Another newsletter, and it would be remiss of me not to say that I hope you manage to make it down to Salisbury and that you find the card of which you always dreamed, as well as, even more importantly, to meet up with your friends, and maybe even to see someone that you only know right now as an email address.
Cards may be why we go, but we also need the companionship and camaraderie, as well as the delight of finally finding a friend who shares your enthusiasm for the same sort of often obscure cards and cartophilic material.
And if you do find something fabulous send us a photo, bearing in mind that it is way easier for us to show photos of cards than to remove people from it so we do not need to bother with the form filling nor the asking of permissions.
This week`s cards are an eclectic bunch, but also tinged with the prospect of more than a little adventure – the excitement of music, the thrill of wheels, the soaring sound of strings, a grand opening, a voyage on a tiny boat, and the thrill of following your favourite football team. I am not sure that Thursday’s card fits in, but I guess the prospect of going to war, and especially going overseas, must have been initially stirring for many young men in 1914, even if the reality turned out to be truly awful.
But let us start with the music…
Mister Softee [trade : ice cream : UK - London] “Star Discs” (1970) 3/24 – MIS-070.8.a : MJZ-17
This round card very aptly satisfies the requirements for a card of today, for it is National Record Store Day. And hopefully your high street, or one nearby, still has such a pleasure palace within it? If not, charity shops often stock records, so nip there and have a look. Just like books, the glimpse of a record sleeve can instantly take you back to whatever you were doing when you first heard that tune, whether this be good, bad, or amazing. Failing a local store, just think of tunes from your youth and seek them out on YouTube, etc. Many of them come complete with videos as well, a feast for the ears and the eyes.
So here we have one of my favourites, Mick Jagger. The text tells us that "last year..." he, and the Rolling Stones, “…made a highly successful return to America.”
That text, by the way, was compiled by “Music Now”, and they were a fascinating music newspaper, issued weekly, with more of a cult, underground flavour than Melody Maker or New Musical Express. It began in 1967 as "Top Pops", but a couple of years later added the suffix of "Music Now". Then it dropped the "Top Pops" but only lasted for less than a year. Its final edition was printed in 1971, which must mean our cards were issued, or at least printed, quite close to that date.
If you look at this set in our original British Trade Index part II (and in our updated version) you are immediately redirected, for it says: “LORD NEILSON`S Star Cards – See MISTER SOFTEE”
The entry there tells us that the cards were issued with ice cream, and that they were issued in association with Record Mirror. There are several music related sets, (“Top 10”, “Star Cards”, “Top 20”) but none are ours. This is because that book was published in 1969. It is not until Part III, published in 1986, that we find our set, under Mister Softee, section 2, issues in the 1970s. It is listed as :
LORD NEILSON`S STAR DISCS. Circular, 75 m/m disc. Nd. (24). Brand issue … MJZ-17
Now in our updated British Trade Index, all of the “Star” sets form one group, which is headed “MISTER SOFTEE`S TOP TEN, OR LORD NEILSON`S STAR CARDS. 1963-73. 88 x 88, unless stated. All series to 1973 included”. This last line is because this volume cuts off at 1970 in most other cases.
The description of our set is :
8. 1970/1973. Titled “Lord Neilson`s Star Discs”. 75 m/m diameter. Nd. (24). See HM-63 for listing. Backs a) white outer circle and black inner. b) black top third of card, remainder white
HM-63 (which is scanned and appears below) lists the cards in both set a) and set b) which is rather fun, as they are not the same. That makes me think it was series one and series two, and you could probably work out the dates if you checked out the biographies on the cards.
Sniders & Abrahams Pty. Ltd. [tobacco : O/S : Australia] “Cartoons & Caricatures” (1907) Un/60 – S587-120.B : S88-14.B : RB.20-17.B
Today we have a centenary, and that was the formation of the FIRS. For the uninitiated, that was the Federation Internationale de Roller Sports, the sport`s first world governing body. However it was not purely for roller skating, despite the name, and eventually it would cover all kinds of skating, even skateboarding, perhaps because at least in the early days of the hand made wooden decks (or boards) a roller skate was either used or cannibalised for parts.
The Federation was based in Switzerland, and its aims were to promote and develop the sport worldwide, to organise events especially ones which would attract the general public, and also to set rules and guidelines for these to follow. This chap, however, is skating for fun and freedom. It is a lovely card and I do like that black background.
Now this card does not say a word of the manufacturer, only the brand “Milo”. However we can also pin it down by the printer, Osbaldstone, whose mark was either “O & Co.” or “O & A”.
The listing in our Australian and New Zealand Index (RB.30, issued in 1983) is really only a cross reference, but it is always a good place to start. The text there says “S88-14 … Cartoons and Caricatures. (1906-11). See RB.20/15
RB.20 is our original Australian Miscellaneous Booklet, which is quite scarce these days. It was originally published in 1951 as a limited edition of 500 copies, and though it is called the “Miscellaneous” Booklet it is primarily about Sniders & Abrahams. The text reads :
17. CARTOONS AND CARICATURES (adopted title). Size 68 x 40 m/m. Fronts in colour, on black background. Two printings :-
A. Fronts with white borders.
B. Fronts without borders.
Green “Milo” backs (type 10), with advertisement matter only. Issued 1906-1911 period. Unnumbered series of 60, illustrated in Figs. 17-A and 17-B
There then follows a spread of two pages, which show the entire set of sixty cards. I have reduced it a bit, but it is still visible enough to act as a checklist. It also shows that there are other sports hidden in here, that thematic collectors may be seeing for the first time - including ski-ing, tobogganing, tennis, billiards or snooker, and horse racing.
The next appearance of the set is in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, RB.23, published in 1956. The description here is :
CARTOONS AND CARICATURES (A). Sm. Unnd. (60). “Milo” brand issue. See RB.20/17. … S88-14
A. Front with white borders
B. Front without borders
In our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, RB.124, part II, published in the year 2000, this is the same text as above but the reference to RB.20 is gone, and the A. and B. descriptions are on one single line. It also has a new code, of S587-120.B
W. Duke & Sons Ltd. [tobacco : O/S : U.S.A.] “Miniature Novelties” (1891) Un/26 – D900-280 : D76-30 : X2/120 : USA/120
A bit of a leap here, but this card is picked because it shows a violin - though it turns out that the printer`s name at the very bottom of the reverse is Donaldson Bros., New York, and that was also the birthplace, in 1916, of of our subject today.
He was born Yehudi Mnuchin, in New York, but by the end of the year his parents had become American citizens and their surname had been anglicised to Menuhin. It seems to have been a musical family for his sister would become a concert pianist, and he must have started playing the violin at a very early age because at the age of four he was having proper lessons, and, less than a year later, he made his first public solo appearance. He made his grand debut, aged just seven, with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
He toured widely after that, to much popular acclaim, but in 1936 he announced his semi retirement, in order to study, something he felt he had not really ever done. This was interrupted by the start of the Second World War, during which he entertained the troops and also played at newly liberated concentration camps, accompanied by Benjamin Britten.
The two men shared the dream of music for all, and in 1948, Benjamin Britten started a musical festival at Aldeburgh in Suffolk. Nine years later, Yehudi Menuhin also started a festival, at Gstaad in Switzerland. He spent much time in Switzerland, and was made an honorary citizen in 1970. However, his friendship with Benjamin Britten had given him a delight in the British way of life, and he was happy to be involved with several music festivals here, including that at Bath. Then, in 1962 he started the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey, and three years later he was given an O.B.E., however at that time he was still an American citizen and so it was an honorary knighthood, in which he was not allowed to be called Sir. However in 1985 he did indeed become a full British citizen, followed, in 1993, by becoming The Rt. Honourable Lord Menuhin,
Now if you look in dealer catalogues for this set, the first thing you will see is that it is listed as a set of “X25/26”. The “X” tells you that the word “Miniature” is a bit of a misnomer, for the cards are extra large in size. As for the 25/26, well that means there were 26 cards that originally completed the set, but one of them is either hard to acquire, or impossible.
So to our original World Tobacco Issues Index, where the set is described as :
MINIATURE NOVELTIES. Lg. A.T.C. Back. Unnd. (26 known). See X2/120. Ref. USA/120 … D76-30
X numbers are in the handbook, which was first sold as a separate volume to the World Tobacco Issues Index (being RB.22) and then combined under the same cover.
This, rather excitingly, answers my above question, and reads :
X2/120 MINIATURE NOVELTIES. Large size. Issued by Duke. Although inscribed on back “25 Miniature Novelties”, 26 subjects are known. 25 are listed under ABC/120, but No.22 in this listing should be corrected to read “Castanets & Whiskbroom”. The 26th subject is “Serving Tray (oval shape, girl with long hair holding ostrich feather fan) & Bow-and Arrow Mat (girl in left profile).
The listing in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index is a bit different, and it reads :
MINIATURE NOVELTIES. Lg. A.T.C. Back. Unnd. (Back states “Series of 25”, 26 known). Ref. USA/120 … D900-280
W.D. & H.O. Wills [tobacco : UK - Bristol] "The Reign of King George V 1910-1935" (1935)
Our second centenary, because today in 1924, on St. George`s Day, was the opening ceremony of the British Empire Exhibition, which took place inside the original Wembley Stadium.
The exhibition was opened with a grand display, the highlight of which was the appearance of King George V and Queen Mary, who drove into the Stadium in a horse drawn carriage, having come all the way from Windsor.
This card shows the procession already inside the grounds, though the back is blurred slightly. The buildings in grey are the large palaces of Industry and Engineering, and the delicate pagoda is that of Burma.
You can imagine the spectacle, even at this small size, with the mounted guardsmen, and do note at the lower edge of the car that the crowd are being contained by the police, you can see two of their helmets even in this small length of the crowd.
The back of the card tells us that one hundred thousand people were there, slightly less than the hundred and twenty thousand which could fit into the stadium - however, if you remember the problem with overcrowding that occurred during the 1923 F.A. Cup Final, (also attended by the King) you will realise that this event was a bit more controlled and understand why.
During the ceremony, the King made a speech that appeared on the radio at the same time, which actually made him the first British king to deliver a radio broadcast.
He also sent a telegram, which took just one minute and twenty seconds to travel right across the globe. The speech and parts of the ceremony was recorded and was available on long playing records.
And I will elaborate on this at some future time, maybe even on the day!
Ogden`s [tobacco : UK] “Sea Adventure” (1939) 41/50 – O100-566 : O/2-172 : Ha.571-15 : O/149
Today in 1895, Captain Joshua Slocum, aged almost sixty, set out from Boston Harbour, in this little boat, called `Spray`, just over thirty-six feet long. His intention was to sail a mighty ocean - and he made it, so becoming the first man to sail around the earth all on their own.
We do not know how he made it, for there were no cameras to follow him, no social media to upload to every moment of the day, but somehow he returned to Newport, Rhode Island on June 27th. 1898.
This is where the card leaves us, in triumph. And he, too, could have left it there, but he decided to make another trip, to South America. He set sail from Massachusetts in November 1909, and after that, something happened. Neither he, nor the brave little Spray, were ever seen again. Nor was any wreckage ever discovered.
This set first appears in our original Ogden reference book RB.15, which was published in 1949. The description is :
149. 50. SEA ADVENTURE. Fronts printed by letterpress in colour. Backs in grey, with descriptive text. Home issue, 1939. Similar series issued by Hignett.
Our original World Tobacco Issue Index has this listing, but rather shortened, and it reads just :
SEA ADVENTURE. Sm. Nd. (50) See Ha.571-15 … O/2-172
That “Ha” reference is the handbook, and it merely tells you of the sets which were issued by both Ogdens and Hignett.
By the time of our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, the description is shorter still, simply :
SEA ADVENTURE. Sm. Nd. (50) … O100-566
This card has come out rather blurred, so if anyone can replace it please do, either with a better scan of one of these Ogden`s ones, or of that Hignett version. Many thanks, in advance.
Captain Joshua Slocum also appears on Brooke Bond`s “Adventurers and Explorers” a card which I like very much for its colours. It seems to also suggest to me that he somehow knew he was sailing off into the sunset, and did not mind.
This card gives him a date of death too, about 1910. And it tells of another trip, where he was shipwrecked off the Brazilian coastline and made a canoe from the wreckage, which he was able to sail back to New York.
That resourcefulness proves that his end must have been sudden, with no hope of survival. Many theories exist, the usual one, that he landed at the wrong place and fell foul of the inhabitants, and another, that she had been unseaworthy, had turned over, sprung a leak, and sunk.
The last of these is almost certainly not true, for though this card tells us that the Spray was an "old hulk of a sloop" which he rebuilt himself. But not that he had first seen her, and admired her, in 1892, though her description of being a ship needing some repairs turned out to be a gross underestimation, she was rotting away in a field, and had been so for at least seven years. He then rebuilt her, almost every timber. And he then almost did the same in between the two trips.
Erdal-Kwak “Welt Krieg” / “World War” [one] Serie 7 Bild 3
To the right of the card the scene could be any holiday in the Mediterranean, the water and the little buildings, illuminated by the sunlight. Then you look left and see the artillery post.
This card marks Anzac Day, and the Gallipoli campaign. This revolved around control of the waterway shown, which would then allow Allied battleships to sail in and bombard Constantinople, which was the capital of the Ottoman Empire. As secondary gains, it would allow access to another part of the enemy zones, and also, hopefully, allow the Allies to gain control of the Suez Canal through which all the men, supplies, and munitions could flood.
The invasion began in February 1915 and it was a dismal failure, the battleships being repulsed under heavy bombardment. The second plan started in April 1915, landing men on the beaches in boats, and making them climb the hills to the slopes above, where encampments and artillery guns were set up. It was a disaster in many ways, and the loss of life appalling. The battle raged for eight months, and then it was abandoned, with the loss of thousands of men, many of whom never even managed to leave the beaches and climb to the top before they were killed.
Now this card is one of many which were issued by a German company that sold polish, all kinds, for everything. The two brands here are Erdol`s “Rottfrosch”, or Red Frog, which was a mixture of balsam and turpentine, for shoes and floors, whilst Kwak`s “Blendol” was metal polish.
This set, "WeltKreig 1914-1918" had an album all its own, with an Iron Cross medal in black on the cover. The inside pages told the story of the war with spaces for the cards to be stuck in.
If you are looking for one, the best place to find them is booksellers, for they seem to turn up much more there than on the card sites.
Panini “Fifa 365 – The Golden World of Football” 40/
Now if you are a fervent football fan this day will already be in your diary, for it is Football Shirt Friday.
How this works is that you sign up at Cancer Research UK/ FSF and then wear your favourite football shirt, wherever you go, on Friday 26 April 2024. As you go about your daily business, you post pictures on the social media of your choice, and all moneys raised go to fight bowel cancer.
The day also celebrates Bobby Moore, who died aged just 51 of bowel cancer. His widow then set up a fund in his name, and that is the fund which all money raised go to.
I was quite surprised, and pleased, to see this card, which gives centre stage to just a shirt, or rather to the official strip of F.C. Internazionale Milano, of Italy. We know that better as Inter Milan, and if you were Italian you would almost certainly abbreviate that more, to simply "Inter".
This card was chosen because Panini is an Italian issuer, and it seemed to be appropriate - I almost said "fitting" making a pun on shirts, but decided not to !
Originally this team played as the Milan Cricket and Football Club. What seems to have happened was that in 1908 there was a split, and the team was severed into our side, Inter Milan, and another, which became AC Milan. Both teams went on to great acclaim, but ours is the only team in the whole country which has never left the top ranking league. Ours was also the first to win a championship, that happened in 1910.
Now you may not be surprised to learn that the Trading Card Database / Inter Milan has 14,722 cards of the club listed.
What is surprising is that the earliest one is from 1951.
I am certain that earlier cards must exist, so lets have a hunt for them.....
This week's Cards of the Day...
have all been about #NationalAuctioneersDay, which is the third Thursday of April, so this year it will be on the 18th. As to why this date was chosen, I do not know. Yet. Nor, reportedly, does the National Auctioneers Association, though they do say that it has been celebrated for a quarter of a century.
And also the week running up to this day is National Auctioneers Week.
Most of us probably have a favourite auction, even if we seldom visit it, whose catalogues we eagerly anticipate. Some of these still come to you by post, but more likely these days the entire catalogue, complete with pictures, is viewed on the internet, either on the website of the auctioneer themselves, or, increasingly, on the site of a third party who collects many different auction catalogues together, and then often adds an extra fee on any bids you make. It is also the case that these days your bidding will be also be done online, with your successful purchases either being posted to you, or arrangements made for you to collect them, after the sale is over.
By the way, we feature several of the leading card auctions on our main home page with direct links to their illustrated catalogues as soon as they become available. Then once the sale has ended, the link will be altered and that will allow you to check what all the lots sold for. It is free to view the catalogues in this way, and we thoroughly advise that you do look. For the seasoned collector or researcher the catalogues often include very rare, even one off cards that they do not know about. For newer collectors, the illustrations provide a valuable resource of many different cards, even if only so that they can start to develop an idea of the themes they want to start collecting, as well as allowing them to have a better idea of what sort of prices those cards sell for.
There are auctions every day, all across the country, and definitely one near you. Even a general sale often has a box of cards, that whilst not tremendously valuable, is fun and educational to look through. However auctions hit the news headlines very rarely, only when they sell something for World record prices. And we will kind of be looking at those, but featuring cards of those same people and subjects which are still available at more reasonable prices, for the moment - for as supplies dry up of the "ones that are in vogue", these others may too see a sudden rise in value.
So we started our week with clue card number one, which was :
Saturday, 13th April 2024
We started our look at auctions with this card, and the clue here was the player, George Best, whose cards are always popular in the auction world.
The most valuable card of him is a trade card, and it is number 29 of Barratt & Co.`s "Famous Footballers - Series A.12"
This was issued in 1964, and he was just nineteen. He looks it too, he is so young. Would he have been happier to stay young and unaffected, and not to hunt the limelight? Would he have lived for longer than just fifty-nine? Or did he like the way he lived and was willing to pay the price?
As to why that Barratt card is so sought after, well it was his first ever appearance on a card. Or, to use a modern term, imported from America, his "Rookie Card". Though in America this term has a different meaning, it is not just the first time any sports star or actor appears on a card, it is specific to baseball, and it is actually the first card which features a player after they have started playing for a Major League club.
At this time he was described as “George Best, the young Manchester United winger, Northern Ireland’s most dangerous raider”. In 1966 he was just twenty-two years old. He had signed for Manchester United at the age of fifteen and stayed there until 1974. In 1968 he became European Footballer of the Year; the same year Manchester United became the first English club to win the European Cup.
Now Reddish Maid is an odd name but it comes from the town of Reddish, near Stockport.
They issued three sets of cards between 1955 and 1965, all having “International” in the title – these were our set “Famous International Footballers”, plus “Famous International Athletes” (issued in 1965), and “Famous International Aircraft” (issued in 1963), the last of which was also issued by Clevedon Confectionery. The Reddish Maid version of that set is a slightly different size, being larger at 59 x 33 m/m (the Clevedon version is 57 x 33 m/m.
Our set is catalogued in our original British Trade Index part II as :
INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALLERS OF TODAY. Sm. 63 x 34. Nd. (25) … REG-3
This is slightly altered in the updated British Trade Index, to read :
INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALLERS OF TODAY. 1966. Caricatures. 63 x 34. Nd. (25) … RED-390
You can see all the cards by sliding Down Under to NigelsWebSpace/Reddish https://vintagefootball.cards/196566_reddish_maid/196566_reddish_maid_index.html
Sunday, 14th April 2024
Now at this point you may well have been searching for a theme to do with Stockport, but it is sheer coincidence that both cards come from that region of the globe. And if you look at the details for R.J. Lea, they actually quote Manchester and Stockport; again a link to our last card which referenced Manchester (United).
This card was a link to the theme, and it supplied us with the “Hammer”, which is actually incorrect, for whilst an auctioneer does wield a hammer, albeit very tiny, it is called a gavel. The same word, "gavel", is also used by a judge, and several other legal officials. Moreover it is often said that the Vice President of the United States of America was the first to use a gavel, during the first U.S. Senate, in New York, in 1789. He did this because the meeting was getting rather rowdy, so he struck his gavel to make them stop and listen. What is seldom said is that before he was Vice President he had been a lawyer, and an attorney, and the gavel would have been a souvenir from those times.
You may not realise this, but in itself a gavel is incomplete - it should also come with a small, typically round, turned block of wood, which makes the tiny gavel sound louder.
The yellow hammer, shown here, is sometimes confused with the greenfinch, but the difference is in the head, which is yellow on the yellow hammer and green on the greenfinch. Our bird is about the size of a sparrow, and sometimes flies with them, but it is seldom seen in towns, preferring the country life, the woodland and the farms.
Twenty two yellow hammer cards are listed by the Trading Card Database/YellowHammer - but ours is not amongst them.
Neither is its appearance as card 16/24 of Fry`s “Birds and Their Eggs”, issued in 1912. You can currently see that at CardhawkUK/LeaEnglishBirds.
This is a very attractive card, set off well by the bright border. It is catalogued only briefly, though, in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, as :
ENGLISH BIRDS. Sm. 66 x 35. Front (a) glossy (b) matt. Nd. (25) … L26-22
And this is the same wording in our updated version of that volume, with just a new code (L250-525)
Monday, 15th April 2024
This card has two links to our theme, for the set is called “AUCTION Bridge”, and the title of this particular card, on both front and back, is “How Would You BID?
This seems an odd subject for a card, and I am sure some of our readers would find the front rather uninspiring. However it is not a one off, for a very similar set, fifty cards on "Contract Bridge", was issued in 1935 by W.A. & A.C. Churchman, with a central green square and letters surrounding it on each side to show the bids.
Auction Bridge was the earliest ever form of the game of Bridge, and it was first recorded as being played in 1904. The game involves a deal of two phases. First up is the bidding, in which players bid against one another to set the lowest amount of cards they think it will take to win. Those cards are called tricks, and they are comprised of four cards, or one from each of the other players in turn. Then they play the game and try to equal the amount they entered as their bid.
And if there is a bridge player who would like to explain this better please do!
The set is first described in our original Wills reference book part IV, as :
136. 25 AUCTION BRIDGE. Large cards, size 79 x 62 m/m. Fronts printed by letterpress, bridge hands in green, red, black and white. Backs in grey, with descriptive text. Home issue, 1926.
When it appears in our original World Tobacco Issues Index though, there is an extra clue to follow. The description there is :
AUCTION BRIDGE. Lg. Nd. (25). See W/136 and RB.21/200-136.A … W62-117
This listing is identical in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, except for the code which has changed (to W675-153)
Now RB.21 is the British American Tobacco Company Booklet, and that was printed in between our original Wills Book part IV, and our World Tobacco Issues Index. The listing in there reads :
200-136. AUCTION BRIDGE. The recording in W/136 requires to be amended as follows :-
A. Wills Home Issue. Size 79 x 62 m/m
B. African Cigarette Co. Issue. Size 80 x 60 m/m, headed front and back “Clyma Cigarettes”. All text in Dutch.
There is a bit more information about this second version in the index by firms in the front of the book. They were based in Cairo, and issued two sets, a version of “Actresses – ALWICS” in Egypt between 1905 and 1908 that were inscribed “Battle Ax” Cigarettes, a brand issue known to have been used by British American Tobacco, and their version of our set, which is catalogued as : "Auction Bridge (1926 – Dutch Possessions)".
In fact our original World Tobacco Issues Index tells us that this company was an “Egyptian associate of B.A.T.”, so that probably ties the other sets issued under this brand into this company, though they still appear in catalogues as British American Tobacco.
Tuesday, 16th April 2024
Magic name time. And how can we not include this man, John (or Honus) Wagner, whose American Tobacco Company card is consistently one of the highest priced at auction. As to why, well there is the tale that he saw the card and objected, for whatever reason, and there are several - he did not smoke, he did not want to encourage juveniles to smoke, he wanted to be more adequately recompensed by way of money, he did not like the picture. The list goes on. Anyway the card was pulled, though some were already distributed. And you can read the saga at Wikipedia/Wagner
Now his card is him, too, but grown a little older, and he is now shown as a coach. In fact he was coach of his former team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, from 1933 until 1951. On this card he is also going by his actual name of Jack, which is why it is sometimes passed by unknowingly.
This card is a trade card, issued with Leaf Gum, and it starts with two of the greats of all time, Joe DiMaggio (card 1), and Babe Ruth (card 3). For some reason, not all the numbers appear, and there is no card number two. This means that thought it is a set of ninety-eight cards. it is actually numbered from 1 to 168. In addition forty nine cards were printed in lesser quantities.
There is much debate as to when it was issued. 1948 is usually cited, and some of the cards do carry that date as part of the copyright inscription, but other cards do not, which has led to some collectors believing the 1948 ones were printed first, but held back whilst the undated ones were printed. Then all the cards were released in 1949.
Despit these curiosities it is a much sought after set. Part of the reason for that may be nostalgia, it being the first set of colour cards to be issued after World War Two. And oh, the colours! They are bright and almost glaring. Is it any wonder that children wanted to collect them all.
Wednesday, 17th April 2024
Here we have Marilyn Monroe, and she is shown in the film "The Seven Year Itch", released in 1955. The film had a very famous scene with her wearing a white halter neck dress which was unwontedly caught in a sudden gust from the subway below. In 2011, this dress became one of the most expensive costumes ever to be sold at auction - for $5.52 million, including commission.
You can read about some of the other costly costumes as Looper/CrazyCostumes
Marilyn Monroe was a film star too late to be featured on proper cigarette cards, so her first appearances were on trade cards. First of all she was on what is lumped together under "Dutch Gum", in several series of small but colourful cards issued between 1950 and 1959, though sadly they did not have anything printed on the reverse by way of biographies.
In the United Kingdom her first appearance was in black and white, and again on a plain back card. This came as card 123 of the 1954 third series of A & B.C. Gum "Film Stars", and it gives the name of her latest movie on the front - "The River of No Return", which was released in the same year and had Robert Mitchum as her leading man.
Another view of her, issued a year later, was card 24 of Barbers Tea "Cinema and Television Stars". Now this is one of the cards which are turning up alone at high prices, whilst the rest of the set from which it has been extracted are left to meander along as a part set. You may think this renders the part set less wanted, but there are some great stars of the 1950s in it - Grace Kelly, Tony Curtis (as Anthony Curtis), Jeff Chandler, Rock Hudson, and even Peter Brough and Archie Andrews, one of the few examples of the ventriloquist`s art which appears on cards.
Our set was issued by Sports Time Card Company of Carson City in California.The cards are very well made and the pictures were licensed from the Marilyn Monroe Estate, which must not have been cheap. They were sold in silvery foil packets each containing nine cards. Some of the packets contained a special chromium card, inserted at random, and there were ten of these cards in total.
It does not look like the company is still in business and I was unable at first to find out any other sets they issued - but John Levitt has got in touch to say that there was another, second set of Marilyn Monroe, plus sets of Baywatch (1995 - 100 cards), The Beatles (1996 - 100 cards) , Miller Brewing Co. (1995 - 100 cards), and five sets showing Playboy magazine covers.They also issued some promotional cards for sets that were never issued.
Thursday, 18th April 2024
This card is anonymous, and it was issued in Holland. It also looks very similar to what are known as Dutch Gum, simply because nobody knows who issued them. So look closely in mixed lots and you may find these lurking.
Leaf was founded in 1940 by a man called Sol Leaf, hence the name. Eventually it would rise to the stunning heights of having eleven factories in seven countries, However its largeness was its undoing and it was merged with the Swedish company Cloetta in February 2012.
Here we have Elizabeth Taylor, who seems to have escaped having her cards extracted from sets and sold at higher prices. Maybe that will come.
This card celebrates her jewellery, which was sold at Christies auction house in 2011 for a total of $137.2 million.
One piece which was not included was the famous Taylor-Burton diamond that was given to her by Richard Burton, because after they divorced for the second time she sold it to a New York jeweller. And truly wonderfully, part of those proceeds went to build a hospital in Botswana, which was the country where their second marriage ceremony had taken place.
The costume and jewellery for this film "Cleopatra", (which is where Elizabeth Taylor met Richard Burton for the first time), was lavish. The film still holds the world record for the most costume changes in a single film, sixty-five different outfits.
Cleopatra herself was known to adore jewels, especially diamonds and pearls, and most of it was crafted to include solid gold. None of this is thought to still exist. The jewels for the film, which were mostly costume, but which were based on the originals that had survived in the form of paintings and carvings, were also sold at auction in 2013.
In actual fact this card would have been much better if it was framed higher and cut off nearer her neck, for the headdress she is wearing in this scene is spectacular. You can see it by clicking over to GoldbookMagazine/Cleopatra
Friday, 19th April 2024
As to why we have this card, well it relates to the most recent world record breaking auction result, the sale of a trade card featuring Arthur Wharton. This sale, and a reproduction of the very card, was featured in our printed magazine (which is only available to Society members) but we have reproduced that little section at the very end of this write up.
The amazing story of this man can be read at many sites online but we have selected a really wonderful one, which is maintained by The Arthur Wharton Foundation, a registered charity, actually based in Darlington, England. This contains his story, and and there is also a photo gallery which includes his gravestone. The one thing it does not include is any mention of this card, which I hope to rectify,
These small cards were issued, as it says on the reverse, with several magazines, namely "Adventure", "The Rover", "The Skipper " and "The Wizard", quite randomly, between April and July 1933.
They are often slightly differently sized when stacked together, and this tells you that they were not issued as individual cards, but in small sheets, each containing four of the cards. The ideal measurement of each card should be 45 x 31 m/m. And you can see a checklist at Football Cartophilic Exchange/Thomson Football Teams
The reason for the football in the middle of the reverse baffles some collectors but once you read the original magazines it becomes clear, for the idea was that if you managed to collect an entire set of sixty-four cards you could win an actual football.
Anyway here is that section from our printed magazine, as promised
And there I must depart, and you must go to sleep, even if only in order to be at full flow tomorrow for our annual card convention.
Is anyone waiting outside yet? Or are you at some strange location? And how far have you travelled? Do we have anyone who has flown to this country in order to attend? If so, to any of these things, do let us know.
Don`t be late....!