so here we are, inching in to 2024, whilst heading rapidly towards the excitement of Pluto transforming everything, especially for those, like me, who were born under the star sign of Aquarius.
And we had better hope we like it, because Pluto stays around - right until 2043. This is a similar period to its last visit - and that was from 1778 to 1798....
None of that has the slightest bit to do with cards, though.
So let us take you on an adventure, and meet our cast of characters - as well as celebrate no fewer than four centenaries.Looks like 2024 will be a very good one for those....
Amalgamated Tobacco Corporation [tobacco : UK] "Kings of England" (1954) 25/25 - A495-125 : A46-6
I know I have had this set before but it is inserted temporarily for speed and will be amended later - or perhaps its doppleganger will.
Anyway we all know that in October 1066 King Harold was killed at the Battle of Hastings, but today, in the same year, just nine months earlier, he was crowned King, and that made him the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, for his successor was William the Conqueror, an invader, a Norman, from France.
In fact though everyone thinks that our man was King Harold, he was actually King Harold II, also known as Harold Godwinson, which actually means Harold Godwine`s Son. And Harold Godwine was the Earl of Essex and also of Kent, whilst his wife was a Danish noblewoman, related to King Canute.
This set is in both our World Tobacco Issues Indexes under section 2 of the Amalgamated listing, which are the English sets. However in the original version it is but two sets, (this and "Propelled Weapons") for it only covers cards from 1953-54. It is catalogued as "KINGS OF ENGLAND. Sm. 67 x 36. Nd. (25)" and it is indeed only the Kings.
If you are wondering whether the intention was for there was to be a second set, of Queens, the answer would be probably not, mainly because there have only been eight English Queens in their own right.
W.A. & A.C. Churchman [tobacco : UK] "Men of the Moment in Sport" - large size (March 1929) 9/12 - C504-585 : C82-66.A : C/97 [RB.10/97]
Our second card is the first centenary of this week, for today in 1924 saw the IHF founded. And just in case the picture above is not a big enough clue, that acronym belongs to the International Hockey Federation.
Now if we are being truthful, there was a sort of game where a shaped bit of wood was used to propel a ball of a rudimentary kind in many ancient civilisations, and Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and even South America can probably claim that what they played was the beginning of hockey.
I am equally certain that a caveman kicked a stone one day and found a bit of wood on another and wondered whether he would save hurting his bare feet if he used the stick instead.
However if we are rigid in our thoughts and only include a sport if it has rules and enforces them, the sport of hockey started with the rise of the public school in the middle of the eighteenth century. The Hockey Association .was only founded in 1876, and further refined the rules by gathering all the variants into a logical system. Then they closed down. I do not know why, but about five years later it was reopened under a group effort of some of the clubs. They lobbied that the game was suitable for all, and in 1908 it was included as an Olympic sport, but only for men. The teams were England, France, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and the gold went to England, with Ireland getting Silver and Scotland Bronze. Then they decided to give Wales Bronze as well. What the French and German teams thought of this is not recorded, perhaps luckily.
It then dropped off the Olympic list and did not return until 1920. This was a brief return, for though the Federation was founded in January 1924, Hockey was not included in the Paris Olympics, which ran from May to July of that year. because there had not been enough time to get the sport included.
Now I have read that the IHF were a bit lackadaisical and did not get things up and running in time to enter a squad, but this is not correct. In fact Hockey had been taken off the schedule for those games because there was no governing body or official structure, and that was why the IHF was founded. And their first task was to set everything up so that it would be included in the next games at Amsterdam in 1928 - as it was. Though for some reason we did not field any teams - and continued not to right until 1948, when we competed as Great Britain rather than as separate countries.
And you may be wondering when women first played Olympic Hockey? Well that was in 1980, in Moscow..
As for our man, T. W. Mansergh, well he played field Hockey for Cambridge from 1920 to 1922, and for England from 1920 to 1928, but I cannot trace him ever being an Olympian. And he has but a scant brush with cartophily because he only appears on one other card, and that is the standard sized version of this set, issued in 1928, where he is card 34.
There are actually three sets, which appear in our original Churchman reference book as :
96. 50. MEN OF THE MOMENT IN SPORT (titled series). Size 2 15/16" x 1 7/16" or 67 x 36 m/m. Numbered 1-50. Front printed by letterpress, 4-colour halftone process. Backs in dark green, with descriptions. Printed by Mardon, Son & Hall.
97. 12. MEN OF THE MOMENT IN SPORT. Similar format to (96) but size 3 5/16" x 2 9/20" or 80 x 62 m/m
98. 12. MEN OF THE MOMENT IN SPORT. Inscribed "2nd series of 12". Other details see (97), but different subjects.
This is much truncated by our World Tobacco Issues Indexes, and only appears in the original as :
MEN OF THE MOMENT IN SPORT Nd.
A. Small - (50)
B. Large - (1) "1st Series of 12" (2) "2nd Series of 12"
In the updated version it is but a two line description, with the title at the top and A and B combined on the second, accomplished by shortening the sizes to "Sm." and "Lg".
Cope Bros. & Co. Ltd [tobacco : UK] "Dickens Character Series" (1939) 5/25 - C798-630 : C132-72
Our second centenary is for the birth of Ron Moodnick - or as we know him better, Ron Moody. He was born today in 1924, in Tottenham in Middlesex, and though he played many parts, the role of Fagin will always be the one he is most associated with, for he portrayed him on stage and screen, winning a Golden Globe, an Academy Award nomination (he lost out to Cliff Robertson for "Charly"), and a Tony award - and he also continued to play him on Broadway right up until the 1980s, almost two decades after the film version.
Now I have to say I am generally uncomfortable with the portrayal of Fagin, and definitely with the way he is written in the book, and I am not too keen on this card either. However both Ron Moody`s parents were Jewish, and I think that is why his portrayal is a lot more sensitive than some.
Despite him being such a popular figure, he did not start to appear in motion pictures until the late 1950s, and his first on screen credit came in 1959. Four years later he appeared with Cliff Richard in "Summer Holiday" and in 1968 he was in "Oliver". He was asked to play Doctor Who when Patrick Troughton left, and turned it down, so Jon Pertwee got the nod. Ron Moody much regretted this decision, with hindsight, but he did kind of appear in Doctor Who, in 2005, as a voice, that of The Duke of Wellington, in the podcast "Doctor Who, the Monthly Adventures".
He died in June 2015, aged ninety-one.
This card is one of the last issued by Cope Bros. between 1934 and 1938. In fact in that section of the World Tobacco Issues Index there are just five sets, two of which are classed as borderline cartophilic by purists - those being "Happy Families" (playing cards) and "Toy Models - The Country Fair" (which are cut out models to assemble). The other two are "Boxing Lessons" and "The World`s Police".
Our set is catalogued as : "DICKENS CHARACTER SERIES. Md. 74 x 57. Nd. (25)"
Carreras Ltd [tobacco : UK] "British Prime Ministers" (1928) 3/27 - C151-440 : C18-77
Keeping up with the exuberance of centenaries, today in 1924 Ramsay Macdonald was re-elected leader of Britain's Labour Party. In fact the day before he had delivered a rousing speech at the Royal Albert Hall that stated that Labour would accept the job of governing Britain as soon as it was asked to do so.
In fact he had virtually founded the Labour Party in 1900, and held many of its important offices. However he was bitterly opposed to the First World War and to the Treaty of Versailles, and this played a major part in his losing the Woolwich East by-election in 1921. Then in 1922 he became MP for Aberavon in Wales, trouncing his opponents. And the Labour Party welcomed him with open arms.
He was still the MP for Aberavon when this card was issued. However this set was not issued in this country, it is an export issue. I do not know why such a decision was taken, because it was surely of less interest to those overseas than the voters here.
Anyway it appears in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes under Carreras` "General Export Issues" as simply "BRITISH PRIME MINISTERS. Sm. Nd. (27)"
Fleer [trade : bubble gum : O/S : USA] "The Three Stooges" (1959) 5/96
Centenaries abound this week, and now we have the founding of Columbia Pictures, today in 1924 - though to be honest this was but a name change, from the C.B.C. Sales & Film Corporation, the Cs standing for the brothers Harry and Jack Cohn, and the meat in the sandwich being Joe Brandt, who would be Columbia`s first President. Harry Cohn took over his chair from 1932 until his death in 1958.
Now Columbia was known for big movies, but they also owned The Three Stooges. They had come from Vaudeville, where they were a huge draw. Originally the act was Ted Healy and his Stooges, though there was only one Stooge, to Ted Healy`s straight man, that was Moe Howard, the one with the pudding basin style fringe haircut.
Moe was then joined by his brother, Shemp, who looked older and more serious, and by non-brother Larry Fine, the one with the wild hair. Then Shemp left, he wanted to go it alone, and in 1932 along came came Curly, another Howard brother, and despite his name he was the follically challenged one.
Two years later they parted company with Ted Healy and went to Columbia Pictures, where they were a great success. Over the next decade they made almost a hundred short films, however in 1946 Curly had an almost fatal stroke and Shemp came back. However almost a decade later Shemp also died, of a heart attack. The Three Stooges still kept going, right into the 1970s, but they used stand ins, artistically filmed so that they appeared to be Shemp or even Curly
This set was issued in two versions, it is the same cards in every way but they are either on a grey or a white board. There are many theories of which came first, but it seems that as the checklists are only printed on the white card the rest of the set was printed at the same time. The grey cards are rarer, but this could be because they were not so attractive and so were used as flick ems whilst the whiter ones were saved, or alternatively i could just be that everyone wanted to have the checklists and the cards on the white cards so they did not bother to keep any grey ones they got hold of.
The packets of cards and gum cost five cents, but I have not been able to find out how many cards you got in a packet. Yet.
Now I was told that the original packets were in yellow but there is also a red packet issued in the 1960s, which I thought may be for the grey cards. However it is not. The red packets were for the second series, which were for a movie, "The Outlaws Is Coming", and those cards are black and white.
F. Lambert & Sons Ltd [trade : tea : UK] "Before Our Time" (1961) 25/25 - LAM-080 : HX-103 : LAM-1 : D-220
Going a lot further back now, to 1569, and to the first British lottery. Now this was a crafty scheme brought in by Queen Elizabeth I who needed to raise money fast to repair the coastal defences. Which are, rather curiously, called "havens" on the back of this card.
She could have raised it by taxation, but that would have been unpopular. So she decided to have a kind of game where the people would get swept up in the thought that they would win big money and not notice that they had very little chance of doing so.
The first ever lottery is said to have been in France, thirty years before ours. It was called The Royal Lottery,and the stake money went to the State to bulk up the nation`s wealth, or the King`s anyway. In fact he had got the idea from the Netherlands and Italy, both of whom had bee n running lotteries from the fifteenth century.
Now there is a lot of confusion about how our first lottery was run. It is known that this contraption was set up for the first draw outside St. Paul`s Cathedral, which seems a bit sacrilegious.
It is said that the lottery was only for the rich, the advertising also calls it "A Very Riche Lotterie Generalle" and that the tickets cost ten shillings each, and we believe that a paper was pulled out of the box with the name of the winner, which supports this, because only those of a certain status would have been able to write their names.
However there are other records that anyone could come up and buy a ticket even if they had committed certain lesser crimes. Though some people say this was yet another intriguing scheme so that the crown could then locate and capture the miscreants. And people could buy tickets from overseas and have an equal chance at winning.
You can read much more about this at The History Press - and it is an amazing story!
Now this issuer is generally known as just Lamberts Tea, but it was actually the name we use above. It appears that they were founded in 1762, and through their story they not only sold tea, but are listed as tobacconists and confectioners. They were based in Norwich, and their first issues were advertisement cards, in about 1900. Five years later, there was a set of cards called "Conundrums".
Then there was a gap, until standard sized cards like ours were first issued in 1958. Their first year saw three sets, the first series of "Car Registration Numbers", "Football Clubs & Badges" and "Interesting Hobbies". However their last two sets were issued in 1966, these being "Butterflies and Moths" and "People and Places". All these 1950s/60s cards had blue backs. However at some time a lot of printers material came on to the market, and so you can find odd cards, and sometimes even sets, with other coloured backs.
Now I have not yet found our set`s first appearance in our magazine, but I do have its "New Issues Report" from Mr. Bill Wareham`s magazine, "Cartophily Britannica", Vol.4 No.37 February 1961 - which reads :
Lamberts of Norwich 25 "BEFORE OUR TIME". Nd 36 x 67 mm. This latest series to be issued in T.V.T. and the other blends of the firm form a most interesting and unusual study of life spanning the 16th to 19th centuries. At cards 11 and 12 may be seen the ancient makers of bricks, and knife grinder, while at 24 shows a lady shrimper. Shrimps at this period were in fact chiefly caught by women with a net tightly fixed to a light pole, baskets strapped to the waist acted as carriers. Backs in this series are blue. A very fine set. My only criticism would be that the text leaves too much vagueness, practically no dates being stated.
This set is catalogued in our original British Trade Index part II as simply "BEFORE OUR TIME. Sm. Nd. (25) See D-220" If you go to the rear of the book, where the D (or duplicate issuers) section is you will find that this set was also issued by John E. Esslemont of Aberdeen, also with tea, and of a very slightly different size, being 68 x 36 m/m, as opposed to our 67 x 37 m/m.
By the time of our updated British Trade Index, the Lamberts version is catalogued as "BEFORE OUR TIME. 1961. Nd. (25) See HX-103". Whilst the Esselmont version turns out to have been issued quite a time after our set, in 1966.
John Player & Sons [tobacco : UK] "Gilbert & Sullivan" (December 1925) 10/50 - P644-216.1.A : P72-104.1.A : P/107.A [RB.17/10.a]
And lastly, we are going to send you to bed in a wonderfully time honoured way, with a fairy tale, but a short one, to be enlarged later. For today in 1628 saw the birth of one Charles Perrault, and he was the author, or maybe we should say the collector, of the Mother Goose Tales.
Now some may think fairies and their tales are childish, but others, like me, revel in them. And here we have a very grown up fairy tale, and a character who features in a light opera by no less than Gilbert and Sullivan. The tale is very well summarised on the back of this card, so instead I will tell you that the opera, "Iolanthe", or "The Peer and the Peri" is one of the Savoy Operas, and was first performed in 1882, the first to have its premiere at the Savoy Theatre, but not the first to be staged there, that honour goes to "Patience".
Our play was also the first to be illuminated by the wonders of electricity, which had a mixed reception, for whilst it made things brighter, there were many who liked the theatre to suffer the rise and fall of the gas flame and the shadows it cast.
Another first was that when the curtain opened at the Savoy Theatre, it also opened at the Standard Theatre in New York, and the two mirrored each other exactly. Sadly the Standard Theatre burned to the ground in 1883, though it was rebuilt within a year and is still there though it is now called the Manhattan Theatre.
This set appears in our original reference book to the issues of John Player, RB.17, issued in 1950, where it is catalogued as :
GILBERT & SULLIVAN. From originals by H.M. Brock, R.I. Fronts in colour. Backs in grey, with descriptive text. Home issues.
107. 1st Series
A. 50 small cards. Issued December, 1925
B. 25 extra large cards. Issued April, 1926108. 2nd Series
A. 50 small cards. Issued December, 1927
B. 25 extra large cards. Issued January, 1928
This is very much shortened for our World Tobacco Issues Index, where the listing reads just
GILBERT & SULLIVAN. Nd.
1 "A Series of .... " (A). Small (50) (B). Extra large (25)
2. "2nd Series of ..." (A) Small (50) (B) Large (25)
It is the same listing in our updated volume, but the sizes are abbreviated to "Sm" "Ex.Lg" and "Lg"
This week's Cards of the Day...
have been celebrating New Years Resolutions, which are on many of our minds, albeit temporarily, at the moment. Now you may not know this but there is a list online of the top ten, from which I have used more than a few ideas. Maybe some of these will resonate with you, and maybe you will find some rather strange.
Saturday, 30th December 2023
So here we have our first clue, and this was a tricky one because our man, James Curran Baxter, was also known as "Slim" Jim Baxter, and the "slim" refers to the very popular resolution of "This year I will make myself lose weight".
This may be popular, but only in the imagining stage - for it is one of the most quickly abandoned resolutions of them all. There are many reasons for this, but the main one is that by the time you think of losing weight you often have quite a bit to lose. And for everyone it is quite hard to lose enough weight to start to see any results on the scales, let alone by looking at yourself in the mirror, especially in the short span of time that most people expect it to; so they think it will never happen, and give up. The truth is that to lose even a few pounds takes lots of willpower, and it is not a case of taking lots and lots of really strenuous exercise, more of watching what you eat. It is no use exercising, and continuing to eat without regard.
Also I have to say that being very slim is not always a good thing, especially in cold weather, when to have a bit of blubber is way warmer. And it is also cuddlier.
Now Carrs biscuits are first mentioned in our British Trade Index part I, for they issued a set in the 1920s called "Animals of the World", and this must have been exported because it can be found with text in English, or Spanish, or Dutch.
Our set first appears in part II, but it is only briefly referred to under the Carrs section, because it does not carry their name. However, luckily for us, there was a similar set that does, and this is not only the identical same size but it has a plain back as well, and so the connection was made. The pair are listed together under CBM-6 as
SPORTS. E.L. 190 x 76. Plain back. Two numbered series
1. "Carrs Sports - Cricket Card Series" (20)
2. "Sports - Soccer Card Series" (20) Anonymous, see set ZJ9-19.
That is at the back of the book and it reads "SPORTS - SOCCER CARD SERIES. E.L. 190 x 76. Nd. (20). Issued by Carrs, see set CBM-6"
Now our updated British Trade Index lists our set as : "SPORTS - SOCCER CARD SERIES. (1967) 190 x 76. Plain back. Nd. (20). Anonymous issue.".
It does also appear at the back of the book in the Anonymous section, which is listed alphabetically by set name, but it does not have a "Z" number, it simply says its name and sends you back to Carrs.
Sunday, 31st December 2023
Now our second set was another football one, and there is a good reason, because it was taking so long to get the very light reverse wording readable that I ran out of time - and I had the Carr scan already, from a reader. I told myself it would be okay so long as I was to space them out a bit.Then I forgot.
Anyway this clue word was "riches" - as in "This year I would like to be rich". Not sure that was ever on my radar, and I should imagine it was not much fun anyway, because most people who are rich seem to be worried about other people taking it off them - and even worse they pay it all in the bank and never see it, let alone have any fun spending it, on themselves, or on people who would be grateful with a very small proportion of it.
Now this set is listed in our original World Tobacco Issues Index as :
"FOOTBALL TEAMS OF THE BAILIWICK. Lg. 70 x 58. Brown. Nd. (22). See RB.21/290.2".
That RB.21 code leads us to the last of the small reference books, that to British American Tobacco, and in there this set forms part of the group that are together called the "Guernsey Local Issues". Section 290 is "Football Series, four different series", and ours is set 2, described as :
FOOTBALL TEAMS OF THE BAILIWICK. Medium cards. Size 70 x 58 m/m. Front in brown. Back in brown, with series title and name of player. Numbered series of 22. Bucktrout issue.
Now there are a couple of questions here, the first being that it is suddenly reduced to "medium" size, and the second that it states "name of player" when there it perhaps ought to say "nameS of playerS", this being a set of teams.
Monday, 1st January 2024
Our last clue card is related to our first clue card, but a better way of looking at it, because this is a very good way to keep your weight within the size for your height. Also it must be said that this set is great, for a lot of the manoeuvres can be performed without special equipment, and also, just like here, whilst seated.
Now I cheated a bit here and started my hunt by looking up the original version, which you may have first believed this was, issued by Lambert and Butler. That was issued in 1937, two years earlier, and we featured it in our newsletter of the 17th of September 2022
However the entry for that did what I hoped and gave me the RB.21 code, of RB.21/209-63.B, so it was very simple to find.
That was not very expansive, only reading :
KEEP FIT
A. Anonymous issue, with letterpress on back
B. Lambert & Butler home issue.
.... but of course I now realise that most of the gen about it would have been in the original Lambert & Butler reference book. And that is now inserted into the newsletter to which we link.
Tuesday, 2nd January 2024
Another popular resolution today, “I will stop drinking”. Of course this does not refer to water, but to alcohol. Though curiously there is much support for drinking, in moderation, which actually has health benefits.
I am afraid that the term is not a very happy one, for it comes from a poem written in 1889 by Tennyson, and it refers to our souls crossing between the tide of life`s river and going over into the wide and deep ocean beyond, which is our death. In fact you will often see it in Naval obituaries.
Now this set is in our first ever reference book, though the listing from which it came actually first appeared in the “Cigarette Card News”, in Volume 1, issue 2, dated November 1933. as a section called "The Foundation of a Standard Catalogue". This possibly suggests that Colonel Bagnall had a soft spot for the cards, or maybe the issuer, and the reason why Faulkner was our first reference book could well have been that this ground work was all in place. This first section covers cards from "Puzzle Pictures" (1898) to "Cricket Terms" (1899), and it also lists the titles of the unnumbered cards. It also tells us that the design for the first series of our set was registered on the 8th of July 1899.
Part two of this listing appeared in Volume 1, issue 3, dated December 1933, and that covered sets from "Football Terms" (1900) to the "Old Sporting Prints" (May 1930). And that was still reportedly in circulation at the time the magazine went to press. It alse covered our set, listed as :
1900. 12 Nautical Terms. 2nd Series. Printed by Tillotson & Sons, inscribed "Grenadier Cigarettes'. Terms used: " Lay To" ; " In Tow" ; " Changing Her Course" ; " With the Tide"; "Bringing Her To"; "Crossing the Bar"; " A Sudden Squall" ; "Setting the Jib " ; " Striking Colours" : "Light on the Larboard Astern" ; "Scuttled"; " Hard Astern".
1900 12 Nautical Terms. 2nd Series. As above but inscribed " Union Jack Cigarettes".
In our RB.1, the two second series sets are catalogued together as :
1900. 12. NAUTICAL TERMS. (untitled series). Size 2 3/8” x 1 ½ approximately. Unnumbered. Second Series. Fronts, lithographed in full colours, no border. “Term” above subject, “Grenadier Cigarettes,” “W. & F. Faulkner Ltd. London. S.E.” below subject.
12 NAUTICAL TERMS. (untitled series). Size 2 3/8” x 1 ½. Similar to above but with “Union Jack Cigarettes,” etc., in brown instead of “Grenadier Cigarettes”. Both with plain backs, and both possibly printed by Tillotsons & Sons, Bolton.
[then there is a list of the card titles, as listed above]
Both series are of humorous subjects.
Now the one thing that I need to tell you from the cataloguing of the first series is that it was definitely printed by A. Hildesheimer & Co. who were based in Germany, and had produced other sets for Faulkner`s – including what is thought to be their first ever issue, “Puzzle Series”. We base this theory on the fact that though it is generally recorded as having been issued in 1898, the cards do not have “Ld.” after the issuers`name, and many collectors believe that this set was actually issued prior to, or early in 1896, when Faulkner became a Limited Company.
The other Hildesheimer sets are : “Cricket Terms”, “Grenadier Guards”, “Military Terms”, Policemen of the World”, and “Police Terms” (all issued in 1899), plus both series of “Football Terms”, “Sporting Terms”, and “The Language of Flowers” (all issued in 1900)
By the time of our World Tobacco Issues Index it had been discovered that the first series must have been reprinted at some time, for it is now split into A. Light type lettering, dots under “td” of “Ltd” – and – B. Heavier type lettering, dash under “td” of “Ltd”. Of course this could have merely been a printing problem caused by too much ink, which made the letters thicker and darker and conjoined the two dots into a dash. It catalogues our second series as :
2. Second Series (12). Captions at top.
A. “Grenadier Cigarettes”.
B. “Union Jack Cigarettes”.
This remains the same in our updated version, but a handbook code is inserted, which I imagine is for the titles of the cards. But will check by Saturday...
Wednesday, 3rd January 2024
Hmm. Yet again this week not the reverse you were imagining? Yes, once again, this one is the overseas version of another set.
So let us start our journey with RB.21, the British American Tobacco Booklet. This tells us it was issued in 1926, in Malaya. That leads us to a section called "Ogdens Additions and Corrections", where it is described as :
215.71 DERBY ENTRANTS, 1926. This series was issued as follows :-
A. Ogden`s Home issue - titled "Derby Entrants, 1926"
B. Anonymous issue, with letterpress on back - titled "Famous Racehorses".
And this is indeed correct, it is an addition, for the Ogdens reference book simply lists that set, or rather that group of sets, as:
125. DERBY ENTRANTS. Fronts printed by letterpress. Backs in grey with descriptive text. Home issues in years stated.
71. 1926. Series of 25. Fronts in colour. Horses and owners` colours.
72. 1928. Series of 50. Fronts in colour. Horses only.
73. 1929. Series of 50. Fronts in sepia. Horses, some with jockeys up.
Our original World Tobacco Issues Index records our anonymous set as simply : "FAMOUS RACEHORSES. Sm. Nd. (25). See RB.21/215-71.B" - though there is a cross reference to RB.21/215-71.A accompanying the Ogden`s version. I thought this may have been removed in our updated version, but no, the text is exactly the same.
Thursday, 4th January 2024
Our next resolution, and at one time one of the very top of all, was to give up smoking.
So that gives me a chance to show off something that I have had a scan of for a while and not really found the perfect place to show it.
Also when I looked at “Greys” that sent me to United Kingdom Tobacco, and I found not a word about this set. However then I actually read the card and found out they were actually issued by Major Drapkin & Co.
In fact Major Drapkin & Co was founded in England in 1898, and "The Greys" was its best seller. It was named after the Royal Scots Greys. However they were bought out by the United Kingdom Tobacco Co and they kept the brand name going, due, almost certainly, to its popularity. Then, in 1929, Godfrey Phillips went on a buying spree, picking up Cohen Weenen, Fairweather, and the United Kingdom Tobacco Company, which itself owned Major Drapkin as well as Marcovitch and Muratti
And when I looked there I found something else, that there are two types of advertisement cards, smokers and packings. The smokers are all male, and all have a pipe. In no particular order they are :
1. no tie, facing forward
2. cravat, facing slightly to side
3. tie, facing slightly to side
4. tie, facing sideways
I will regale you with the listing for all tomorrow, to save repetition. Though by the time of the newsletter I may decide to have it here, first.
Friday, 5th January 2024
So here we have the other part of the Advertisement Cards, and there are collectors who believe, quite firmly, that the two are not to be grouped together and to be completely separate issues. They base this on all manner of reasons, including the fact that the four pipe smokers are vertical cards, art drawn, in colour, on a plain white background, whilst the four packings are horizontal cards, from photos, in black and white, presented inside a decorative frame.
However in our original World Tobacco Issues Index they are catalogued, equally firmly, together, as :
ADVERTISEMENT CARDS (A) Sm. Unnd. See Ha.533
1. Packings (4)
2. Smokers (4)
They remain together in the updated version, but that deletes the handbook reference and replaces it with RB.113/401, which is the modern Godfrey Phillips reference book. So if anyone would like to scan that for me, I will extract the knowledge and add it in.
and there we have it, all, or more or less all, complete, despite one brief hiccup when I managed to lose the lottery text. That is why the codes will have to appear tomorrow. when I can again fetch the books.
I hoe that 2024 is pleasing you, and that it continues to do so.
Dont forget our branches and clubs are now resuming after their Christmas break and we have the dates so far at https://csgb.co.uk/house-of-cards/events.
If the dates for your club are missing,please send them to us without delay.
Many thanks.
And we will see you all again next week.