Newsletter - 2023-11-18

T.C.G. / Topps [trade : O/S : USA] “Astronauts” (1963) 11/55 - R709-6

Lets start with a flight of fancy, for today, a hundred years ago, in 1923 Alan Bartlett Shepherd was born. He became a U.S. Navy test pilot, and then joined the astronaut program in 1959, becoming the first American in space on May 5th, 1961.  

This set was issued in 1963, so it does not mention that he later returned to space as part of the Apollo programme and in 1971 became only the fifth person to walk on the surface of the Moon. He also became the oldest, at the age of 47. And the first to play golf there. And this was despite the fact that an ear disease led to him being desk-bound from 1963 until 1968, when it was corrected by a surgical procedure. 

This set was designed to showcase the first mission, called Project Mercury, and it does very well at capturing the excitement that most children felt about the "space race", as it was called, the battle to be the first country to put people into space, often with no idea of how to return them, or what they would be like if they did come back. Indeed Project Mercury was not going to the moon, just into orbit and back. And it lasted fifteen minutes.

Another big plus was that the back of the cards are 3D images, which exploded into life when viewed through the special glasses which were in every packet of the cards. These glasses were made of cardboard and had one blue eye and one red eye in a kind of cellophane. The blue square was for the right eye and the red one for the left. And the glasses also carried the wonderfully exciting inscription "Longer you look, more you see". How could anyone resist! 

There is one strange thing about this set, and that is that the packaging calls the cards "Astronaut Pictures". They cost 5 cents a pack, including gum. Not sure how many were in a pack though, it does not appear on them. Anyone know? 

Check out the check list, and see the packaging for yourself at the Trading Card Database / Astronauts. You can also see the fifty cards that are known to show Alan B. Shephard - and note the "Popsicle" cards, which is indeed this very set, but with a much scarcer back printing

To close, collectors of political cartophily might like to know that one of these cards shows President John F. Kennedy, shaking the hand of John Glenn.

Godfrey Phillips & Sons [tobacco : UK] “Busts of Famous People” untitled (1907) 12/50 – P521-.C : P50-17.C : Ph/46 [RB.13/46]

Today in 1798, the Rijksmuseum was founded in The Hague, moving to Amsterdam in 1808. And along the way it has managed to acquire almost four hundred works of this man, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn - paintings, drawings, and prints, including self portraits. However that is but a teardrop in his work, which is estimated to cover almost three thousand items. 

Our man was born in 1606 and died in 1669, not a very long life. And even sadder he died penniless. You can read of his story at Wikipedia/Rembrandt. 

It appears that his work first appeared on a Liebig set called "Episodes from the Lives of Famous Painters (F.794 / S.771). This was issued in 1904, in Dutch, French, German and Italian, and it does have a portrait, in the middle above the two large circular images. That was just three years before our set was issued.

However of the hundred and thirty-eight cards of him recorded by the Trading Card Database / Rembrandt he features in only four different sets that are recorded as having been issued before 1940. That may be true of his visage, but his paintings must appear much more frequently; indeed you can see a few of those courtesy of the New York Public Library / Rembrandt. And Ardath Tobacco Company alone issued two very relevant sets "Rembrandt Series", and "Hollandsche Oude Meesters".

Now we may have had this set before but there are variations so hopefully that is one of the others. This first appears in our Godfrey Phillips reference book RB.13, issued in 1949, described as :

46. 50. BUSTS OF FAMOUS PEOPLE (adopted title). Small cards, size 62 x 36 m/m. Fronts per Fig.26, lithographed in colour, inscribed at base “Patent 20736”. Bust cut-out to stand, in accordance with instructions on back. Pre 1908 issue. Backs with descriptive text, issued in two colours :- 
A. Green back.
B. Brown back.

Our World Tobacco Issues Indexes list them slightly differently, and adds another colour… This description reads:

BUSTS OF FAMOUS PEOPLE (A). Sm. 62 x 36. Cut-outs. Nd. (50).
A. Back in pale green. Captions on front in black
B. Back in brown. Captions on front in black
C. Back in olive-green. Captions on front in white, inscribed “Patent 20736”

However this rather begs the question why the Patent Number is now only one one of the colourways rather than two. Any ideas? 
 

Stephen Mitchell & Son [tobacco : UK] “A Model Army” (1932) 25/30 – M757-620 : M122-37

Today in 1917 saw strange lumbering beasts fighting at the Battle of Cambrai.

Now this card tells us that the tank, or His Majesty`s Land Ship, first saw action at Flers on September the 15th 1916, and that is correct, but today`s date marks an attack which brought many tanks together en masse, almost five hundred.

This was also the objective at Flers, but of the forty-nine tanks planned to take part, only eighteen did, due to breakdowns or rough terrain en route. And only nine of those made it to the enemy lines.

The tanks were seen as impregnable machines, impervious to bullets or bombs, their crew, once set on their allotted course, being protected and unstoppable. Their purpose was to roll over everything in their path, humans too, so that our infantry could follow unattacked. Their shape was designed so that there was no edge which could get caught on a branch, or fall down a hole or trench, and the caterpillar tracks also ruled out punctures. And as to how they got their shortened name, well the men who built them were originally told that they were making water tanks. 

Thie early era of tank is not featured on many cards, but Wills` Castella "The Tank Story" does show one, a Mk. IV Heavy, as card 1/30. This was used in the First World War, but not until 1917 at Messines Ridge. 

This is an unusual set, about which not much is known. Some say that it was designed to come out during the early days of the First World War, but was shelved due to the paper shortage. Others say that it was going to appear after the war, but was not thought appropriate, so it was put away until the 1930s. It is also rather curious that it features a mixture of soldiers in battledress and the kind of uniform that we associate with pomp and pageantry. However this also points to that inter-wars period, when war was hoped to have been done with forever. 

A spot of hunting proves that right now you can see the whole set online, courtesy of CardhawkUK and that rather disproves the early days theory, because one of the cards shows the Stokes Mortar, which was not designed until 1915. However the clincher is on card 7, which speaks of Vickers-Armstrong, a company which was formed through a merger of Vickers Ltd and Armstrong-Whitworth; and that did not take place until 1927.

It is very simply described in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes as :

A MODEL ARMY. Sm. Cut-outs. Nd. (30)

And cut-outs explains the lines on the card, which were designed to be persuaded to fold in such a way that the soldiers or the vehicles would stand up proud, without the white backdrop, and be able to take their place on a battlefield with other toys.

Huntley & Palmers [trade : biscuits : UK] "Sports" - untitled (1878?) Un/12 - HUN-320 : HUT-16.2.a : HH-108

Clutching at straws a bit today and there is some discrepancy in the years given, but all the sources agree that today, on the 21st of November, a Thomas Morris of Australia skipped rope 22,806 times. However the dates vary wildly, from 1837 to 1957.

Now this has been quite hard to track down but in October 1937 we know that Thomas Morris was recorded as skipping for a very long time at a carnival. The press were able to call him the "Well Known Athlete", but that probably rules out the 1837 date.

Then I hit the right date, of 1963, and found it was not a person jumping on the spot but someone running as he skipped. He was seventy-one years old, and he skipped all the way from Brisbane to Cairns, about a thousand miles.

It was also recorded that he kept skipping almost all his life, and died in 1973.

Now this set is a huge one and it can be split into two types, though whether this was the intention is unknown. The types are like ours, with a picture extending all the way to the border, or with a sport in a section of the picture leaving a white area with no action or design. 

There is another question, too, because the back, with all those biscuits, is actually in French. And it is from that back that we get the date of the cards, for it mentions the date of 1878. This may not have been the year of manufacture of the cards though, because in that year they were awarded a first prize at The Exposition Universelle, in Paris France, a huge "World`s Fair" that ran for six months, and the intention for which was to show how the country had bounced back after the Franco Prussian War of 1870-71. Now to win that prize would have been a pretty big deal , and it would have been featured in their advertising for some time.

The way to really tell the dates is that in 1898 they changed their name, to Huntley and Palmers Ltd. 

The back of this card is rather light, but I will have another go some time. It does amaze me, who pretty much lives on Bourbons, and Party Rings on very special occasions, that there were so many biscuits in the world all those years ago - most of which are complete mysteries to me as to what they look like or of what they taste...

I have now been told, thanks to Mr. P., that these cards do appear in our British Trade Indexes. Our original British Trade Index, covering issues up to 1945, lists this set and its stable-mate as 

SPORTS (A). Size 115 x 75. Gold borders, no captions. Back in French in dark blue. Unnd. 
1. Front with semi-circular effect across upper centre. Back with first word in seventh column of brands (a) "Snowflake" (b) "Smyrna" (c) "Spray" (d) "Sugar Wafers". (12)
1. Canoeing
2. Cricket
3.Cross-Country Running
4. Deep-Sea Fishing
5. Fishing from Punt
6. Hunting
7. Lawn Tennis
8. Polo
9. Shooting
10. Skating
11. Stalking
12. Yachting

2. Front without semi-circular effect. Back with first word in seventh column of brands (a) "Social" (b) "Sugar Wafers" (12)
1. Baseball
2. Canoeing
3. Coursing
4. Cricket
5. Cycling
6. Golf
7. Lacrosse
8. Lawn Tennis
9. Polo
10. Running
11. Skipping Rope
12. Walking

Our original British Trade Index part II, adds a discovery, a further back to the cards with the semi-circular whiteness, this being "(e) "Social". It should have been (c) to keep it alphabetical. Anyway this begs a bit of a question because now all the backs in our set can be found in the other - so are there more to discover? 

Then the story continues in our original British Trade Index part III, adding a card with a back in English and six columns of brands being added as (f) to the white cards, and our set being increased by two new backs, namely (c) Back in French, first word in seventh column "Sponge Rusks" - and - (d) Back in English, with six columns of brands - the same as has just been added to the white cards. 

In our updated British Trade Index, they appear as :

SPORTS (A) 115 x 75. Gold borders, no captions. Two series. See HH-108
1. Fronts with semi-circular effect. Back has 6 columns of brands. Also issued in French. 
2. Fronts without semi-circular effect. Back has 6 columns of brands. Also issued in French. 

This seems to contradict the original part III, HUT-16.2.C, which gives a seventh column? And also our back has eight? 

Ogdens Guinea Gold brand [tobacco : UK] “General Interest” - Australian Issue 49/?? – 

Here we have George Eliot, or rather Mary Ann Evans, for the masculine affection was her pen name over a veriety of genres, including poetry, journalism, and seven novels, namely Adam Bede, Daniel Deronda, Felix Holt, Romola, Silas Marner, The Mill on the Floss, The Radical, and her best known, Middlemarch. And she was born today in 1819. 

Now this portrait is currently held by the National Portrait Gallery and it is an albumen print produced by the London Stereoscopic & Photographic Company.

However the original photograph was taken in 1858 by a man called Mayall. And George Eliot recorded in her journal that she visited the studio in February 1858, together with her life partner, George Henry Lewes, and that photographs were made of them both. I have not been able to track the result of his sitting - yet.

But this was a very exciting thing to do together, for he had a wife and four children, plus the two children that his wife had from another man.

I usually shy away from these cards because they are too confusing, but this one did not seem so bad. Wrong again, and it may take me some time to find it in the World Tobacco Issues Indexes. I thought it may be simpler in the Ogdens reference book - but that didn`t work out either. Therefore if anyone can pass us a card code from any book, and a few notes, many thanks! 

Rekord Journal [trade : magazine : O/S : Sweden] (1962) 

Today we celebrate Lewis Alan Hoad, who was born today, in 1934, in New South Wales, Australia. 

This is an odd card, and I did not know who issued it, or where, though "tennisspelare" was Swedish, and that led me to a set issued in 1961 by the Swedish Rekord Journal. Apparently they were issued as a sheet of cards and you cut them out individually.

They do not seem to have a set title though.

Another curious fact is that the same cards seem to sometimes be listed as being by Hemmets Journal, so perhaps that was the magazine and the "Rekord" just referred to the fact that you got a record of meeting your hero, this being the autograph.

At which point I take it all back when I said I could not see the point of autographs. If you get them in person, everything changes.

Now in both the Hemmen and the Rekord versions it shows that these cards were also issued in a panel of more than one card, and the collector either kept them intact or cut them out into smaller cards. In fact I did read that there was a binder for the Hemmen cards and this took the panels, using the punched holes that appear on them if they are not cut into cards. 

John Player [tobacco : UK] “Cries of London” extra large - 2nd Series (April 1914) Un/10 – P644-072.B.2 : P72-31.B.2 : P/64.C [RB.17/64.C]

Now here is a very curious day but one that more of us ought to support - for today it is "Buy Nothing Day".

This is a bit of a protest against consumerism, and specifically Black Friday, which, in essence encourages us to go waste money on bigger and better things, but dump the perfectly serviceable things that we were using quite happily before.

So, instead, some people refuse to take part, and, even better, refuse to buy anything at all on that day? It may take some jiggling, especially in the food cupboard, but a bit of protest makes for a very satisfying life.

Don`t you think? 

This set first appears in our John Player reference book RB.17, issued in 1950, described as : 

CRIES OF LONDON. Fronts in colour. Backs with descriptive text. Home issues.
64. 1st 25 Subjects.
A. 25. Small cards “A Series of 25”. Numbered 1/25. Backs in blue. Issued November, 1913.
B. 10 Extra large cards. “A Series of 10 – After the Celebrated Pictures by F. Wheatley R.A.” Unnumbered. Backs in blue. Issued October 1912 [then follows a list of the cards and their numbers in the small sized set – which I will add when that set appears]
C. 10 Extra large cards. “A Second Series of 10 – After the Celebrated Pictures by F. Wheatley R.A.” Unnumbered. Backs in blue. Issued April 1914.
In the listing below, the corresponding subject in A is shown in parenthesis. Caption from BACKS.
1. Baking or Boiling Apples! (6)
2. Band Boxes (2)
3. Baskets! (1)
4. Bellows to Mend! (7)
5. Fresh Gathered Peas. Young Hastings. (20)
6. Hair Brooms. (9)
7. Round and Sound, Five Pence a Pound, Duke Cherries. (18)
8. Six Bunches a Penny, Sweet Lavender! (3)
9. Strawberrys, Scarlet Strawberrys (14) [sic]
10. Water Cresses! (10)

This is much reduced in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes, to:

CRIES OF LONDON. See RB.17/64 and H.350. 
A. Small. Nd. (25). “A Series of 25”
B. Extra-large. Unnd, 
(1) “A Series of 10”
(2) “A Second Series of 10”