New Zealand, was also made the Governor of the Ross Dependency in Antarctica. He was also instructed to put all laws of New Zealand into effect on that land. I get the feeling most of them would not apply, but never mind.
Now Viscount Jellicoe had another life before his Governance, and our card shows him in that capacity - as Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, First Earl Jellicoe, GCB, OM GCVO, DL, SGM.
He was born in December 1859, and rose to command the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland, which seemed not to be popular with the British Public because he did not sink the German Fleet in the water, but allowed them to return home so that the damage could be seen close at hand.
He died, of pneumonia, in November 1935, and is buried in the Crypt of St. Paul`s Cathedral
Now I wonder how many of our readers have seen this set before? I certainly had not. And its gets more curious when I fetch our original World Tobacco Issues Index, because it is not there - it goes straight from "Famous Footballers" to "Figures of Fiction". However if you keep looking it is there, in sub section 2D, "General Export Issues", under which it is described as simply : "FAMOUS NAVAL MEN. Lg. Nd. (24)"
I have been able to track down a lost of all the cards, at Listal/FNM - but it also shows all the cards, front and back. I have not come across this site before, but will definitely return and have a better look. Is anyone else a regular user?
Stephen Mitchell & Son [tobacco : UK] "Actors & Actresses" M757-110.3 : M122-1.3 : H.20
So I am slowly tracking this down.
Until then, in the darkness, I shall weave you the tale of Miss Julia Marlowe, someone who, as far as I know, did not use her time on the stage to move to the big screen. But she does have another cartophilic claim to fame, because she appears in both versions of W. Duke, Sons & Co.`s "Yacht Colours of the World", representing the Dorchester Yacht Club. These were issued in 1889 and 1890.
She was born Sarah Frances Frost, near Keswick, in the county of Cumberland, England, in 1865, and her father is often said to be a simple shoemaker. However when she was four years old a chance event changed her life forever. What happened is the subject of much speculation, but her father injured another man and felt he had to emigrate to avoid the scandal. Some say that this was whilst watching sport, when a rough and tumble became too rough, and others say it was fisticuffs. And one says that he was riding in a horse race, when his whip flicked another rider in the eye. But if he was a simple shoe maker, how was he also a jockey? Or were the shoes he made for horses?
Anyway whichever they were gone, just like that, escaping the repercussions. He must have been terrified, because he changed the family name as well, and never settled after, moving the family to one state after the other. And somewhere along the trail she also discovered the magic involved in becoming someone else. Her family did not encourage her acting ambitions initially, but they probably quickly realised that a touring company was the perfect disguise.
I do not know what happened to the family after she was married in 1894, to a fellow actor, but she must have settled enough to make her debut on Broadway in 1895, and to earn enough to buy a house. The marriage lasted six years and there were no children. She stayed single for a while and then married another actor in 1911. This lasted until his death in 1933, after which she was seldom seen outside their house. She died in November 1950, aged eighty-five.
So we are a bit closer to filling the gap that was left in the newsletter for the description of this card
I found that this is one of the first three issues by Stephen Mitchell & Son, stated as being issued between 1899 and 1902, though the company joined Imperial Tobacco Co. in 1901, and added the I.T.C. clause wording, so I imagine any 1902 cards were simply ones that were in packets that had not sold yet.
Our original World Tobacco Issues Index tells us that there are several versions of our set, and describes it as :
ACTORS AND ACTRESSES (A). Sm. 70 x 38. Unnd. See H.20
1. Coloured. Selection from "FROGA B" and "FROGA C". 48 known.
2. Unicoloured, with plain oblong at base [by which I think they mean the name plate] "FROGA B" subjects. 23 known
3. Unicoloured, with scroll oblong at base.
(i) Brownish tint in border colouring. "FROGA C" subjects. (25)
(ii) Stone-coloured borders. "FROGA D" subjects. (50).
This is very similar in the updated World Tobacco Issues Index, but set 1. now has fifty-one subjects, 2. has twenty-six, and 3.i has twenty five.
Now this seems a rather apt time to explain those "FROGA" and similar acronyms. For these may sound mystical, but they are simply the means by which a similar set can be linked to the other issuers. Now some of them are not exactly correct, at least not any more, for through the years other issuers have been discovered and yet the acronym has passed into popular usage, and is forced to stay the same. "FROGA" was made up of the issuers Faulkner, Richmond Cavendish, Ogden, Goodbody, and Archer. Often in these acronyms the "A" is for an anonymous version, and there is, oddly, an anonymous set here. There may have been others found at the start too, but as the idea was to construct a recognisable acronym, any initials that would not were left out. And there are quite a lot more "FROGA" issuers, over all the versions - Jas. Biggs, Cadle, Churchman, Cohen Weenen, Cope, Dunn (a trade issuer, selling hats), Edmondson (a trade issuer, of confectionery), Ellis Davis (a trade issuer, of tea), Hignett, Hill, Hudden, L. & Y. Tobacco (overseas), Charles J. Mitchell (of Toronto in Canada), B. Morris, Muratti, Ogden, Planter`s Stores (of Calcutta in India), Pritchard & Burton, James Quinton, and R. Roberts.
Of these, T. P. & R. Goodbody, of Dublin and London, are the only issuer who actually titles their set, as "Eminent Actresses". This rather suggests that it was discovered later, after the set had entered the catalogues as "Actors and Actresses", and it was felt that to change it may have been too confusing. This theory is also supported by the fact that in several catalogues the listing for this set is "Eminent Actresses - FROGA A"
Of course the acronym proves something else, that the main early researchers were, for the most part, military men, highly accustomed to using such things in their daily doings.
Now for my trusty 1950 London Cigarette Card Company Catalogue and Handbook. I started with the handbook, which says our card of Julia Marlowe was only in the set of fifty. That is good, because the entry for H.20 spreads over four pages. And also this set of fifty was only issued by Mitchell, which makes the above rather un-necessary, though rather than deleting it I will keep it and then extract it to use on the other versions as they appear.
W.D. & H.O. Wills - Four Aces brand [tobacco : UK] "Stage and Film Stars" (1926) 24/50 - W675-442 : W62-304.a : RB.21/200-172.A
Now you all know of Mary Pickford, and if not she has a card biography elsewhere on this site. However she was not the only Pickford Player, for her brother, Jack, was also a movie star and he was born on this day in 1896.
In fact his name was not Jack at all, it was John Charles. He was just one of the Pickford children, whose father went out one day and did not come back. All three went into the movies as children, Gladys, who became Mary, and Lottie, and Jack. Mary, of course, was the most famous, and appears on the most cards. Jack appears on eight, but most are the same front by different issuers - anyway you can see them at The Trading Card Database /JackPickford.
The problem with Jack Pickford was that whilst his sister Mary appeared in family films, he had a taste for the wild side of life, alcohol, like his father, and drugs, and depression, and a relationship with actress, and artist`s model, Olive Thomas, two years older, who was most famous for a rather risque work of art where she holds a rose to her lips with one hand and squeezes of her breast with the other. It was a very popular work, and is easily found online. They fought like crazy, and made up the same way. It is not sure who introduced whom to cocaine, which, though it could never be proven, almost certainly was involved in some way with her death, in 1920, aged just twenty-six.
Two years later, Jack Pickford married another Ziegfeld girl, Marilyn Miller. This marriage lasted four years and she cited abuse as the reason for the separation, in 1926. Then in 1930, he married again, a Ziegfeld girl called Mary Mulhern. It was pretty much over withing a few months, and she filed for divorce in 1932.
Under a year later, Jack Pickford was dead, aged 36.
Now "Four Aces" cigarettes were issued in areas where British Garrisons were stationed, and I imagine inside those camps.
Our original and updated World Tobacco Issues Indexes see this set described as :
STAGE AND FILM STARS. (A). Sm. 62 x 35. (50) See RB.21/200-172.A
(a) numbered on back
(b) Unnumbered
Now you may be wondering why they both cite RB.21 - and the answer is that this set does not seem to appear in the Wills reference books. And I wonder whether anyone out there has any ideas why this should be so?
This week's Cards of the Day...
Anyway I hoped you were able to get comfortable, and put the kettle on, because this week, starting today, we have been celebrating Afternoon Tea Week.
Now you may think there is no space for the sitting down and partaking of a gentle sipping of tea in this rapidly paced age, but maybe we should reconsider. We all need a breathing space, to sit and relax and think. And you do not have to go out to a tea rooms to do it every day, or at all - you just pick a time that suits your schedule, brew up, then sit and relax.
The story of afternoon tea is a simple one, it just filled the gap in between lunch and dinner, and it also occupied the guests who were staying over at country houses, especially if it was raining.
Now I have found a few websites that say it started in the 1840s, but it took a while to find out who by. The secret was to work on the fact that the greatest influencer, shall we say, was Queen Victoria, who was very fond of afternoon tea, and definitely started the Victorian equivalent of a trend. However there are two conflicting, but similar, stories about its actual start. One of these says that one of her ladies in waiting, Lady Bedford, suggested one day that Her Majesty might like a cup of tea to break up the afternoon, and as it was enjoyable, they continued. .The other has that The Duchess of Bedford found that she was frequently hungry in the afternoon, because at that time the lunch was at midday and the tea was a high tea, at about half past eight. So one day, just before 4 pm, she rang her little bell and asked the maid to bring her a plate of bread and butter triangles, with jam. I do not know whether she had guests, who liked the idea, or if she told someone what she got up to, but the idea spread until it reached the ears of Queen Victoria herself.
And in 1865 it started being offered as an event by The Langham Hotel
Saturday, 5th August 2023
So for our first clue we had a cup, but using a trophy to represent the word "cup" so as to make us think of a tea cup. Which you may think has to be the main ingredient in any tea ceremony, but not necessarily, for in China they use bowls, not cups. And they do not use a teapot either.
I promised you a funny story about this card, so here it is. Saturday morning at about 1 am I woke up and checked the newsletter was in place, and it was, but the card of the day had not changed. So I went in to see if I had got the scheduled time wrong, only to find that there was no scheduled card of the day at all. I had the pair in the media gallery on this website, but not the single, and that ruins the 8pm reveal a bit. I could have downloaded it and cut it in half, but not with only my phone downstairs because that has no way to edit anything. Anyway I was able to beg a favour off a dealer friend and copy and paste the one off their website. This is why if you looked very early there was a card without the usual black border. But my card appeared as soon as it could.
Anyway this set, along with its larger sized sibling, appears in our original Churchman reference book (RB.10), published in 1948, as :
131. April 1927. 25 SPORTING TROPHIES (titled series). Size 2 11/16" x 1 7/16" or 67 x 36 m/m. Numbered 1-25. Fronts printed by letterpress, 4-colour half tone process. Backs in dark green, with descriptions. Printed by Mardon, Son & Hall.
132. May 1927. 12 SPORTING TROPHIES. Similar format to (131) but size 3 5/16" x 2 9/20" or 80 x 62 m/m
Our original World Tobacco Issues Index shortens this to
SPORTING TROPHIES. Nd.
A. Small (25)
B. Large (12)
though that is at least on three lines, whereas it is all on one line in our updated version.
Sunday, 6th August 2023
This second clue was so out of context, and it really amuses me to have gone off on such a tangent - but what we were looking for was simply a saucer. And this is a rather spectacular saucer, though if you were sat drinking your afternoon tea you might be rather disturbed to see this view outside the window.
I have to admit that when I think of afternoon tea, or any tea it usually does not involve a saucer - but that is because in the curious and hazardous world of the dyspraxic it is just another thing to try to hold on to but end up dropping on the way to the table.
This set has become a cult classic, and, strangely, been the inspiration for a motion picture, rather than the usual practise where a successful film or tv series has cards produced off it. It feeds off the 1960s craze on alien invasion, which reflected the worries about war, threatened war, and nuclear weapons, but as usual is taken to a very gory conclusion, rather than our thinking the alien may be coming down to help us, and welcoming them with open arms.
Monday, 7th August 2023
Our third clue provided the cakes, or dainties, and these are very dainty indeed. Now you do not always have to have cake, because at many places afternoon tea can include sandwiches, though tradition and etiquette says that they really ought to have had the crusts cut off.
Now the really curious thing about this card is the title, for an iced bun to me, and hopefully to you as well, is a long bread roll with icing over the top from end to end, and sometimes it has jam or cream on it (or both). However the items on this card are definitely nothing like those, and nothing like a bun, if you ask me. I have had a quick look into the subject and the clue could be that some shops list what I call an iced bun as an iced finger bun. So somewhere along the line were there both sorts and these ones showing here were just lost in time.
If you are yelling, yes, I have used this card before, but just when it is an anniversary of a Branch or Club, or the birthday of a prominent cartophilist, or indeed cartophilistess. So it is pleasing that today I get to add it in, at last, as a card of the day, and to be able to discuss it, not just show it.
Now C.W.S. is actually a much needed abbreviation for the Co-Operative Wholesale Society, who were based in Manchester, England. However, as our original World Tobacco Issues Index tells us, they were pretty universally "Known as "C.W.S." and many cards [are] only identifiable through these initials, [sometimes suffixed by] "C.W.S. Tobacco Factory." And it also adds that "the firm also issued cards advertising non-tobacco products". In fact, they issued cards with non-tobacco products as well, being perhaps the only cigarette card issuer to do so. Unless anyone out there can think of another ?
I am rather surprised that this set was from the tobacco branch, for cookery in the home at that time was traditionally the job of the lady. However in that immediate post war period from 1923 - 1928 we have other tobacco sets on English Roses, and Wayside Flowers. So maybe the idea was to capture the attention of women, who in the early 1930s were just beginning to take advantage of their new found independence and smoke.
This set is described in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes as : "COOKING RECIPES (A) Sm. 63 x 38. Nd. (25)".
Sadly only the issuers with original reference books have longer and more detailed descriptions - and there never was a CW.S. reference book. However, there was planned to be, and it was also to cover the Scottish C.W.S., as well as Cavander[s], Drapkin, Duncan and Millhoff. This book is listed in the back of the Lambert & Butler Reference Book, RB.9, published in 1948, along a whole plethora of reference books that formed a "Suggested grouping to complete Part 1 of Programme - British Issuers", numbered 1-23". Most of these never made it to the printing stage.
Tuesday, 8th August 2023
Here we have a card showing tea being served. And it is pleasing to me that I can show such non Western cards, because they are not a thing i collect or really know anything about.
Now you will find this set listed at the back of the book in our original World Tobacco Issues Index under sub-section 5C. [Other backs in black. All issued through B.A.T., unless stated] and in b) the second grouping, where it appears as :
SUNDRY BACK 11 (A). See RB.21/530.9. Sm. 63 x 36. CHINESE SERIES - known in Shanghai as "Archangels". Nd.
2. Series B. Numbered on front. (48) Back with numbers preceded by letter "B". (a) with (b) without letter "T" at base.
If we turn to that RB.21, it is listed at the front of the book under "Anonymous Issues (5) with Chinese Language backs" and it states that "All cards issued in China and in Chinese speaking areas in the East. Period of issue about 1925-39 unless otherwise stated". But again it lists it as "Archangels, Chinese set 30", which makes me wonder if these figures depicted are actually Archangels? Does anyone know? And what is the Shanghai connection?
This is the listing from RB.21,
However if you look for this set in our updated volume you will be unlucky, because it states that both Chinese language issues and other language issues in non-Western characters are outside the scope of this volume.
Wednesday, 9th August 2023
Now here we have a very unusual advertising postcard for the Co-Operative Wholesale Company`s London Tea Department. It is very reminiscent of their card set, "Co-Operative Buildings and Works" issued in 1914, and indeed this same building, the "C.W.S. Tea Department, London" is in that set, though a slightly different view that being to the side and this being to the front. This card is also slightly lighter and better delineated, but then of course that could be caused by having to reduce the original artwork to fit on a tiny cigarette card, rather than a larger postcard.
I wonder if any other cards from that set can also be found as postcards?
Sadly this lovely building which was in Leman Street, has been demolished. It was a replacement for the first Tea Department, of 1882, which was occupied by the English and Scottish C.W.S., and was really too small a building, though it did have the benefit of being already owned by the C.W.S.
The new building was on specially bought land at the conjunction of Leman Street and Great Prescott Street, which was being used as housing at the time of purchase in 1886 - and it was almost certainly selected because it was directly opposite the London Branch HQ. The building was specially built in a similar style to that HQ, and designed to house both tea blending and packaging. The floors were originally planned to be open, with no rooms or partitions in between; however this was disallowed, almost certainly due to fire risk. But after some delays, and disagreements, it opened in 1897.
I will not elaborate this because I have just found a great website which tells you all you will ever need to know - the link is SurveyOfLondon/Lemans
Thursday, 10th August 2023
Today we are off to New York, or are we? For despite the address on this card, at 30 Burling Slip, New York, the Oriental And Occidental Tea Company was actually of New Jersey. However if you look at the American meaning of "Slip", it is an artificial inlet or dock off of a river, where ships would come in and unload - and that points to the address being warehousing rather than a shop or head quarters.
Now curiously our card gives the address of No. 30, but you will also find a longer address - of No.s 31, 33, and 35,
Anyway most records suggest that the O&O Tea Company was founded in 1893, but there is a card in the Jefferson Burdick Collection that is dated before that, to 1889. I will try and track down a picture. And apparently the company is still going, almost a hundred and fifty years on
This card does indeed illustrate the Occidental - with the small children in Western dress - and the Oriental - with the Japanese lady in her Oriental kimono. Some call her a geisha, but I am not sure that if she were she would have been involved with Western children.
If you look at the lampshade, it too advertises "O&O" with a little subliminal reminder of the trademark.
It seems that the company were quite prolific issuers of trade cards, and they also issued very Western sentimental scenes, often in monotone. However this card we feature seems to be the one which turns up most frequently perhaps because it is a very attractive card, in colour, and appeals to many collecting themes - and this means it would have been more likely to have been kept to use as a bookmark etc. And that, more than any other thing, is the key to survival.
Friday, 11th August 2023
So here we have a curious and charming card. It is art drawn but there is no artist`s name. There is no date either, but hat has been arrived at by certain clues on the card.
The first of these is the long. jointed limbed doll at the top of the table away from the children and their kittens, who are also taking tea. These seem to be modelled on one of the "Dutch Dolls" which were the creation of Florence Kate Upton. The hair and face are also identical. The first of these illustrated books was published in 1895, and the last in 1909, though there was a patriotic reappearance in 1917, when the original toys used to provide inspiration in creating her work were sold at auction to raise funds for an ambulance. There is some confusion as to what happened after the auction, which raised almost five hundred guineas. The dolls seem to have somehow become the property of the Prime Minister, and for many years were shown to visitors and guests at Chequers. However now they have a new home, at the Museum of Childhood, in London`s Bethnal Green. Or that is how I knew it, for it is now called "Young V & A".
If you go around the table there is another recognisable character, Billiken - or "The God of Things as They Ought to Be". That is the one with the upwardly spiralling hair, and he was created in the early 1900s by Florence Pretz after seeing him in a dream. However she did not dream his name, she found it, in a poem written a few years earlier. He was particularly popular during the First World War as a lucky mascot. And you got extra luck if someone else bought him for you. Curiously the idea was to tell him your troubles, or what you wanted to happen to your future, and then you would rub his feet for luck. He was still popular in the 1920s, for he was sold in crested china at the Wembley Exhibition, though there he was rather jazzed up, and you could even find him in an eye wateringly brilliant orange lustre.
This all seems to suggest that the card was issued either during the First World War or slightly later.
And there is a cartophilic connection as well, for in the early 1920s in Cuba, you could buy "Cigarros Billiken" - or Billiken Cigarettes - which included cards of baseball players.
Well time has beaten me again and I must retire. Thanks for your tuning in, and I hope you were rewarded