Another week is slowly peeled off the calendar, and we wonder where it went. Or maybe we have a diary full of events which we can ponder over and relive when it is too wet to venture out?
I have bought a diary for most of my life, but it was only this year that I wrote so much within it, rather than writing dates and times and things I needed to remember on tiny slips of paper - and losing them.
As far as diaries, I am a "mid-year", which just means that I am nowhere near intelligent enough to be an "academic", that being the alternative name for a diary that starts in August. I am not sure why, but I think that Christmas and New Year has so much going on and things are usually not going well. However in August, nothing else is happening; I have time to sit with different coloured pencils, and write in all the dates that I preserve from year to year, and imagine I shall do forever, though some are unbearably sad, and always end in tears, and perhaps I ought have omitted them a long, long time ago.
To happy things, now, and quickly.
This week we have a fine collection of unusual cards, several Centenaries, and even a date error. The subjects run through water, a double helping of air, a diamond, film, and a ghost, and end with perhaps the involvement of some kind of alien.
So let us start with....
Spotlight [trade : publications : USA] "Spotlight Olympic Tribute Edition `08" (2008) P5/9
Today in 2001 this man, Michael Fred Phelps II, to give his proper name, beat the swimming record for 200 metres butterfly stroke long course, though he was hardly yet a man, being aged just fifteen.
His record remained unbeaten for eighteen years. And during that time he won twenty-eight Olympic medals, twenty-three of them gold which makes him at the time of typing the most successful Olympian to this date.
He also holds the honour of winning eight gold medals at a single games (in 2008), and is the youngest male Olympic swimmer since 1932 (that being Kusuo Kitamura). However he is not the youngest ever. That was Dimitrios Loundras, who competed in the 1896 Athens Olympics aged just 10 years, and he won a bronze medal for the parallel bars.
Now most of the cards of Michael Phelps show him actually swimming, but this is a very different card indeed, and if you did not know of him you would think he was the kind of athlete that competes in a stadium, running or the suchlike. The text on the card says that this photo was taken on February 12, 2008 during the Speedo Swimsuit Launch in New York City, and that he is wearing the LZR Racer. Now this is obviously a state of the art aerodynamic kit, and very unlike the kind of Speedos that we generally see at a pool near us.
Now we have discovered that Spotlight was an annual, and in 2008 they produced what I thought were loose sheets of cards, inserted within it. However I have been told that this is wrong, and that the cards were printed in the annual as some of the pages. There were 72 cards in that set, and presumably the photos on them had previously appeared in the magazine. The cards were designed to be trimmed along the dotted line - they featured actors and actresses and have the initials ST`07 in the top right hand corner, followed by the number of the card.
I thought our set, which were of sporting personalities, was simply the year after`s, for they say ST`08. But it turns out that these cards are known as the "Olympic Tribute Edition", and there are only nine in the set, so they must have simply been a one sheet add-on to celebrate the Olympic Games.
Anyone knowing any more, do tell us, please.
Lambert & Butler [tobacco : UK] "Empire Air Routes" (September 1936) 3/50 - L8-45 : L/41 [RB.9/41]
Our first Centenary Card of the week and it marks the founding of Imperial Airways, today in 1924. In fact it was more of an advantageous merger, hastened along by the British Government, between Daimler, Handley Page, Instone, and The Airway and British Marine Air Navigation Co. Ltd.
The first ever daily international scheduled air service passenger flight had been in August 1919. It had been London to Paris, and "London" had been part of Hounslow Heath. There was but one passenger, the rest was cargo, but it still went into the record books.
Imperial Airways were based at Croydon Airport, showing here, which had opened in 1916, during the First World War, when it was known as Beddington Aerodrome. It was used for Home Defence by the Royal Flying Corps, and part of the site was given over to production and known as the National Aircraft Factory.
After the war civil flights were mooted. Imperial Airways had started with European flights, then included Africa, India, and the Middle East.
Here we have the Imperial Airways Liner "Scylla" - liners suggesting that through progress and modernisation the liners at sea were being replaced by liners of the air.
The card tells us that the Scylla had a sister, called Syrinx, plus that the Scylla, so presumably also the Syrinx, was built by Short Brothers (Rochester and Bedford) Ltd.
Both these aircraft remained in service until 1939, when Imperial Airways was merged with BOAC. However in 1940 both were retired from service.
This card first appears in our original Lambert & Butler reference book, RB.9 issued in 1948, as :
41. 50. EMPIRE AIR ROUTES. Fronts printed by letterpress, 4-colour half-tone process Backs in dark green, with descriptions. September, 1936.
As usual it is very much shortened in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes, to simply
EMPIRE AIR ROUTES. Sm. Nd. (50).
Brown & Williamson - Wings Cigarettes [tobacco : O/S USA - Kentucky] "Modern Airplanes" series C (1940) 42/50 - B811-280 : B142-2.3 : USA/T.87
Another Centenary Card, but this one is an odd one, for it celebrates not the granting of the "Royal" section of the Royal Canadian Air Force, only when Canada officially recognised it as a title.
Here we have a Harvard training aeroplane, an American build, but which was sent over the border to Canada in some considerable volume. It is fair to say that most of the pilots of the RCAF at this time would have known that aeroplane pretty well.
There is not a word of the issuer on this card, but it was Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corporation, of Louisville Kentucky. They issued cards in the 1930s and 40s, our set, with `Wings` Cigarettes and a set of movie stars with `Golden Grain` Tobacco.
There were three sets of these aircraft, and they are described in our World Tobacco Issues Index as :
MODERN AMERICAN AIRPLANES. Sm. 63 x 44. Nd. "Wings Cigarettes" brand except Nos 1/25 of Series B. Ref: USA/T.87
1. "Series A". (50). (a) Inscribed "Series A" at top of back, (b) without the "Series A" inscription
2. "Series B". (50). Nos 1/25 carry offer of enlargements, with name of firm
3. "Series C". (50).
This is basically the same in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, but some curious Lucky Strike cards have been added to their issues, which bear partially German text. Regarding our set, it has been added that "Series B and C omit "American" from title" and that "Special albums were issued".
Topps [trade : bubble gum ; O/S : USA] Baseball (1958) 276/494
Guess What! A third Centenary Card. This one is for Bobby Avila, who was born today in 1924. However, for some reason, this card gets it wrong, and gives him the birth date of June 7, 1926.
When this card was issued, he was "a nine year veteran with Cleveland", and he had been "named the Sporting News` outstanding player in the American League in 1954." Perhaps this was because he used "a heavier bat against fast ball pitchers, and a lighter one against the curve ballers."
This set is one of the best loved, but not necessarily the most valuable, and it must be said that those who love it most are of an age to remember it as their first ever set. Part of its appeal is quoted as the bright pop of colour that forms the background of each front. However there were other things that made it stick out in the memory. This was the first time that cards had been included from the annual All Star Game, twenty of them, which means that some of the players have two cards. And it was the first set to have checklists, so you knew which cards you had and which you dearly wanted to find. However the novelty, and excitement, of being able to cross off your cards as you collected them does mean that it is quite hard to find a checklist without pen and pencil marks.
By the way, this is a proper set of trade cards, for the cards were issued in a packet with bubble gum, and we also know that each pack cost five cents.
Chucklers Weekly [trade : publications : O/S : Australia ] "Film Stars" (29 August 1958) 9/28 - CH9-1
And so for our fourth Centenary Card we are remembering Marlon Brando, born today in 1924.
This card was quite unknown to me and it was sent in by a reader, Mr. Major. He thinks it is Australian, and obviously from a periodical. So lets see what we can find out.
It turns out that Chucklers' Weekly was a spin-off and it was printed by The Sunday Telegraph. It was pretty much the children's section, comics and fun, and its mascot was Charlie Chuckles, a kookaburra.
Now the text tells us that Mr. Brando was born today in Nebraska, and started studying for the stage after leaving a military academy. It says his first picture was "The Men", gives his vital statistics, and then has a slight error by saying "He is married to Anna Kashafi, a new-comer to Hollywood". The error is that she was actually Anna Kashfi, there is an "a" too many.
Now she was born in Calcutta, India, in September 1934, and christened Joan O'Callaghan. Her father was of Irish descent, and he was working on the Indian State railways. When she was 13 the family moved back to Cardiff in Wales, which was where her mother came from. The curious thing is that when she married Marlon Brando in 1957 she completely disregarded any of this and gave her parentage as Indian. The following year they had a son, but divorced shortly after. And after that, sadly, the fairy tale got ever worse.
This set appears in our original Australian & New Zealand Index, RB.30, published in 1983. The heading tells us that “Chucklers Weekly” was a “periodical, published by Consolidated Press Pty. Ltd” and that the cards were “dated 1958-60”.
As all the cards issued were of personalities, they have been grouped together, as :
Film and Recording Stars (A). Black half tones.
1. 74 x 49. Numbered on back. (28). Dated 1958.
2. 78 x 49. Numbered on back. (20). Dated 1958/9.
3. 74 x 51. Numbered on back. (30). Dated 1959. Back per Fig. CH9-1-3.
4. 186 x 125. Unnumbered, plain back. 1 known – “Doris Day making `Please Don't Eat The Daisies` for MGM.” Dated April 1, 1960.
Now I am not sure why the back photo was only associated with section three of this grouping, for it is identical to our back, save the subject (theirs is George Nader) and the date (July 10, 1959)
In part II of our original Australian & New Zealand Index, RB.33, published in 1993, there is but a stub, that redirects the reader back to part I. No new issues or information are recorded.
Impel [trade/commercial : cards : O/S : USA] "DC Comics Hero Heritage" series 1 (1992) 20/180
Did anyone say Centenary Card? Well here we go again.
This one is the birthday of Joye Hummel, in 1924, and she was responsible for writing most of the Wonder Woman comic strips, though she was what is known as a ghost writer, doing the work behind the scenes and not being known for it.
Wonder Women herself was also a ghost, in many ways, for she hid her beauty, talents, and that amazing costume beneath a pair of glasses and some seriously straight-laced secretarial garb, and she hid it so well that her boss, Steve Trevor, never knew. I find this rather amazing, since this card also says Mr. Trevor was her lover - and I am pretty sure if I were Wonder Woman that costume would have got quite a lot of usage behind closed doors.
The card also reveals an amazing fact, and that is that Wonder Woman could not fly. Instead she glided on air currents, like a bird.
If you ask many collectors what the first card of Wonder Woman is, they will say that it was the 1968 set of "Comic Book Foldees", issued by A. & B.C. Gum. This is an odd set, which was a bit like a game, involving three different character faces or entire bodies, and you had to bend and manipulate parts of the cards so that you ended up with parts of one person`s face or body on another. They are usually well played with.
Anyway she appears twice - as Wonder Woman the Amazon (card 12) and as Beautiful Wonder Woman (card 33). Though you have a lot more chance of finding the second card, because on the first card one of her co-stars is Babe Ruth.
The truth is that this may be her first card, but not in this printing. For the A. & B.C. set was a reprint, under official license, of the Topps set first issued in America in 1966.
John Player `Tom Thumb` [tobacco : UK - Nottingham] "Wonders of the Ancient World" (1986) 32/32 - P644-458
And so to our final diary date of this week, which is .... not a Centenary Card. Instead it marks the discovery of Easter Island, in 1722, by Jacob Roggeren.
This card tells not a word of him, it is purely concerned with the Easter Island statues, and shows four out of the hundreds that are found there. It tells us that they are "the works of the ancestors of the present natives, but the precise age of the statues is not known". Which makes them doubly fascinating. Now there is something else that makes them wonderful too, and that is their size, "from 12 to 20 feet in height - though the largest is 33 feet high. On average, they weigh 50 tons each." Also they are on platforms, walls, that face the sea, "up to 300 feet in length" and "some 260 such platforms have been counted, fringing the coast in an almost unbroken line, while others are to be found standing in isolation and in groups inland".
These statues have fascinated us for generations, especially those of us who believe that an alien hand must have been involved, given the scale and size of the works. Even Wills "Wonders of the Past" (1926) 14/50 speculates on "a vanished race of hideous giants".
Other cards choose not to theorise. B. Morris` "Architectural Monuments" just calls them "strange statues of stone" - and the front picture is very odd, being nothing like they actually are. Whilst Duke`s "Holidays" does not show the statues, choosing instead a female idol worshipper, lighting a flame before them.
This set is not listed in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, for it was issued long after that book appeared. It is therefore only catalogued in our updated version, as :
3D. "TOM THUMB" SERIES. Md. 74 x 57. Special albums issued
WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD. Nd. (32)
Now it did have a kind of companion set, that being "Wonders of the Modern World". That was issued in 1985, so before our set, which seems a bit widdershins to me, who thinks the ancient should have come first!
This week's Cards of the Day...
revolved around #WearAHatDay, which took place on the 28th of March.
Now whilst it is fun to wear a hat, especially an amusing one, there is a serious side to this day, which began in 2010 in order to raise awareness and funds for Brain Tumour Research.
Brain tumours are one of the hidden cancers, and they seem to get little press coverage, though shockingly they are most likely to affect children. Yet only 1% of funds that are donated to cancer research go to the brain tumour section.
Anyway, if this resonated with you, I hope you joined in and either took part in or planned an event. If not, do check out their website - for you can donate some much needed funds whenever the pink pop up button bounces on to the screen.
and so to this week`s solutions :
The first three clues were chosen because their name was also the name of a type of hat, and we continued with that through the week, kind of like a double poser, allowing you to guess at the reverse of the card at first, and then ponder at which sort of hat it may be.
We started with :
Saturday, 23rd March 2024
The clue here was a “Cap” – or fifty-three, which was the number that Mr. Keegan had amassed.
And in football terms, every time a player steps out on to the field to play for their country against another, they are said to receive “a cap”, though it is, more`s the pity, just a number that rises with each appearance, and you can quote on your stats if you feel you need to.
However, when football first started, the players did get an actual cap that they wore on their heads, which is an idea that was borrowed from cricket.
Sadly that has pretty much disappeared, except for milestone moments, like reaching a hundred of them, at which point you may get a single one.
This card is anonymous and plain backed but we know it was issued by Birds Eye, because there is what is said to be an advert, but has a strong resemblance to what may have been a wall chart, illustrated at the Football Cartophilic Exchange/BEE.
However that makes it appear that the set ought to have been called “England`s World Cup Trail”. However the main listing for the set on that site calls it “England's World Cup Team”. They describe it as “12 cards with facsimile autographs, each has '1.7.80' printed in the bottom right-hand corner”.
Oddly the World Cup was not played in 1980, it had just taken place in 1979 and would again in 1982. So I am not sure what the date is for. Does anyone out there know ?
These cards do not appear to be in any of the original British Trade Indexes, but again, if you can find them, do tell us.
They are too late for the updated version.
Sunday, 24th March 2024
For our second crafty clue we gave you Fred Trueman, the cricketer, and renowned “bowler”.
Now a “bowler” in hat land is a hard felt hat with a rounded top and a brim which curves slightly the the side. Why it is called that is from its original manufacturers, Thomas and William Bowler of London, and they first made one in 1849. As to why, well they were asked to, by none other than James Lock & Co, who had been commissioned to make something which would stay on the head of the gamekeeper of one of the Earls of Leicester, unlike his present top hat, which was always being blown off by the wind, falling off when the horse shied or stumbled, or being collected in passing by low-hanging branches. And then, of course, the gamekeeper would have to get off his horse, collect his hat, and clamber back aboard.
So almost certainly the Earl had seen this, and wanted more work, less time-wasting. ...
Again this issuer is not listed in our trade indexes, but we have featured a set by them before, and I hope it was not this one. So I will track that down, and add a link. It was https://csgb.co.uk/publications/newsletter/2023-06-30 on Tuesday the 4th of July.
Unfortunately it was this set. But never mind all will be sorted.
And maybe out there is a most unusual card of Mr. Trueman, with which this might be replaced????
Or even better a card for that other duplicated entry, one which shows both of the Bedser twins. I am certain one is hiding somewhere...???
Monday, 25th March 2024
Here we have “A Thames Pleasure Skiff”, called Kitty, and I know not why, but perhaps you do.
There is a Thames barge called Kitty, and she is currently for sale, but our card shows a much simpler craft, aboard which are two men, one of whom seems to be doing the rowing, and one of whom is dreaming, gently tickling the waters with his oar.
There is also a lady, who strangely looks a bit like me, now I look at it enlarged to make these notes. Though if it were me, on a boat, I would be wearing a life jacket and several lifebelts.
You will notice she is looking right over the shoulder of the working man and gazing at the tickler. Perhaps there is some wry comment being made by the artist.
To more serious matters, and the answer to the clue, it was, of course, a “boater” which in hat terms is a semi-formal, flat-topped, summer weather headgear, made of stiff straw with a ribbon between the top and the brim.
However, as you see here, it is also the name for anyone who uses a boat for pleasure. And therefore this card is a perfect example.
Now Cope had no special reference book, so this set is only described in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes, rather simply, as :
BOATS OF THE WORLD. Sm. 71 x 36. Nd. (50)
Tuesday, 26th March 2024
This card may have suggested a riding hat or helmet, or a jockey cap but note the horses are not being ridden. And it may also have been a top hat, the usual choice of a ringmaster, but ours is bareheaded - as well as the fact that he is probably a horse trainer, rather than the ringmaster, who would not be holding those poles.
In fact we were after a "plug" hat. This is another name for a bowler, and it is described officially as a hard felt hat with a rounded top and a narrow brim. I am not sure why it came to have this name, but perhaps it was because it was rather tight fitting and it so it was like inserting a plug (your head) into a socket (the hat). It does seem to be an American term for it, especially used in what we call the Wild West, where such hats were very popular. However there is also a thought that in America a plug hat was actually another name for a top hat.
This set has three official Lorillard versions, plus an anonymous one. The trio are described together in our original World Tobacco Issues Index as :
CIRCUS SCENES (A). Lg. 101 x 57. Without captions. Unnd. (25). See ABC/268 and X2/268.A. Ref USA/268
(a) "Red Cross" wording front and back.
(b) "Red Cross" wording on front, plain back. Brand issue
(c) "Sensation" wording front and back.
For anonymous issue without wording front or back, see ZH1-4
The updated version is exactly the same apart from the references to ABC/268 and X2/268.A. The ABC code is the American Book of Checklists, which by then was a collectors item and long out of print, so not as easily accessible as it would have been in the 1950s. The X2 code refers to the original handbook to the original World Tobacco Issues Index, which was first issued as a separate booklet and then combined in a single cover later. Whilst it has the same text as above, there is a photo of all the cards, which I will do my best to scan by the weekend.
Wednesday, 27th March 2024
I have never seen this set before and it is great!
James Illingworth Ltd was founded in Kendal, in the Lake District, in 1867, and a biography appears elsewhere on this site, from when their set of "Cavalry" was featured as our Card Of The Day
This set is described in our original World Tobacco Issues Index as :
MOTOR CAR BONNETS (A). Sm. 68 x 36. Nd. (25).
Every card has the logo of the car manufacturer in the top left hand corner of the front, and a biography of them on the reverse. Many of the names would be quite unknown to the general public today, including Arrol Johnson, Cubitt, Darracq, Jowett, and Straker Squire - but there are also many names that are still as familiar, including our Morris, but also Austin, Fiat, Renault, Rover, and Vauxhall, plus the more exclusive Daimler and Rolls Royce.
I am not entirely sure that Illingworth would have agreed with our title though, I think they would have gone along the lines of purely "Motor Cars", it was just coincidence that the fronts of the cars alone are shown. I have also found it listed as "Motor Car Radiators", but this is incorrect because though some of the cars do show such, others do not.
Thursday, 28th March 2024
The clue here was mortar, for "Mortar Board", which may, as the card says, be "a flat board, as shown ... useful for mixing", but is also a very curious hat indeed, being a kind of skull cap with a square board stuck horizontally on the top of it. This has several names, academic cap, college cap, graduate cap, and an Oxford.
Now W.D. & H.O. Wills devoted an entire set to the "University Cap and Gown", in a large sized set of twenty-five cards issued in May 1926.
But here we have the real thing, on which academia modelled its own version, and it does please me to think that such a humble item should be so immortalised.
Now we have featured this set before, but not in this version - last time, which was on the 22nd of March 2023, we showed you the Channel Islands version, which looks decidedly bare around the edges when compared to this one.
In our original Wills Book the variations are described as:
A) Home Issue. Album clause "at one penny each" and I.T.C. Clause
B) Irish Issue. Album clause without price and I.T.C. Clause
C) Channel Islands Issue. No album clause or I.T.C. Clause
That was the last time that all three sets were listed together. For in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes only the Home and Irish Issues are mentioned in the same breath, whilst the Channel Islands are shunted off to Section 5D in the original 1956 version, and to 6D in the modern update.
The text for our set in these World Tobacco Indexes is rather confusing too, for it lumps the earlier 1920s sets in along with it. The whole reads :
HOUSEHOLD HINTS. Sm. Nd.
1. "Wills`s Cigarettes" at top of back. See W/234-5
(i) "A Series of 50"
(ii) "2nd Series of 50".
2. Album wording at top of back. (50). See W/236
A. Home issue - album clause with price - "one penny each"
B. Irish Issue - album clause without price.
There is one very curious fact and that is that whilst our set was issued in July 1936, the Home issue was not issued until September 1936. And I have no date for the Irish issue, which presumably means it was also issued in the September?
Friday, 29th March 2024
So this was a teaser indeed, because this is Fez in Morocco. And as to why the Fez hat is named after the Fez place, it is because in that area crimson berries grow in some abundance, and they are the source of the dye that makes the characteristic colour of the hat.
Now Wikipedia/Fez may dispute the bit about the berries, but it is a really detailed story of the hat through the centuries.
Our card is the small size but the set was also issued in a large size, which we featured as our Card of the Day on the 27th of December 2022. If you compare the two versions you will find out that the small cards are a section of the larger, rather than being reduced to fit; so on the large version of our card the men in the blue and orange robes, and the child far left, extend to show their feet and more of the floor, and the roof has a whole other line of shading material after ours. Whilst the reverse of ours is split into two columns, but the larger has each line extending right across the card.
The sets first appear in our original World Issues Index as :
AROUND THE MEDITERRANEAN. Nd. (50). See Ha.610. Special Travel Book issued.
A. Small, 68 x 39.
B. Large, 77 x 63.
The "Special Travel Book" was just an album, but it was designed in such a way that you could conceivably make your friends believe that you had travelled around this area.
Now in our updated World Index the reference to Ha.610 is gone. Instead it cites RB.113/404, which is our updated volume on the issues of Godfrey Phillips and the companies it controlled.
The set was also issued the same year and in the same two sizes by Major Drapkin, but as an export issue to Australia and New Zealand.
So there you are, I did manage to get a newsletter together, in between the continuous syringe feeding of poor buster, who is ailing fast, and will no longer eat by his own devices. However, not all is lost, in my mind, anyway, for he still wags his tail at other dogs, and enjoys his walks, of short duration. Maybe this will just continue, for ages yet. Or maybe it will not, and at that time everything will be forever altered, in more ways than one
I hope that your week went well, included some interesting finds, if not necessarily spectacular ones.
And most of all I hope that you are sorting out your wants lists and checking them with your cards, in time for our Annual Card Convention in Salisbury, which is on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st of April - not too many weeks from now.....
Finally, if you have any comments, suggestions, enquiries, and thoughts, or can supply any additional information about any of the above, do email us - at webmaster@card-world.co.uk