Welcome to the weekend. It is definitely getting colder now, it was really chilly this morning, and I delayed the first dog walking expedition because my canine companion is getting a little bit arthritic in his autumn years - he will be thirteen in just under a fortnight.
So this week we have had a lot of indoor fun with the newsletter and discovered some really wonderful things.
And as for our regular rhyming round up, we hereby present a youthful Yankee, a culinary confection, a car centenary, a maiden MP, the Dietrich debut, a meteorite miracle, and a tunnelling triumph.
So lets read on.....
Golden Press [trade : publishing : O/S : USA] "Hall of Fame Baseball Stars" (1961) 9/33
Now today in 1914 Joseph Paul DiMaggio was born.
You may know him as that, or maybe, as it says on this card "Joltin` Joe"? Perhaps "The Yankee Clipper"? Or, rather less flatteringly, as Mr. Marilyn Monroe? For they were wed. The marriage may not have lasted long, only nine months, before she divorced him, but despite their difficulties it does appear that he remained in love with her forever, and he never remarried, after she was gone.
Then there are a couple of record breaking facts - that he played his entire baseball career, thirteen years, for one team, the New York Yankees - and that he owns the longest streak of hits, some fifty-six games, striking them solidly, one game after the other, in 1941. Nobody has beat that yet. And maybe they never will.
Another record, unless you know better, is the 4,243 times he appeared on a baseball card. Or that`s what the Trading Card Database/DiMaggio tells us.
These cards can be found either neatly trimmed, like ours, or with small adhesions to the edges. The reason for that is that they were made to sell as a sheet of perforated cards, all thirty-three at once, and then the buyer either shaved off the roughness, or left little souvenirs. It comes down to personal preference, I guess, but I would never have known the story if I had only seen this trimmed card.
The cards are supposed to measure 2 ½” by 3 ½”.
And the booklet, of all thirty-three cards, including Babe Ruth, was retailed for just 29 cents.
James Marshall (Glasgow) Ltd [trade : food ; UK] "Marshall`s Recipes" 8/15 - MAR-280.3 : MBR-12.3
Today it is #NationalCakeDay - and we could have waxed lyrical about cake, which is a way of making tobacco, cutting it, and blending it, and moulding it into a shape that looks for all the world like a small round cake. And then it is left, just like a Christmas cake, to age naturally. Once ready, it is either sold in that form, or it may, honestly, be served in slices!
Or we could have gone for M. Pezaro, who produced "Cake Walk Cigarettes", and cards, including, in 1900, "Amies of the World".
Instead of that, this card was sent in by a reader and I had never seen one before. All I knew was what the cards said, that James Marshall was based at 2-8 Henrietta Place in Glasgow.
Our original British Trade Index added that they were most famous for "Farola and other foods". I had never heard of Farola, so I looked it up and can now tell you that "Farola is a premium-quality flour made from finely ground durum wheat". As to where I got that from, would you believe, it was from Marshall`s own website - they are still going, and their history page tells us that it`s still "Scotland`s Favourite Pasta".
So to the cards. Amazingly, our original British Trade Index also told us of other series and colour variations of these cards, plus another type, literally, because only one card exists (it measures 68 x 36 m/m and shows a tin of Marshall`s Oat Flour).
Our series is part of the larger group issue, described as :
MARSHALL`S RECIPES (A). Sm. 63 x 37. Four series
1. Unnumbered series of 10 recipes on one side, a different "Household Hint" on each reverse. Printing only, no picture (10)
2. Numbered series of 10. Recipes on one side, black and white picture from metal tray (children`s tea party) on reverse, same on each number (10)
3. Numbered series of 15. Recipes on one side, black and white picture of metal tray (seaside scene) on reverse, same on each number (15)
4. Numbered series of 10. Recipes on one side, coloured picture of the finished product on reverse. Back in (a) black (b) blue (c) brown (d) emerald-green (e) olive-green (f) orange (g) red (10)
As for our updated volume of the British Trade Index, more info, and another set, issued much earlier, that being "Our Soldiers. 1900. (Colonial Troops) 68 x 38. Unnd. (30). See HX-100". That odd type card, sadly, is still Billy No Mates, though we have tried to ease its shock by saying "probably a single card issue". However there are a few more details, namely that it measures 68 x 36 m/m, that the picture of the tin is on the front and it is captioned "Have you a Little One in the Family?". Back "Save Your Labels", with list of products.
The details of our group now reads :
MARSHALL`S RECIPES (A). 1926.. 63 x 37. Four series
1. Unnd. (10). One side headed "Marshall`s Farola Makes Many Dishes", - recipes, other side - "The Very Heart of the Wheat" - household hints. Printing only. See HM-24. (7 known)
2. Nd (10). Recipes one side, B&W picture of three children dressed up at table on the other.
3. Nd (15). Recipes one side, B&W picture of seaside scene on the other.
4. Nd. (10). Coloured pictures of finished products on front, recipes on the other. Fronts are in (a) black (b) blue (c) brown (d) emerald-green (e) olive-green (f) orange (g) red.
Lambert & Butler [tobacco : UK] "How Motor Cars Work" (June 1931) 11/25 - L073-390 : L8-54 : L/55 [RB.9/55]
Great tidings! We have a centenary celebration. Today in 1923 George H. Greenhalgh and Ernest Sweetland patented the first car oil filter. And, in another story of survival, they called it a Purolator.
This set seems to be the scarcest of the motor car related sets that Lambert & Butler produced, and yet it is the most important, for it teaches of what goes on beneath the skin, how to maintain it in perfect working order, and how to get the best performance without doing things that would eventually, or instantly, be injurious to its inner workings. It was also the last but one of those "motor" related sets to be produced, the order being
Motors (1908)
Motor Cars - A Series - green back (October 1922)
Motor Cars - 2nd Series (June 1923)
Motor Cars - 3rd Series (February 1926)
Motor Index Marks (December 1926)
Motor Car Radiators (August 1928)
Hints & Tips For Motorists (March 1929)
How Motor Cars Work (June 1931)
Motor Cars - A Series - grey back (February 1934)Some people also include the set of "Motor Cycles", issued in November 1923.
Our original Lambert & Butler reference booklet (RB.9), issued in 1948, describes this set as :
55. 25. HOW MOTOR CARS WORK. Fronts printed by letter-press. 4-colour half-tone process. Backs in dark green with descriptions. June 1931.
However our World Tobacco Issues Indexes just say : "HOW MOTOR CARS WORK. Sm. Nd. (25).
Carreras [tobacco : UK] "Notable M.P.s" (May 1929) 41/50 - C151-336.a : C18-59.a
Today Viscountess Nancy Astor was elected to Parliament.
Now this card gets right what many sources do not, for she was not the first lady to be elected an M.P., only the first to take her seat.
The first woman to be elected to Parliament was Constance Markievicz, or to give her full name Countess, or Madame Constance Georgine Markievicz. She was born in Poland in 1868, and she became either a freedom fighter, or a revolutionary, depending on your own personal views. In 1916 she took part in the Easter Rising, and was sentenced to death, but it was reduced to life imprisonment. At the end of December 1918, whilst still in Holloway Prison, she was elected to the House of Commons. And the reason why she did not take her seat was not because she was in jail, it was because of the long term party policy, which had always called for abstentionism, where, once elected, the members would sit, instead, in a parliament in Dublin, but not go to the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.
Mrs. Astor took her seat, from a by-election, in December 1919. The by-election was called because the serving MP was raised to the Peerage. And he was Mr Astor. Now you may think this very convenient, but she did a very good job and she stayed in it until 1945, when she made the decision to leave.
Our World Tobacco Issues Indexes simply describe it as "NOTABLE M.P.s Size (a) small (b) medium. Nd. (50)." The medium size measured 69 x 60 m/m - and we featured them in our newsletter of the 26th of August, 2023.
Returning once more to my well thumbed 1950 LCCC Catalogue, both sizes of this set were listed at 1d. each for odd cards with the standard at 1/6d. a set and the large at 9d. a set. And it freely announced they were available at a lower price in the abridged catalogue !
To close we now know that the artist was Tom Cottrell, though he is not actually named on the card, you have to decipher the signature. He was a talented artist and you can read a bit more about him at the cartoons.ac website
Carreras [tobacco : UK] "Film Stars - A Series of 54" (October 1937) 49/54 - C151-275.1 : C18-47.1
Our second centenary revolves around this card, for today in 1923 a film called "The LIttle Napoleon" was released. It actually deals not with Napoleon Bonaparte, but with his younger brother Jerome. Whom I have never heard of, but seems rather fun. And, coincidentally, he was made the King of Westphalia - by his brother.
Anyway if you went down the cast list you would find the name of Marlene Dietrich, aged twenty two, in her first performance in a motion picture, though she had been involved with the cinema industry before, briefly, playing a violin to accompany films. She had also toured, as a chorus girl, doing vaudeville.
Curiously in this film you would also find an actress called Antonia Dietrich, who was born in 1900, but the two are not connected in any way.
This set is part of a larger group in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, described as :
FILM STARS. Black and white photos. Hand coloured specimens known. Nd.
1. Small, inscribed "A Series of 54"
2. Small or medium
A. Small, inscribed "Second Series of 54"
B. Medium, inscribed "A Series of 54"
However in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, whilst our set (and the medium sized set) stay exactly the same as far as the description, the "Second Series" has changed and now include sub-sections to denote that the caption varies as to the size of the letters, making three permutations, 1.5 m/m high, 1.25 m/m high, and 1 m/m high.
T.C.G. Ltd / A & B.C. [trade : gum : USA] "Target Moon" 23/88
Imagine the scene. There you are sitting in your kitchen, when a meteorite comes through the roof and hits you. And one did just that, in 1954. And the strangest thing of all is that nobody else who ever lived can say that; though there have been many who did, but were proven wrong, for one reason, or for another.
You can read the whole story courtesy of Syfy/Sylacauga, and even see a picture of the unfortunate U.F.O. bruised lady.
Before I race on I had better say that a meteoroid is an object, like a rock, that drifts or races through space. However some get a bit off course and head for a planet, or have small bits fall, or become knocked off them. At that time they usually burn up harmlessly in the sky, and if you see one, which is quite rare, you would be able to yell out "hey look, meteors". However some, and we are not sure exactly why, do not burn up, and they fall to the ground. And once they dothat they are called meteorites. Lots of names, but from one root.
That is this card too, for some people call this a Topps card - and they are right, for look at the bottom right and you will see T.C.G (or Topps Chewing Gum). But Topps had an association with A & B.C. Gum, which involved American sets being released over here, so technically the A. & B.C. Gum collectors want these in their albums as well.
However I have yet to find this set in any of our British Trade Indexes, either under Topps or A & B.C. Gum. Maybe you can? If do let us know, please.
Genio Cards LLC [trade/commercial] "Genio Marvel Trading cards" (2003) 263/360
Now I am going to prove to you that dreams can come true, for at one time it was but a dream that a tunnel could slide beneath the surface of the English Channel in France and come up in England.
Depending on where you are coming from the Channel Tunnel, or La Tunnel sous La Manche, is about thirty miles long, and it does indeed join England to France albeit just by the engineering at the very ends. And it is the third longest tunnel anywhere.
The idea of going across the water, but not by ship, was first discussed seriously in 1802, by a French mining engineer. However his proposal was rather wild, wanting horse drawn coaches, and a man made staging post midway where you could come up for air and receive fresh horses for the rest of the trip. Almost forty years later, another Frenchman actually surveyed the ground and offered plans to Napoleon. And twenty years after that an English architect took the idea of a tunnel to none other than William Ewart Gladstone, which led to a survey being carried out by the son of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
The first time that the English and the French met to discuss partnership was in 1876. One huge problem was how to meet in the middle, and what happened if the tunnels were inexact. Papers of the day speculated that the tunnels would either miss each other entirely, or the tunnellers would break through and meet their doom by flood because there was nothing on the other side only water. This may have been on the minds of the tunnellers today in 1990, as they only drilled a small 50 m/m hole. It worked, so there was a large press ceremony on December 1st at which both countries formally met through the tunnel.
I have no idea what the Channel Tunnel has to do with Marvel. But I do know, thanks to Fandom/Chunnel, it appears eight times in Marvel Comics, starting in 1992.
And you can see all the fronts of our set at CCG Trader Net / Marvel Genio.
This week's Cards of the Day...
This week, we are celebrating World Television Day, which is tomorrow. Though actually the first one spread over two days, the 21st and 22nd of November. In fact it is run by the United Nations, and first of all there was a Forum, from which sprang the official day. And that was first celebrated in 1996.
The point of it is to discuss how television is a force for good, to keep the peace, and protect those who cannot protect themselves all alone. However there is also a thought that peace starts young, that by exposing the young to things that are kind and gentle they will not grow up to be warlike. Not sure it works, but we are going to have a look at children`s television anyway. And for one thing it will be a week almost entirely devoted to trade cards, which I am sometimes guilty of neglecting.
Saturday, 18th November 2023
This clue was a bit obscure but it referred to the fact that in 1986 Mr. Robson took part in a children`s television show called "Jossy`s Giants", playing himself. Bobby Charlton also appeared in it. However there were only ten episodes made. Though it is pretty readily available on DVD, if you do not remember it the first time round.
Now this is a very interesting set, large sized, and the wording on the packets in which they came give the game away by saying "Giant Stick-Up Portrait Cards". However this card is missing something that would make doing such a thing way easier - read on to find out what....
Best of all there will be another chance to see these, somewhere along the line, because they are described in our original British Trade Index part IV as
World Cup Supersquad. Shaped heads, see Fig TOH-21. About 150 x 120 with holed prong at top for suction cup by which head could be attached to wall, mirror, locker, etc.
1. English squad, back in style of Fig. TOH-21, inscribed at base “England! England!”. Nd. (18)
2. Scottish squad, back per Fig. TOH-21, inscribed at back “Scotland The Brave!”. Nd. (18)
You can see the whole checklist at the Football Cartophilic Exchange / Topps Supersquad - however if you look closely at this card there is an error, and I wonder if it was ever corrected. This is right at the bottom of the reverse, where it says "Rbbo is a great captain for club and country" - but it ought to say "Robbo".
Sunday, 19th November 2023
So here we have a mule and that brought us to one of the first characters on children`s tv, Muffin the Mule. Now he is usually regarded as the first children`s tv star, and the first to perform live on screen, though he was but a puppet, operated by Annette Mills. The show ran from 1946 to 1955 but the puppet was made way earlier, in the 1930s, and before he was a radio and tv star, he also had a career on the stage.
The reason for his disappearance in 1955 was that Ms. Mills died in that year. However it was not farewell, because in 1956 he sprang back to life on the rival Independent Television, or ITV. It did not last too long though. Yet that was still not the end, for he returned again, as an animated cartoon, back on the B.B.C., from 2005 to 2011.
I have not yet found him on a trade card, but maybe you know of one?
He did appear on a pack of Pepys playing cards, published in 1949.
And he was on a 20p postage stamp, with Annette Mills, issued in September 1996.
The first thing to point out is that though at one time there were four separate Swiss chocolate factories one called Peter, one Cailler, one Kohler, and one Nestle, by the time this little papery card was produced most had amalgamated with each other, Peter having been founded in the 1860s, and merging with Kohler in 1904, and with Cailler in 1911. They printed these cards between 1921 and 1929, and there were a hundred and twenty series, each of twelve cards. And shortly after the final cards for this series were issued, in 1929, the merged trio were swallowed by Nestle.
However if you look at the album each name is in a different typeface, so there are grounds for thinking them separate still.
Monday, 20th November 2023
Now Howdy Doody was an American tv star, created by Buffalo Bob Smith. He was first shown on television on a tv show for children called "Puppet Playhouse" but before that he had been on the radio, at which time the show was set in the circus, though it later relocated to the Wild West. You can read all about it at Wikipedia/Howdy - and if you keep going down you will find out who "Kagran" were too, and why they appear on the cards.
Howdy Doody was so popular that it was actually used as an incentive to sell colour televisions, soit unsurprising that it also tied up with food, not just our desserts, but several others. In fact the packets for our set actually say that Royal Dessert is "Howdy Doody`s favourite".
Now these images were on the back of those packets, you had the card, with the cut out line to the right hand side and top, then, beside it, outside the dotted line was text, which is missing once the card has been cut. The back of the card is plain. On a large item like this it comes up too small to show the pair, so we will stick with just the back in its entirety. Yesterday`s card, the Cailler, is tiny, so it is fine to show the plain back alongside the front.
The characters in this set were :
1. Howdy Doody
2. Mr. Bluster
3. Flub-A-Dub (the seal)
4. Dilly Dally
5. The Inspector
6. Don Jose Bluster
7. Buffalo Bob
8. Clarabell
9. Lanky Lou
10. Doctor Sing-A-Song
11. Pierre-the-Chef
12. Sir Archibald
13. Princess Summer-Fall-Winter-Spring
14. Oil Well Willie
15. Chief Featherman
16. Captain Scuttlebutt
In addition there were different flavours of the dessert, and a tapioca version of a few - butterscotch, cherry, chocolate (plus a "dark and sweet" style), custard, imitation pineapple, lemon, lime, orange coconut, and vanilla.
Tuesday, 21st November 2023
Cono Confectionery Products (London) Ltd were based in Regent Street, London. They are no longer there and their premises, plus next door, are now occupied by a cafe, Caffe Concerto. It is a very plushy address for a sweet maker.
Como seemed to have managed a tie in with lots of television programmes, issuing two sets on Gerry Anderson`s Fireball XL5, one featuring Lenny the Lion, and five with Noddy, one of which we featured as the card of the day back in March. There was also more than one with Sooty, "Sooty`s Adventures", our set "Sooty`s New Adventures - A Second Series", and "Sooty`s Latest Adventures - A 3rd Series". Each were of fifty cards.
Our set is described in our original British Trade Index part II as
SOOTY`S NEW ADVENTURES - A SECOND SERIES. Md. 64 x 64. Nd, (50)
However in our updated version it reads
SOOTY`S NEW ADVENTURES - A SECOND SERIES. 1961. 64 x 64. Nd, (50)
1. "1st Series" 1/25
2. "2nd Series" 26/50
Wednesday, 22nd November 2023
Here we have The Wombles, who were great, they were green ages before most people even thought of being so, ecologically-friendlily tidying up their surroundings, including of things that the other folk left behind, and also teaching us geography by osmosis because most of them were named after a place, so we started with Great Uncle Bulgaria, Orinoco, Tobermory, Tomsk, and Wellington, and more joined through the years. You can see a whole list of the names at TidyBag/Wombles.
This is a very unusual set, a mixture of sport, music, cinema and television and there are five football cards included. To find out who they were, and also to see the whole line up, which is very impressive indeed, just head over to the Football Cartophilic Exchange/TSS
It is only listed in our vintage British Trade Index part III, under Top Sellers Ltd, and they are described as being from London and Leicester; however the header continues to say that they were "Associated with Edizioni Panini of Italy. Cards in packets, and albums, sold at newsagents and shops in the 1970s, The set is described as : "Superstars. 135 x 95. Inscribed "Top Sellers Ltd. 1975", Nd. (100)"
Now this appears to be the only truly cartophilic card that The Wombles appear on ? Unless you know different. But they did appear on a card game, produced by Whitman in 1976, in which you had eight cards showing Wombles, and the rest of the cards showing the things that the other folk left behind. The idea was that if you saw two of the same piece of rubbish on the table you could grab them, and that was how you eventually won. You can see some of the other games at TheWorldOfPlayingCards/Whitman, but oddly The Wombles one is not there. This is even odder because Whitman made Womble jigsaws and board games as well.
Thursday, 23rd November 2023
The Magic Roundabout is a great example of World Television because it was actually a French programme, by Serge Danot. In this country we simply used the footage, though we altered it, in some cases quite substantially, and wrote/dubbed our own stories. Our version ran from 1965 until 1977 but the French original, called "Le Manege Enchante" started in 1964, and was set in Bois-Joli, which translates as Happy Wood. An American version was also produced, which, like ours, also hits on the roundabout rather than the wood, and was called "The Magic Carousel".
This set is described in our British Trade Indexes as "MAGIC ROUNDABOUT. 1968. 65 x 35. Nd. (35)". We know that they were issued individually as one card in a box of ten Sweet Cigarettes, the front of which seems to be based on the card we selected for today, but we did also unearth a pinterest pin of a large box of Barratt Magic Roundabout sweets. So if anyone remembers these do write in - especially if they had cards too. Sadly the cards were not very well produced and are rather grainy, which shows up even worse on the scanner. If anyone can do a better job with their card and scanner we will happily swap it over.
And if you are a fan of the series, or want to read more, just hop over to the special, and quite amazing, Fandom site...
Friday, 24th November 2023
Still a bit sketchy here, but Ertl are well known, they make toy cars and other vehicles, including trains, and these cards are said to have been on the back of the packaging. Now we do know that Ertl made models of Thomas the Tank Engine and his Friends, and that they were sold in blister packs, where you got a card, and a plastic bulge fitted to it which encapsulated the model, but I have yet to find a packet with a card printed on the back.
However the cards were also sold in packets, eight cards per pack.
I now know that there were 60 cards in this group and they were billed as being "Series 1" but there was no series two, no idea why. There were also slightly different cards in solid colours, which seem to be called activity cards.
There was also another set, issued earlier, in 1992. These were definitely on the back of the packaging of the trains, I have seen them, but they do not feature Sir Topham Hatt on the backs and they have the number of the card on a carriage lamp, the number of the card being on the circle of the glass. Highest seen (in the ten minutes I have had to look) is number 34.
And so we must close and wend our weary way to the land of Nod. It is, I am sure, richly deserved. And tomorrow it will be the weekend, two whole days, with, perhaps, a card fair to visit. For now those days are getting colder, it is a good time to seek out indoor pursuits like that,
See you all next week.