Hey, its Friday night...! Took me by surprise as well - I had another Metropolitan Railway card ready and scheduled for tonight.
So here we are, January almost half into its duration, and several of us have presumably had snow? More is forecast as well, apparently starting on Wednesday the 17th, even in London, but the whole week is set to be cold, with predictions of minus temperatures anyway, without the biting winds that are set to blow across us. So if you can get out over the weekend, do make sure that you pick up a few tins for the larder - or at least write down the number of your local food delivery store, though bear in mind how hard it is for those poor bike riders to travel in the snow and ice.
So what, you may be asking, have we in store for you this week? Well lets start with :
Topps [trade : chewing gum : O/S : USA] "Marvel Comic Book Heroes" (1975) Un/49 - TOH-2.2
So let us start with something that is very suitable for the incoming weather, and that is Ice Man. Why? Because today is #National Sticker Day. And I wonder if you know why? Hmm. Well that celebrates a man called Ray Stanton Avery, who was born today in 1907, and invented the paper label, also starting a company called Avery, which is still in existence today, though now it is Avery Zweckform GmbH
Ice Man is also known as Robert Louis Drake, or "Bobby" Drake, and though you may not have heard of him he first appeared in 1963 in the X-Men comics. Basically he can control ice and coldness, and make water freeze solid. He can also freeze himself, and others, either to save them or entomb them. For a long while he was also entombed inside himself personally, but recently he has been allowed to explore other facets of his character, which is all very intriguing.
Now this card, though thirteen years after his appearance in the comics, is actually his rookie card. But be careful, because it is very confusing. Even I was swept along in typing that there are two sorts of these Marvel Super Heroes Stickers, both were issued in 1976, our set has a plain white reverse and the others have a blue printed one which shows you how to fold the corner on the dotted line and slowly peel the sticker from the front of the card.
And they are listed in our British Trade Index part III, though it took me a while to fathom it out, for at first I looked at TOH-13, which reads
Marvel Super Heroes. 89 x 63. Series of 49 in two sections.
1. Backs with series title and checklist of the 40 subjects in part 2. Nine subjects. Fronts sectional cards, forming picture of "Conan the Barbarian" (5 cards x 3 cards square)
2. Backs in blue, without series title, see Fig.TOH-13-2. Sticker cards, front in style of TOH-2.Forty subjects as per checklist on backs of part 1. Fronts at base/L "1976 Topps Chewing Gum Inc."
The USA version has "Prtd in U.S.A." added and cards are also plain-backed.
However this made me think, especially the "in style of TOH-2". So I looked back at TOH-2 and found what is actually our set :
Comic Book Heroes. 89 x 63. Series of 49, in two sections.
1. Backs with series title and checklist of the 40 subjects in part 2. Nine subjects. Fronts sectional cards, forming picture of the "Fantastic Four" (5 cards x 3 cards square)
2. Plain backs, without series title, see Fig.TOH-13-2. Sticker cards, front in style of TOH-2.Forty subjects as per checklist on backs of part 1. Fronts at base/L "1975 Topps Chewing Gum Inc."
The USA edition on thicker board has "Prtd in U.S.A." added.
Mind you this seems to be listed as "Marvel Comic Book Heroes" as well. As I said, its confusing.
Topps [trade : gum : O/S : USA] "Zorro" (1958) 55/88
So here we have a centenary, today in 1924 being the birth of Armando Joseph Catalano. His parents were Sicilian, but had relocated to New York. He was, however, frequently taken for being of South American blood, and certainly got lots of work on their television, and he actually moved down there. However he was not known as that name professionally, but as Guy Williams - though strangely he was best known for a range of swashbuckling heroes who would have better suited that name.
Here he is in one of his first starring roles, "Zorro", the television version, which, as the card says, was made by Walt Disney. That premiered in October 1957, so not long before our cards were produced. Now "Zorro" was a pseudonym, for the nobleman Don Diego de la Vega (see what I mean about the names). The show ran for two seasons, until 1959, and there were also two films which were assembled from clips that had and had not been previously screened.
You can also find our set in a different format, because it was issued by Parkhurst, in Canada, with a bi-lingual French and English text back.
Now Guy Williams also appeared in "Bonanza", but not for too long. However, just as his time there was coming to an end he got another lucky break and was cast in a weekly show called "Lost In Space", from which our card comes. He played Professor John Robinson, who went into space with his family. Actually it was an update of and a nod to the book "The Swiss Family Robinson", written in 1812 by Johann David Wyss. And actually that based a lot of the story on Daniel Defoe`s "Robinson Crusoe". As they say, nothing is ever new.
"Lost In Space" had three seasons, and whilst the first was in black and white the others were in colour. And there are cards for it, black and white as well, issued in 1966 by Topps. They were issued with bubble gum, and a packet cost five cents.
The first colour cards were issued in 1997 by Inkworks and they were called "Lost in Space: The Classic Series", because they did use archive shots. I am not sure if they were from the colour series, or if they were colourized. Anyone know? There were also a range of add ons, autographs, metallic cards, previews, promos, and a puzzle, plus a series that dealt with just the aliens. They were almost certainly inspired by the movie, which was released the following year, and in that year they issued cards which featured scenes from that film.
Then in 2005 Rittenhouse got the nod for a real fan favourite, "The Complete Lost in Space" and this set of ninety cards, was again in full colour, using stills from the original show.
Upper Deck [trade/commercial : cards : O/S : USA] "Goudey Presidents" (2008) Card 244.
Today we remember one of our founding fathers, or hear of him for the first time. .
His name was Charles Glidden Osborne, and he would become the co-founder and first President of the Cartophilic Society. His proudest moment came when the Society was incorporated on 31 Dec 1942. He had always supported the idea of scientific research into the cards he so loved, especially cards which were un-numbered, and he readily loaned cards for displays and magazine illustrations. He also gave considerable financial help to it at the outset, as he would later do to any collector he heard, or felt, was in need of funding.
He was born on the 9th of February 1884 in Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA. His father was William McKinley Osborne, born in 1842, and his father`s cousin was none other than the man on our card, William McKinley, the twenty-fifth President of the United States of America, assassinated in 1901.
During the Second World War he was the Director of Operations for the American Ambulance Great Britain (AAGB). This was founded in 1940 and was a humanitarian organisation that used American donated ambulances to aid the British War effort on the Home Front. On his way out in the morning, or back home to Marlow at night, he would stop off at Cambridge House, home of Charles Lane Bagnall and the London Cigarette Card Company – he said a spot of cheery conversation was a great release from his tours of war damaged sites and patients.
After the war he moved to Sedlescombe, East Sussex, and remarried.
He passed away on Sunday the 15 of January 1961, aged 76. There was no long illness, he died quite suddenly after a full and eventful life. And he was buried in the Garden of Remembrance, Hastings Cemetery and Crematorium, East Sussex, England, at plot 202384475.
This card is one of those odd ones where it is from several consecutive sets of twenty cards, but the numbers continue to build. It also comes under fire for not including all the Presidents, and for the fact that it is in the middle a base set of 330 cards, none of which are Presidents. That makes for rather a mish mash set, but it is also probably why it is sold as a set of twenty and then the buyer wonders where the rest of the numbering system has gone.
Nabisco Pty. Ltd [trade : biscuits : O/S : Australia and New Zealand] "Explore Australia with Pioneer Tours" (1969) 13/24 - RB.30/NA2-6
A curious one now but today is #NationalFigNewtonDay. Its kind of like a fig roll but it was invented by Nabisco, hence our card. But if anyone has a card of a fig from a set that we have not used yet, we will happily swap.
Nabisco`s story is that a man called Charles Roser, who just loved figs, found a way to extract the fig-ness and turn it into a paste which could be inserted smoothly into pastry. He was then either bought out or sold up to the Kennedy Biscuit Company, and in 1891 they made the first biscuit, at their Newton, Massachusetts factory. However they then merged with the New York Biscuit company and made a new company called Nabisco.
However on the other side there is the slight problem of the fig roll. This is a roll of pastry around a paste of figs, and they have been known since Ancient Egypt, when the figs were converted into a kind of thin slurry and covered in a floury dough before being left to bake in the sun. Because they were laid on the ground, they were curved on top and flat on the bottom. Even Mr. Roser openly said that he got the idea from the kind of homemade fig roll that had been brought across to America from England and especially from Ireland, where they remain one of the best loved biscuits of all time.
This set appears in our Australia and New Zealand Index RB.30, published in 1983. There it is described as part of the first section, the"General Interest Series of cards" as :
Explore Australia with Pioneer Tours. 73 x 60. Nd. (24) Issued 1969.
a) Australian issue - back "Wall Maps at 10c... Nabisco Office in your state."
b) New Zealand Issue - back "Wall Maps at 10c... Box 8057 Newton, Auckland.
So now, at last, you know why we got this card for today!
Bussink [trade : cakes : O/S : Holland] ' "Het Verkeer" card 39 Deel 1
Today we celebrate #NationalCableCarDay with this great card. And I know I have used the set before but the other one is not so nice and also represents "comfy", so I am pretty certain I will be able to replace it when the time comes to work on adding the newsletter cards into the index.
Now as it says, in tiny text, Bussink has made the only real Deventer cake since the year 1593. And still does. They also have a website which is also a cooks supply shop and retails crockery, candles, serviettes, etc.
This set fit into three hardback albums, part one being released in 1938, part two in 1939 and part three, interrupted by World War Two, waiting until 1946.
And if anyone knows more, do tell us....
Topps [trade : gum : O/S : USA] "All American Football" (1955) 37/100+
Today is not the birth, nor the death of this man, but it is the day that the ceremony to restore his medals was held, in 1983 - though most regrettably he was already dead, thirty years before.
James Francis Thorpe was just an all round sportsman, and medalist, in the Olympics, he was a proud member of the Sac and Fox tribe, and he was also the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States of America. That makes it especially galling that he would be treated so badly, with The International Olympic Committee taking back his medals and removing his marks from the official record.
And why?
Because he had played minor league baseball for money in 1909-1910, and so he was no longer an amateur, and therefore ineligible to compete at the Olympics. Yet how else was he to support his family, which grew steadily - in the end he would have three wives and seven children and two ex-wives - especially during the Great Depression when he would take any paid job he could, some of which were very bad, and some of which were just hitting a baseball on a sunny day.
Who could blame him for that, apart from the I.O.C. of course.
And a hundred years on from his Olympic performance, though his medals were returned, his records are still not on the Olympic books
Now I am not going to attempt to better the knowledge of Cardboard Connection, so I will just send you to their site on this All American Football set - where you will also discover why I say 100+ as the number.
Sanitarium / Weet-Bix [trade : cereals : O/S ; Australia] "Australia`s Greatest Motor Race" (1990) 1/20
Yes I am right with that date, though the card looks quite vintage. If you think I am wrong, look at the bottom line on the reverse, for the swappage scheme ended on February 28, 1991.
Why we have the card is because today in 1978, the last VW "Type One" - or "Beetle" - was built in Germany. It was not the last though, Volkswagen just moved production out of Europe, where costs were cheaper.
The very last one was built in Mexico, in July 30, 2003.
Now we may call this cute little car a "Beetle", but so do the Germans, they call it the "Kafer", which is German for the same kind of insect, which it so resembles. As far back as 1898, one of the Stollwerck albums was called "Kafer" and is a collection of the beetles of the insect world.
However in France it is called an even cuter name, the "Coccinelle", which means a ladybird. Whilst in Indonesia it was called a "Kodok",or frog, and most of Indonesia and Asia called it "Kereta" or turtle. But sadly Spain it was the "Carocha" - which means "old banger" or "jalopy"
It was replaced by the Golf, which was not such a cute name, though in America they at least called that model the "Rabbit".
Then in 1994 there was a stab at designing a new Beetle, but only as a concept car. It did get a good reception though and in 1998 the "New Beetle" was put on sale. This was christened, in Italy at least, the "Maggiolini", which does mean beetle, but in a kind of a maggot or grub way, That lasted until 2011, when it was replaced by a longer and lower model that was not, to me, quite so cute as even the "New Beetle". That was withdrawn in 2019.
Strangely the Trading Card Database only has three cards of our Beetle, not ours, nor the most common of all which is Brooke Bond`s "History of the Motor Car".
This week's Cards of the Day...
celebrated the birth of the Metropolitan Railway, the oldest underground railway in the world, on the 10th of January 1863.
Now it was pretty tiny then, with just seven stops from Paddington-Bishops Road to Farringdon Street. - both of which have since changed their names and now just use the first word alone. In between them were stations that are still in use - Baker Street, Edgware Road and King’s Cross - and others that have changed somewhat -Gower Street, and Portland Road.
This all changed dramatically, as time went by, and at one time it went way into Buckinghamshire, but in the 1930s it became part of London Transport and its non London arms were cut off.
So our first card was :
Saturday, 6th January 2024
Now this referred to the fact that Watford Football Club is on the Metropolitan Line, and just a mile from the station, in Cassiobury. Though there is a nearer one, Watford High Street Station, which is only ten minutes walk away, and sadly that is why our station is hardly known of by all the fans who attend on match day. In fact, several times, ours has been under threat of closure.
Now our station was built in 1925, in a very Arts and Crafts style, and it is now the North Western Terminus of the Metropolitan Line. The idea was to extend London`s new Metroland right out to here along the railway, building houses in a similar style to the station, but it never happened, there were delays, and a definite lack of confidence for living so far away from Central London, something which was much easier to counteract at places like Wembley and Harrow.
In fact Watford just grew along the line all on its ownsome, and so looks much different to how it might have been.
This set is very curious, because it is not listed in our our original British Trade Index part III, issued in 1986, which only includes up to "Football 81-82". Then in our British Trade Index part IV, issued in 1997, there are four sets of "Football Candy Sticks" cards, but none appear to be ours, they start with the set for 1986-87. So perhaps this is that? Well, I am going to say it is, for now - but if you can shine a little light, please do.
The entire listing of the Candy Sticks issues is :
Football Candy Sticks. 65 x 35. Four sets, each Nd. 1/48"
1. 1986-87 issue. Back without compilation date
2. 1987-88 issue. Back"compiled up to March 31st 1987."
3. 1988-89 issue. Back"compiled up to April 30th 1988."
4. 1989-90 issue. Back"compiled up to May 31st 1989."
Back in two shades of red".
And they are too modern for our updated British Trade Index.
Sunday, 7th January 2024
So this is Aldgate, which is where the Metropolitan Line starts or ends, depending on where you live, but in technical parlance it is the Eastern Terminus, though it has only been so since 1941.
It was opened on the 18th of November 1876, after a slight delay, caused by the discovery that the site they were building on had been a mass grave for victims of the great plague.
This set has its first Cartophilic record in "Cigarette Card News" which I will add as soon as I find it, because after the Faulkner listings were printed therein they turned their attention to doing the same for Player. However for some reason whilst Faulkner maintained its premier slot, and was printed as reference book one, Player was one of the last, and ended up as reference book 17, where it is described as :
30. April 1925. CELEBRATED GATEWAYS (titled series). Size 2 11/16" x 1 7/16" or 67 x 36 m/m. Numbered 1-50. Fronts lithographed in colour. Backs in dark green, with descriptions. Printed by Mardon, Son & Hall. Also issued by Players.
Now the original World Tobacco Issues Index catalogues the set as : "CELEBRATED GATEWAYS. Sm. Nd. (50). See RB.17/44 and H.347" Though the updated version deletes the reference to RB.17, it just has H.347. And that H.347 leads us to the Handbook, where the text is :
H.347. CELEBRATED GATEWAYS. (titled series) Fronts in colour. Numbered series of 50.
Pre-1919 Player
Post 1919 Churchman
Now this does not tell the whole story, for our John Player version was issued almost twenty years earlier than the Churchman version - which you can read more about elsewhere, for it was our Card of the Day on October 11th 2023.
Monday, 8th January 2024
This is Aylesbury, which was the other end of the line until 1961, though in 1948 it started to be called Aylesbury Town. After that the Metropolitan Western Terminus was Amersham. Aylesbury saw the arrival of the train 1839 but it was part of the London and Birmingham Railway, not the Metropolitan. They did not have a station until 1863, and that was for the Wycombe Railway, which became part of the Great Western empire in the late 1860s. After that it was served by the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway, who were bought out by the Metropolitan Railway, giving them the station.
This set first appears in our original Ogdens reference book RB.15, issued in 1949, where it is catalogued as :
88. 50. FOWLS, PIGEONS & DOGS. Numbered on fronts. Fronts lithographed in colour. Backs in green with descriptive text. Home issue, 1904.
Variety, No.12 is found with three different captions
a) Pouter
b) Pouter (Norwich Cropper) - "Norwich Cropper" added in grey letters, two differing sizes of lettering known.
c) Norwich Cropper.
Similar series issued by Fry and Smith (all subjects), Churchman (Dogs & Fowls) and Edwards, Ringer & Bigg and Imperial Tobacco Co. of Canada (Dogs only)
Its next appearance is in the original World Tobacco Issues Index, where our version appears as just "FOWLS, PIGEONS & DOGS. Sm. Nd. (50). See RB.15/88 and H.64"
That H.64, is the handbook, and the entry, to which I have added the dates of issue, is
H.64. FOWLS, PIGEONS & DOGS or DOGS AND FOWLS, or DOGS SERIES. (titled, except Edwards, Ringer & Bigg). Fronts in colour, illustrated in Notes & News, Vol.1. No,4.
Pre-1919
- Churchman - Titled "Dogs & Fowls". Series of 38 (April 1908)
- Edwards, Ringer & Bigg - Untitled series of 23. Dogs only (March 1908)
- Ogden - Titled "Fowls, Pigeons & Dogs". Series of 50 (3 variations No.12) Illustrated in "Notes & News Vol.1 No.6 (May 1904)
- Smith - Titled "Fowls, Pigeons & Dogs"..Series of 50 (May 1908)
Trade -
- Fry (cocoa) - Titled "Fowls, Pigeons & Dogs".. Series of 50
Overseas -
- Gevolgelte (Holland) - Titled "Durven & Housen". Series of 48
- Imperial Tobacco Co. of Canada - Titled "Dogs Series". Series of 23, serial No, 7605. Recorded in Burdick under C.7, page 40
And from now on, as we feature these other issuers, I will link them in on this above list, using bold type.
Tuesday, 9th January 2024
This marvellous card shows a Metropolitan Line train, dwarfing the people with it. And it is quite easy to see that it is steam-driven, with the chimney and the smoke issuing forth.
Now we know that the Metropolitan Railway was the World`s first underground railway, opening in 1863, but you may not realise that this is the sort of train which was used, steam locomotives, drawing wooden carriages that were lit by gas. It sounds a recipe for disaster, fumes wise, between the asphyxiation of the gas and the steam, but that was the way then. In fact it was the only way it could be, steam was all we had, or foot power. Now the operators did know that this way of operation, underground, could be a problem, so they came up with an ingenious solution, fitting pipes that made the steam go into tanks of cold water that were retrofitted to the sides of the standard overground trains. They also changed the fuel, to coke, not coal. And they built the tunnels with sections missing, you can see them as you go along, still today, so that the smoke would not be trapped in one long tunnel, but pass through to another, and gradually lessen.
In our original reference book to the issues of W.D. & H.O. Wills, part II, this set is listed with its non-clause sister, W/24.A and also the seven extra cards. That is discussed elsewhere on this site, for it was the card of the day on the 9th of January 2024
However we will repeat the header here, to save you time.
24. LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES AND ROLLING STOCK (untitled).
It appears necessary to rename this series as catalogue compilers do not agree and existing titles are incorrect. [though it was originally recorded by Wills themselves in their own works magazines as “Locomotive Engines and Rolling Stock]
Numbered on fronts. Fronts printed in full colour without frame lines. “Wills`s Cigarettes” above subject, which is titled at base. Backs : Star and circle ornamental design, without “Ld.” after name in circle, in grey. There are two series :
B. Series of 50, no extra cards. WITH I.T.C. clause on backs Cards No`s. 24, 25, 26, 28, 29 and 30 all depict the newer type of engine. Two cards vary from the similar numbers in (A) :-
Card No. 32 – Neither the original nor corrected card was used; the illustration shows the engine only.
Card No. 34 – The card in (A) shows an engine painted reddish brown. In (B) the engine is olive green.The records of Wills show the date of issue as August, 1903. Set (A) was probably intended for export brands, but cards of both series are so invariably found mixed in old collections that it appears that both series were issued in this country.
However in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes the listing reads just “LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES AND ROLLING STOCK (A) Sm. Nd. (50) See W/24”. There is no mention of an A, a B, nor the altered cards, though it does cross reference to the original Wills partworks - which are very usefully reprinted as one hardback volume.
Wednesday, 10th January 2024
So this card tells us of the arrival of electrification, which happened on January 1st, 1905. However, as the reverse of this card tells us, they had needed to secure an act of Parliament first, allowing for this to take place, and that Act was passed in 1898. It was not electrified all at once either - first was what is referred to as "the stretch" between Earls Court and Kensington High Street, but it was only one stop. However by March, 1905, the line was electric from Baker Street right to Harrow. And after that the whole line was converted.
Now I am confused as to why they needed the Act, because there was already an electric underground railway in London, namely The City and South London Railway. That opened in 1890 and it covered almost four miles, from Stockwell to King William Street, which is near to today`s Bank station.
This set appears in our original Churchman Reference Book (RB.10, issued in 1948) where it is revealed that there are also two sets of twelve large sized cards. These are catalogued as :
86. January 1931. 50. LANDMARKS IN RAILWAY PROGRESS. (titled series). Size 2 11/16" x 1 x 7/16" or 67 x 36 m/m. Numbered 1-50. Fronts printed by letterpress, 4-colour halftone process. Backs in dark green, with descriptions. Printed by Mardon, Son & Hall.
87. January 1932. 12. LANDMARKS IN RAILWAY PROGRESS. (titled series). Similar format to item (86) but size 3 5/16" x 2 x 9/20" or 80 x 62 m/m.
88. March 1932. 12. LANDMARKS IN RAILWAY PROGRESS. Inscribed "2nd Series of 12". Other detail as (87) but different subjects.
The three are described a lot more concisely in our World Tobacco Issues Index, as just :
LANDMARKS IN RAILWAY PROGRESS. Nd.
A. Small (50)
B. Large - (1) "1st Series of 12" (12) - (2) "2nd Series of 12" (12)
Thursday, 11th January 2024
The first thing you need to know is that there were actually two sets issued by W.D. & H.O. Wills that were called “Railway Engines”, ours, and a version issued in May 1936. The easiest ways to tell them apart is that the framelines on the reverse are very different, ours being quite heavy and decorative whilst the later version is light and I shall say streamlined whilst really thinking basic Also the 1930s set has adhesive backs - and sometimes dealers do, very helpfully, call our set "Railway Engines - Non Adhesive".
However in our original Wills reference book, part IV, both sets, rather confusingly, appear one above the other. so be careful when extracting info.
Our set is catalogued in that Wills reference book as :
303. RAILWAY ENGINES. (1924). Fronts printed by letterpress in colour. Backs in grey with descriptive text.
A. Home issue, with I.T.C. Clause. Issued 1924
B. New Zealand Issue. Without I.T.C.Clause. Numbering differs from A and several subjects changed. Issued between 1925-30
Similar series issued by Imperial Tobacco Co. of Canada.
In our World Tobacco Issues Indexes our set has been removed from the New Zealand version and simply described as : “RAILWAY ENGINES. Sm. Nd. (50). See RB.21/200-303.C”. But because of the date it is now also separate from the later version, which appears in the next section along.
That RB.21 is the British American Tobacco booklet, which I have to say I warmed to, though at first I found it truly baffling. In there, our set is catalogued as :
200-303. RAILWAY ENGINES. (1924). The recording in W/303 is summarised and amended below -
A. Wills` Overseas issue. Without I.T.C. Clause
B. I.T.C. of Canada issue. Back in grey (1) with “Wills` Cigarettes” at top blocked over but clearly visible, (2) redrawn, without “Wills` Cigarettes”. Serial 8083. Burdick C.30
C. Wills` Home Issue. With I.T.C. Clause.
The numbering in A-B differs almost entirely from that in C, and four new subjects (No`s 25-28) replace Nos. 27, 29, 31, and 40 in C.
In A., card No.11 shows the engine red . whereas in B. and C. the same engine is black.
So, like me, you are all wondering what the cards are that have been changed. I do know that the home issue cards mentioned above are :
27. Transandine Railway - Combined Rack and Adhesion Locomotive Engine No.40-0-8-0-0-6-0 Tank
29. Belgian State Railway - Engine No.4853-4-6-0-Four-cylinder-compound
31. Danish State Railways - Engine No.955-4-6-0
40. Italian State Railways - Engine No.69001-4-6-2
and
11. L.M. & S. Railway - Midland Section - Engine No.2290-0-10-0 (red) - and this is indeed black in the New Zealand version! Anyone know why?
Friday, 12th January 2024
Almost forgot this one!
And actually I should have noticed the date and had it as the card on the 10th all over again....
Here we have a Metropolitan Railway Electric Train of the mid 1920s, and at that time they were quite involved with the British Empire Exhibition, whose second season was held in 1925. In fact you can see a giveaway card from the exhibition at the London Transport Museum online as well as a photo of one of their popular exhibits, the cut away train
This card was issued by a periodical, issued weekly, that I have not yet, dare I say, tracked down. Railway tracks, get it? And it appears in our original British Trade Index part I as a separate issuer, not as part of the big conglomerates like Thomson. Apparently they issued just two sets, ours, and "The Scout" Bird`s Eggs, a set of just nine cards, medium size again, at 69 x 54 m/m. Both these sets were issued in 1924 and 1925. In that book, and in our updated British Trade Index, our set is catalogued as :
RAILWAY ENGINES (A) Md. 82 x 47. Nd. (12) Dated 13-12-24 to 28-2-25.
Now in our second volume there is an addition, called "Celebrities" (A) this is an extra large plate of "H.R.H. The Prince of Wales as Chief Scout for Wales" which was issued in November 1922. And in our third volume, even more issues have come to light. These are a pair of art plates measuring 190 x 170 m/m and issued in 1928, five booklets issued in 1922 one of which is named "The Footballer`s Friend", and a calendar for 1924 which was issued in December 1923. Then in our fourth volume another booklet appears, along with a Union Jack puzzle dated 1928. This was not the final discovery though, for in our updated British Trade Index there is a large card dated 1929 and showing the "National Flags of the Scouts of the World" measuring 253 x 191 m/m.
We have now been told by reader Mr. Porter that "The Scout" was "The Official Organ of the Boy Scouts" and it was edited by Baden-Powell himself. It was first published on the 14th of April, 1908, by Cyril Arthur Pearson, who founded ""Pearson`s Weekly" in 1890 and "The Daily Express" in 1900 - the date of the first edition of "The Scout being but a few weeks after the book, "Scouting for Boys" was published.
In 1919 the magazine cost a penny an issue, in 1920 a penny ha`penny an issue, and in 1922 twopence. Now it is often written that it lasted until 1966, but in 1933 there was a big change, starting with it being renamed to "Every Boy`s Weekly". This was not a great success, so in 1939, it was taken over entirely by The Boy Scouts Association, replaced the original title, and then lasted until the third of September 1966. It was then kind of amalgamated with "The Scouter", which had belonged to the Boy Scouts since 1923. There was a name change, to "Scouting" in 1971, but the last issue, a digital one, was in 2020.
And to close this week, here are a couple of very interesting facts that I have discovered about the railways and the Scouting movement. There was a locomotive called "The Boy Scout", but it was an LMS one, not a Metropolitan. And that Lord Baden Powell`s godfather was one Robert Stephenson, son of George Stephenson.
And so - I must go, though this will be on time tonight, for once! This is mostly due to judicious picking, of sets where I thought they would either not appear in reference books at all or be quick to deal with if they did. And then I got that Marvel Ice Man, which was great fun.
I hope you have a great week and do at least celebrate a few of these events, as well as look at your own collections to see if you had any other related cards. If you do, or you can settle some of the mysteries that I still ponder, just drop us an e-mail at webmaster@card-world.co.uk - and I will be happy to extend the knowledge to us all.