Newsletter - 2024-08-03

Image

Sodima [trade : game machines : O/S - Grenoble, France] "Les Automobiles Anciennes" (1960s) 52/64

We also start with our first Centenary, for today in 1924 saw the French Grand Prix. Now we may be used to long seasons and over twenty races, all across the globe, but the 1924 French Grand Prix, or more correctly, the eighteenth Grand Prix of the Automobile Club of France, was also known as the 1924 European Grand Prix. It was run over thirty-five laps and there were twenty-two entrants. The returning champion was Henry Segrave, driving for Sunbeam, and he lined up in pole position, though oddly the grid was not fought out in a qualifying, as we do today, it was drawn by ballot. 

In the end he did not win, he came home fifth, twenty-three minutes behind the winner, who was Guiseppe Campari, in the new car on the grid, the Alfa Romeo P2 - as shown on our card. Second, and third, places both went to Delage drivers, Albert Divo and Robert Benoist, whilst Louis Wagner, in another Alfa Romeo P2 was fourth.

As for the other two members of the Alfa Romeo team, Enzo Ferrari did not start at all as he was ill, and Antonio Ascari (mentioned on our card) did not finish, though he did do his best, and never gave up, though with a few laps to go his car began to falter, and with just one lap remaining he had no option but to go to the pits, where his engine failed to restart. An attempt was even made to push the car over the line, but it also failed, and his mechanic collapsed with the strain and excitement.

In 1925 the Alfa Romeo won two of the four championships. Antonio Ascari brought it home on the 28th of June at the European Grand Prix, in Spa in Belgium, and then Gastone Brilli-Peri drove to victory at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on the 6th of September. However this victory was a bittersweet one, Antonio Ascari having been killed at the French Grand Prix on the 26th of July.

Alberto Ascari, his son, was born on the 13th of July 1918, and he was just seven years old when his father died. He would also grow up to become a racing driver, and he too would die behind a wheel, but not chasing victory, for he was killed during a simple test session, for Ferrari, at Monza, in 1955.

Guiseppe Campari was also killed in a race car, again at Monza, on September 10 1933 - and two other drivers lost their lives due to that same race -  Baconin Borzacchini and Count Stanislaus Czaikowski.

Now when I originally wrote this I had no idea of even what Sodima was. Then later on I found out that they were created in 1964, when six dairy co-operatives, covering approximately a hundred thousand French farmers, merged, not because one of them wanted all the cream, but to be able to reach more consumers at a national, rather than a regional level. Then, in September 1965, they started selling Yoplait yogurt.

And I was delighted with that, until someone else got in touch with me and said, er, no, that`s wrong, these cards were from a different Sodima, based in Grenoble, who sold game machines, things like jukeboxes, and pinball machines. And it turns out they were right, because the address of that company, at least in the 1960s, was the same street as is on this card, 16, Rue Thiers, Grenoble. A bit more digging found out that they also made table football, lockers, and vending machines, and it seems likely that this card was from a vending machine.  

The cards in the series are ;

1. Bordino 1854 - Italie
2. Peugeot Daimler 2 1/2 h.p. 1894 - France
3. Leon Bollee 3 h.p. 1896 - France
4. Bernardi 3.5 h.p. 1896 - Italie
5. Benz Victoria 1893 - Allemagne
6. Benz Velo 1898 - Allemagne
7. Benz Wagonette 1898 - Allemagne
8. Decauville 3.5 h.p. 1898 - France
9. Stanley 1898 - Etats Unis
10. Fiat 3 1/2 h.p. 1899 - Italie
11. Prinetti & Stucchi 4 h.p. 1899 - Italie
12. Renault 3 1/2 h.p. 1899 - France
13. Georges Richard 3 1/2 h.p. 1900 - France
14. Ceirano 5 H.P. 1901 - Italie
15. Fiat 8 h.p. 1901 - Italie
16. Darracq 9.5 h.p. 1902 - France
17. Hurtu 9 h.p. 1898 - France
18. Panhard et Levassor 12 h.p. 1899  - France
19. De Dion-Bouton Populaire 1903 - France
20. Fiat 16/24 h.p. 1903 - Italie
21. Pope C60 v 1907 - Etats Unis
22. Fiat 24/32 h.p. 1904 - Italie
23. Marchand 12/16 h.p. 1904 - Italie
24. Bebe Peugeot 1905 - France
25. Fiat 24 h.p. 1906 - Italie
26. De Dion-Bouton 8 h.p. 1907 - France
27. Fiat G.P. 1907 - Italie
28. Italia 28/40 h.p. 1907 - Italie
29. Fiat 16/24 h.p. 1903 - Italie
30. Vinot et Deguigand 14/20 1907 - France
31. Brixia Zust 1908 - Italie
32. Fiat 18/24 h.p. 1908 - Italie
33. Ford Model T 1908 - Etats Unis
34. Monaco-Trossi 1935 - Italie
35. Legnano A 6/8 h.p. 1908 - Italie
36. Italia 35/45 h.p. 1909 - Italie
37. Mercedes Benz RW 1954 - Allemagne
38. Aquila Italiana 25/30 h.p. 1912 - Italie
39. Renault A.G. Fiacre 1910 - France
40. Bedelia 8 h.p, 1911 - France
41. Lancia D24 1953 - Italie
42. Italia 25/35 h.p. 1912 - Italie
43. Opel 5/12 1912 - Allemagne
44. Panhard et Levassor X 17 1912 - France
45. Lancia Theta 1913 - Italie
46. Storero Mod. A 25/35 1913 - Italie
47. Fiat 501 1919 - Italie
48. Isotta Fraschini 8 1920 - Italie
49. Citroen 5 c.v. 1922 - France
50. Temperino 10 h.p. 1923 - Italie
51. SPA 23S 1922 - Italie
52. Alfa Romeo F2 - Italie
53. Bugatti 35 1924 - France
54. OM 469 1929 - Italie
55. Fiat 509 1925 - Italie
56. Lancia Lambda 1930 - Italie
57. Maserati 1928 - Italie
58. Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 1931  - Italie
59. Fiat 508 1932 - Italie
60. Lancia Augusta 1932 - Italie
61. Bentley 3.5 1933 - Grande Bretagne
62. Alfa Romeo 158 1938 - Italie
63. Ferrari F2 1951 - Italie
64. Fiat Zero 1912 - Italie

Image

WERNER & Mertz  [trade : polishes : O/S : Mainz, Germany] "Deutsche Frauen-Leichtathletik-Meisterschaften 1927" (1927) 

Our second Centenary is also a sporting one, and it marks the first Women`s International & British Games, which attempted to make up for the fact that Olympic track and field events were only for men. And, in actual fact they would later be regarded as the 1924 Women`s Olympiad, as would be the three prior runnings, 1921, 1922, and 1923 - all of which were held in Monte Carlo),

There were twelve events in our Women`s Olympiad - athletics being walking (1,000 metres), running (100 yards, 250 metres, and 1000 metres), a relay race, and hurdling - and the physical sports being the high jump, the long jump, the discus, the shot put, and the javelin. Then there were also exhibition events, in cycling, netball and gymnastics - in which were also sportswomen from Canada and the United States of America. 

The event was held over just one day, the 4th of August 1924, in London, at Stamford Bridge stadium in Fulham (now the home of Chelsea Football Club), and six nations provided competitors, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, who won the most points, sixty-one, followed by France with thirty-one, and Belgium with fifteen. There does not appear to have been any medals ?

The strange thing is that women did compete at the 1924 Olympics proper, but as a tiny proportion of the total - a hundred and thirty five women to three thousand and eighty nine men.

In fact they had competed since the second, 1900, Olympics, which saw twenty-two women accepted to play tennis and golf with other women, and compete with men in croquet, sailing, and horse riding, and Helene de Pourtales of Switzerland won a gold medal for sailing.

By 1924 women were allowed to compete in tennis (silvers to Phyllis Covell and Kathleen "Kitty" McKane and bronzes to  Evelyn Colyer and Dorothy Shepherd-Barron, all in the women’s doubles event.), swimming (where Lucy Morton won the only women`s gold medal for the 200 metres breaststroke, silvers went to Phyllis Harding for the 100 metre backstroke, and Florence Barker, Constance Jeans, Grace McKenzie and Iris Tanner for the 4 x 100m freestyle relay, and bronze went to Gladys Carson in the 200 metres breaststroke)  - and fencing (which brought a silver medal for Gladys Davis in the women`s foil). 

Our female athlete is Frau Eva Elisabeth Gabriele Sophie von Bredow, and she was born in April 1904. She was a member of the Sportclub Brandenburg, and though she took part in many disciplines, something which was normal then,  her favourites were the high jump, for which she was the world record holder in 1926, and the long jump. shown here, an event in which she was champion in 1927 (which is the date shown on this card) 1928, and 1929. Sadly she did not take part in the 1928 Olympics, though she was then at the height of her power and fame, and also despite it being the first time that women`s athletics were strongly featured - even women`s high jump, though women`s long jump was not an Olympic sport until 1948.

Image

Editzioni PANINI [trade/commercial : stickers : O/S - Italy] "Annie" (1982) 66/120

Lets start this third Centenary by going right back to the roots, in 1885, when james Whitcomb Riley wrote a rather scary poem about an orphan who delights in telling younger children of the ways in which they will be punished should they dare to misbehave. To her, life was to be lived in fear, and I kind of hope that one day they found someone to show them that life was actually rather magical and that misbehaving could be fun. 

This tale was called "The Elf Child" but it was later changed to "Little Orphant Annie". And it was remembered when Harold Lincoln Gray sat down to draw a comic strip. However his "orphant" was a fiesty little girl, with flaming copper hair, who may have had nothing but was not scared to push the boundaries and fight for what she believed. It was probably this which led to her breakthrough, for after a succession of mean and unkind matrons she is given a chance at adoption by a rich lady called Mrs. Warbucks. We are not sure why she does this, but it is suggested that she does it to make herself feel, or look better, and when she decides to send Annie back she is persuaded not to do so simply because of what her rich friends would think. Then Mr. Warbucks comes along, he has been away on business, and takes a liking to Annie, and though she does, often, end up back at the orphanage when he goes away, she is always brought home as soon as he is back. 

There is a serious point to this too, because despite her life, Annie likes people, and she is always suggesting simple ways that Mr. Warbucks can be kinder, and do more for the people who work for him at home and in business. And, in return, people are drawn to her kindnesses, as they always have been, for it is not always fine clothes and good looks that make the best of friends, it is the heart you have inside. 

This sticker was issued by Panini in 1982 - the year that the 1970s Broadway musical of Annie had been turned into a film. In fact there were quite a few films starting with "Little Orphan Annie" in 1932, which starred Mitzi Green, and moving swiftly on with a film of the same title, released in 1938, with Anne Gillis. Our film starred Aileen Quinn as Annie, with Albert Finney as Daddy Warbucks and Carol Burnett as Miss Hannigan, the main matron of the orphanage. In 1999 there was another version, through Disney, and in 2014 there was one with a more racially diverse cast and the setting much upgraded, with no Daddy Warbucks, instead she was adopted by a candidate for the Mayor of New York, who was played by Jamie Foxx. Its actually quite good. 

If you look at the back of our sticker you will see that it has six different languages, which basically saves the cost of printing a different back for each regional edition, everyone everywhere gets the same. And as they are designed to have the back peeled off and thrown away, leaving the sticky-side to go in the album, it was quite an easy save. Probably few collectors even noticed.

There was also a set issued by Topps, but that is the same set as ours, something that is immediately apparent when the two albums are compared, for they are identical, with just a different name above the fan of cards on the front cover. There is, of course, another alteration, and that is that the Topps album says 25c., because those cards were issued in America, whilst the Panini has no cover price.

Image

Anonymous [tobacco : O/S] "Arms of the British Empire" - medium size, silk  (1910) 47/50 - 

Moving forward in time now, to 1962, when, after three hundred years of British Rule, Jamaica gained her independence. I was not sure I liked this card, for it is everything that Jamaica did not want to be, but it can stay for a bit, until I discover one I like better.

Now this set was issued in several permutations, mostly by W.D. & H.O. Wills - which are ably described as part of the write up for our Card of the Day on the 4th of October 2023. However, this is the anonymous, large format  silk version, and sadly it has no text on the reverse, so here is the detailed text about the arms that appears on the card version : 

JAMAICA. 

The arms of this colony date from the  17th century, and shew the Cross of St. George charged with five pine-apples. The supporters are two Indians, each wearing an apron of feathers, the female holding a basket of fruit and the male a bow. The crest is a crocodile on a log. This is the only instance of a colony using a sovereign`s helmet with its arms. 

The pine-apple is a strange choice, because it is not a native fruit, it originally grew in South America and some were brought to Jamaica by the island`s first inhabitants, who were Arawaks, or Taino Indians. They also gave the place a name, Xaymaca, from which Ja-maica has come. It looks like the arms show a male and female Arawak, for they are described as being light brown, short, and shapely, with dark hair. The female is also carrying crops in her basket and the race was indeed very adept at growing all manner of food, plus cotton and tobacco, which they all smoked, all the time. The male, with his bow, probably harks back to the fact that they supplemented their food by catching fish, though that would probably have been done with a spear, not a bow and arrow. 

Once Christopher Columbus invaded Jamaica in 1494 the Arawaks were either killed, or succumbed slowly to European diseases. In any event within a short time not a single one was left alive. The island remained Spanish until May 1655, when Admiral William Penn attacked and claimed it for England. They grew sugar there, by way of slave labour. It was not until January 1, 1808 that trading in African slaves was declared to be unlawful, though it took 1834 for them to be given the half way stage of emancipation, and full freedom was not granted until 1838.

A hundred and twenty years later, Jamaica, and ten other Caribbean countries formed a Federation of the West Indies. And today, in 1962, Jamaica was granted independence from England.

As for the set, 

200-126. ARMS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE - Silk-Fronted.
The recording in W/126 requires to be amended as follows :-

• B. Anonymous issue, with letterpress on back. Size 82 x 55 m/m. Three printings 
       1. Back in blue. Numbered front only 
       2. Back in blue. Numbered back only 
       3. Back in brown. Numbered front only

In the index, at the front of this book, the blue back with the numbered front is identified as having been issued in Australia.

Image

W.D. & H.O. Wills [tobacco : UK] "Crests and Colours of Australian Universities, Colleges and Schools" (1922) 13/68 - W675-405 : W62-258 : W/176

Backwards now, to 1858 and to the birth of Aussie Rules Football.

I have used this set before but as I work through the newsletters I will sort all that out - it fits better here anyway, and if you are better off not knowing the first thing that came to mind for this date. 

Some of the origins of what is more properly known as Australian rules football are shrouded in mystery, mainly because it evolved from a mixture of various rules and differing styles of regional football games brought across to the country by its new inhabitants.

What we do know that Melbourne seems to have become the centre of enthusiasm for this cross breed of game, and that the first match was played between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College on a plot of land neighbouring to the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Now the date of this match is variously reported, but on the official memorial at Melbourne Cricket Ground it states that "The first recorded game of Australian Football was begun on the tree-dotted parklands outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground by teams from Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar School on 7 August 1858". And that is good enough for me.  

Just like many of today`s sports, this was primarily a game to keep other sportsmen fit in the winter when they could not play cricket or football. However it was almost immediately popular, and on May 17th, 1859, "the rules" were officially drawn up and circulated amongst the teams, the two earliest of which were Melbourne (founded 1858) and Geelong (founded 1859). 

Now our original reference book to the issues of W.D. & H.O. Wills (part IV), tells us that there is more than one version of this set, describing it as :

176. CRESTS AND COLOURS OF AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES, COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS. Medium cards. Fronts in colour, backs with descriptive text. Issued in Australia. 
I. Printed on satin, backed with thin board. Issued about 1922. 
A. Size 70 x 48 m/m. Series of 50. Fronts without borders. Backs in black Wills` name at base. No Album Clause
B. Size 70 x 52 m/m. Series of 50. Fronts with cream borders. Backs in blue, anonymous issue. No Album Clause

II. Printed on board. Issued about 1929.
C. Size 70 x 48 m/m. Series of 65. Fronts without borders. Backs in black inscribed "Wills` World Renowned Cigarettes". Album Clause at base. Two grades of board (a) thin (b) thick.

Series A and B have not been compared card for card, but appear to be similar, both in subject and sequence of numbers. Series C, issued subsequently, contains most of the 50 designs in the earlier issues, but the colouring and in some cases the descriptive text, varies considerably from the corresponding cards in A and B. The numbering sequence in all three issues appears to be identical up to No.25, but subsequent numbers in C vary from those in A and B, cards in C usually occurring one number lower than the similar subject in A and B.

In our original World Tobacco Issues Index, I can only find it once, described as : 

CRESTS AND COLOURS OF AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES, COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS. Md. 70 x 48. Nd. (68). See W/176.C.

Image

Net Pro Trading Card Company [trade/commercial : cards : O/S - USA] "Net Pro Elite - Event Starter" (2003) S2/10

Jump in our time machine again, and lets land at 1981, which was the birth date of tennis ace Roger Federer. He was born in Switzerland, as you may have guessed from the flag on this card, and he was Junior Wimbledon Champion, both in the singles and the doubles, in 1998. He had also been a ball boy there, some years before.

His first major adult win was in 2003, when he was twenty-one, and that is the year of this card. However it is not his "rookie card" - and there is some dispute as to what is. Top seed seems to be a sticker which came, in a sheet, with others, as the centre spread of Tennis Plus Magazine in September 2000 and had to be cut to size. However some people discount this because it is a sticker, and they will argue, somewhat pedantically, that his "Rookie" card was issued with Tennis Plus Junior magazine in 2001. This was also issued as part of a sheet, and had to be cut to size, but it had a printed back whilst the sticker only had a logo.

Mr. Federer was very popular and a great player, being ranked as World Number One for two hundred and thirty seven weeks without a single week off the top. He won a hundred and three singles matches, incliuding eight Wimbledon Men`s Singles Championships, and five U S Open Men`s Singles Championships, plus a silver medal at the London Olympics in 2012. He also won a gold medal, with Stanislas Wawrinka in the Doubles, in 2008, at Beijing..

In 2016 he had knee and back surgery. He freely admitted that in his youth he had suffered pain rather than give up and get treatment. It was thought he would not return to the sport, but he did, as early as 2017. However he gave up for good in 2022, devoting himself to charitable foundations which he either created or supports, chiefly those which help children, either to find themselves through sport or to bounce back after illness. He is also married, with four children. 

And the trading card database/RogerFederer has him on 1,006 cards. 

Image

Cope Bros & Co. Ltd [tobacco : UK - Liverpool and London] "Boxing Lessons" (1935) 16/25 - C798-620 : C132-71

Last, but not least, we return to a Centenary card, because today in 1924 saw the first boxing match at the Wembley Stadium, Tommy Gibbons vs Jack Bloomfield. And it ended in a knock out, by Tommy Gibbons, in round three, which is why we have this card.

Thomas Joseph "Tommy" Gibbons was American, and was not too young at the time of the match, having been born in 1891. He did appear on cards and ten of them are cited in the Trading Card Database/TG - whilst Jack Bloomfield, or more correctly Sol Blumenfeld, of Islington in London, was eight years younger. He only appears on three cards, which you can see at the Trading Card Database/JB

This is a fascinating set, and seems overlooked in favour of the 1915 "Boxers", also issued by Cope. However if you look closer at our cards, many of them feature named boxers - including Georges Carpentier on card 25.

Sadly, no reference booklet was issued for Cope, so we have only the cataloguing from the original World Tobacco Issues Index, which reads : 

BOXING LESSONS. Sm. 63 x 37. Black and White. Nd. (25) ... C132-71

The text is identical in our updated version, save a new card code.