Welcome to another weekend, and only thirty one days to Christmas. I had a hectic week again this week and this is rather a rush job but I did finish, in as much as get all the days in place and something on them all, though many thanks are due to everyone who helped with cards and information. Over the weekend I will get the research information tapped in from out of our reference books and some scans too.
Thanks, as always, for your understanding!
So we start our weekly wonders with a centenary, for today, in 1924, Edwin Hubble announced that the Milky Way was just one of many galaxies above us, and that Andromeda, formerly thought to be a nebula like Orion, was a galaxy too.
Briefly, a galaxy is a big group of stars, alive, dead, and breaking down into dust, as well as gas and something rather magically known as "dark matter", about which little is known, except it is really tiny and does not react to light or radiation. The word galaxy is very interesting, for it means "milky" in Greek, and it refers directly to the Milky Way, which is the galaxy that contains our solar system.
Now I know that I picked this subject despite kvetching that I found no cards of Edwin Hubble recently - but I did find this card of Andromeda, which shows the stars and also the goddess. She comes from Greek myth, where she was the breathtakingly beautiful daughter of the King and Queen of Ethiopia. Her mother was a bit too proud and she boasted that Andromeda was more beautiful that anyone else, even the sea nymphs, which were pretty hot. Now they used to swim about with Poseidon, the God of the Sea, and he took offence so he sent a sea monster to attack Ethiopia, swearing that he would leave nothing alive unless he was given Andromeda. Her mother and father seem to have agreed quite quickly to this, and they tied her to a rock so that she could be carried off by the monster. This is the scene on the bottom of this card. However, fate stepped in, for the other character in the picture is Perseus, who flew past on his winged white horse, called Pegasus, fell instantly in love with Andromeda, and raced to the Palace to strike a deal, that being that he would get Andromeda if he slayed the monster. Which he did. And it was indeed a good marriage, as they had six sons and a daughter. In fact they remain quite close in the night sky too, for Andromeda is just east of Perseus.
This card is quite an unusual one as it was issued many times by lots of continental trade companies, with many different products. Today many "sets" on offer are marriages, having been issued by several different companies, and they also vary in the number of cards, hence the list as far as I know it below. Originally a "set" would have been every card with the same back.
Now our card is blank, both back and front, which either means that it was a sample, or more likely a lot of sets were printed and they sat, waiting to be overprinted with whichever company agreed to issue it next, but nobody ever came. That printer, by the way, was D. Hutinet, of Paris, who also printed for Liebig.
The set comprises a main card which shows the milky way as a map in a circle. The other cards are split in half with a semi circle between them at the bottom - the left hand split has an image of the object together with the stars which form its shape constellation, whilst the right hand split is the star map in the sky. The semi circle contains a painting of a scene relating to the character, hence ours is Perseus slaying the monster whilst Andromeda is on the rock. Each of these cards are one heavenly feature, namely
- Andromede (Andromeda)
- Hercule (Hercules)
- La Lyre (the lyre)
- La Grand Ourse et La Chariot (the great bear and the chariot)
- La Petit Ourse (the little bear)
- Le Cygne (the swan)
- Le Dauphin (the dolphin)
- Le Dragon (the dragon)
- Le Taureau (Taurus)
- Les Gemeaux (Gemini)
- Pegase (Pegasus)
Anonymous / R. & J. Hill [tobacco : UK] "Famous Cricketers" - large size (1924) 17/50 - H554-515.b : H46-54.b
Today we celebrate the birth of this man, Herbert Sutcliffe, in Yorkshire, in 1894, and his claim to fame is that he was the first batsman to ever score four centuries in a Test series - this being during the tour of Australia in 1924-1925. So it does kind of have a centenary link.
His love of cricket came from his father, who played both cricket and rugby, however when our man was but four years old his father died, from what is recorded as "an injury sustained during a rugby match". I have been unable to track this down. It seems likely that it was a local match and so would have only been in local papers, rather than a national and professional match which would have left a bigger trail.
Four years later, Herbert Sutcliffe was a cricketer, of sorts, playing, usually as a bowler, for the Church team. As a teenager he proudly joined the team for which his father had played. However, aged sixteen, he moved, to another, rival team, because as part of the package he was offered a job at the textile mill which was owned by the club captain. He played well and always tried to do his best, by way of thanks for the opportunities he had been given, and probably both of these things brought him to the attention of Yorkshire County Cricket Club. He was able to negotiate a few terms though, one being that he would not leave his local team until he was on the first eleven, and this was agreed. This had an extra benefit, of giving him lots more actual playing time against other sides, rather than just practise whilst he waited for a County match.
Like many sportsmen he could have done so much more if not for war. He served in the First World War, from 1915, though he never actually saw active service, nor went overseas. This meant that his first professional match was delayed right until 1919, when he was already twenty-four, losing him all those good years. Then, because he was a reservist, he was called up for the Second World War right at the start in 1939, so early that he even missed Yorkshire's last match of that season - though, yet again, he never fought abroad. He was released from his service in November 1942, aged forty-eight, as unfit, having suffered a shoulder injury, and had repetitive sinus problems.
He played just once more, in August 1945, at the Scarborough Festival, in a special match Yorkshire vs the Royal Air Force. Later on he developed severe arthritis, and ended up confined to a wheelchair, in a nursing home. He died in 1978 aged eighty-three
This set is one of many Hill sets that go by the name of Famous Cricketers, and there is also one called "Caricatures of Famous Cricketers" which will be too confusing to tackle here - however the fact it is caricatures ought to be able to tell it apart quite easily, and it is also listed earlier in our original reference book to the issues of R. & J. Hill (RB.2, issued in 1942), whilst the "Famous Cricketers" are all described together, one after the other. Sadly there are no reference numbers given to any of the sets, this only happened in the later volumes.
I will insert the entire listing here, but when one of them is used as a Card of the Day it will relocate, simply because it is easier to go straight to a page than scroll down through a newsletter. Anyway, it reads :
1912. 25. FAMOUS CRICKETERS SERIES (titled series). Size 2 2/16" x 1 7/16". Numbered 1-26. Fronts, printed black from half tone blocks - black and white - with black border; no title to subject. Backs, printed in blue, short descriptions and inscribed "Issued only by R. & J. Hill Ltd. (Proprietors of Hy. Archer & Co.) See Henry Archer & Co.
28. FAMOUS CRICKETERS SERIES (titled series). As above, but fronts printed in brown, to resemble photos, and with brown border. Backs, printed in bronze blue.
28. FAMOUS CRICKETERS SERIES (titled series). As above, but fronts printed in blue, with blue border. Backs, printed in red ink. Printer unknown.1923. 40. FAMOUS CRICKETERS (titled series). Size 2 3/4" x 1 1/2". Numbered 1-40. Fronts, printed by photogravure, one colour only, no titles or margins. Backs, printed in dull brown with crossed bats design ; descriptions and "Issued by R. & J. Hill Ltd., The Spinet House..." at base. No address. Printed by Ripley & Co., London.
1924. 50. FAMOUS CRICKETERS, including the S. African Test Team (titled series). Size 2 11/16" x 1 1/2". Numbered 1-50. Fronts, printed by photogravure in brown only, with margins, subjects untitled. Backs, printed in grey ink, with descriptions, and in a scroll at base "Issued with "Sunripe" Cigarettes which stand alone for size and tone". No maker`s name appears.
50. FAMOUS CRICKETERS SERIES, including the S. African Test Team (titled series). Size 3 1/8" x 2 5/8". Numbered 1-50. Fronts, printed by photogravure in brown only, with margins, subjects untitled. Backs, printed in grey ink, with descriptions, and in a scroll at base "Issued with "Sunripe" Cigarettes which stand alone for size and tone". No maker`s name appears. Both sets printed by Ripley & Co., London.
Now in our original World Tobacco Issues Index these six "Famous Cricketers" have magically, but confusingly, been whittled down to just two sets, these being :
FAMOUS CRICKETERS. Sm. Brown gravures. Nd. (40), with variations for some numbers, see X1/Ha.633 ... H46-53
FAMOUS CRICKETERS, INCLUDING THE S. AFRICA TEST TEAM. Brown gravures. Nd. (50), "Sunripe" brand issue. Size (a) small (b) large ... H46-54
Mere Picon [trade : cheese : O/S - France] "Protegez la Nature Avec Woody Woodpecker et ses Amis" / "Protecting Nature with Woody Woodpecker and his Friends" (1979) 1/10
Today in 1940 Woody Woodpecker first burst on to the screen. He was created by Walter Lantz, the head of an animation studio, and his head storyboard artist Ben Hathaway, who was already the creator of two other popular cartoon characters, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.
In the late 1950s he moved to television, where his bright colours and frenetic ways soon attracted him a keen following. He remained owned by Walter Lantz right until the early 1970s when the studio closed down.
However that was not the end of our little friend, as he can still be seen on television in new productions, as well as online, through You Tube and Netflix. His fame is such that he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and also he remains the figurehead and mascot of Universal Studios.
This card was issued in France by Mere Picon, who make cheese. This set was issued one card at a time inside one of those little round boxes in which nestle twelve mini triangles. Whilst researching this I also discovered that they have issued lots of cards. This one was issued as part of a contest, where you had to write a letter about your environmental protection activities - and you could win prizes, one of ten bicycles, or one of fifty pairs of binoculars, or one of two thousand special albums for your collection to be kept safely in. It does seem odd that you had to win the album, rather than collect it from a shop or send tokens, so maybe that is why I have not yet come across an album of the cards.
On this card Woody is getting stressed over the fact that picnickers have come and enjoyed his forest but left their litter behind to spoil it. And hopefully collecting this series and writing those letters taught lots of juvenile collectors to be more nature friendly.
And so to music, for today in 1939 saw the birth of Anna Mae Bullock in Tennesee. It is recorded that she had very little growing up and amused herself with music, and we know that she was singing from a very early age. This card tells us that she met Ike Turner, also showing here, by chance, and through that love of music, for "while playing in St. Louis, Ike`s drummer offered the microphone to a girl in the audience. She started singing and the next thing she knew, she became a member of the band". The band was called the Kings of Rhythm, and the concert was in 1956, so she was only seventeen. Then there is conflicting information, some say that after a whirlwind romance with Ike, eight years older than her, the two were married, and she could legally call herself Tina Turner. Others say that she took his name long before they were married, and others say they were never actually married at all, something which seems to have come to light during the couple`s high profile divorce in 1978.
Whatever happened, the name of the band was also changed, to the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, and a few years later, in 1960, they found pop success when "A Fool In Love" hit the charts, though their first real worldwide hit was the 1966 "River Deep Mountain High".
She had an amazing voice, and could sing any genre, but oddly it took until the 1980s for her to release her first solo album. And she later proved that she could act too, starting with her role as Auntie Entity in "Mad Max - Beyond Thunderdome".
She also relocated to Switzerland, and became a proud citizen in 2013. She died, in Switzerland, in 2023
Donruss [trade : gum : O/S - USA] "The Green Hornet" (1966) 5/
Now this is a curious tale and I am indebted to Mr. Pearks who told me that this card was connected to my subject (when I was struggling to find one).
Now Kato was the Green Hornet`s valet in their non-crime-fighting guises, and there had been several actors who had played him, starting by being voiced on the radio by Raymond Hayashi, and then morphing into Roland Parker. When the Green Hornet was made into a series of serials for the big screen cinema, starting in 1940, he was played by Keye Luke, who had been Charlie Chan`s Number One Son.
Our art drawn card comes from the American television series "The Green Hornet", which started screening in 1966 and was cancelled in 1967. It starred Van Williams as the eponymous hero, whilst his Kato was played by Lee Jun Fan, who was born today in 1940. Of course you may know him better as Bruce Lee....
He was actually born in America, and taken to Hong Kong by his father. He also, reputedly, acted in several films as a child. However he much preferred watching martial arts, and he actually won a few tournaments whilst he was still technically under age. He admired the way that rather than the more violent street fighting, many of the best exponents of the martial arts scene were calm and collected, almost slow motion.
Just as the 1960s broke, he moved back to America and ended up in Seattle, enrolling at the University of Washington. He needed money, not just to live, but because he had secretly married a fellow student, an American, the secretly being so as not to fall foul of the inter-racial marriage ban in many states. This must have been especially galling because he, too, was American by birth. Anyway to make this money, he opened a martial arts school in his home, whilst he waited to become a famous actor.
He did very well and opened a second school in California. This led to him lecturing at the the Long Beach International Karate Championships, and to his relocating to Los Angeles, ostensibly to be closer to the Hollywood scene. He did get close to it, but not in the way he predicted, as he was asked to teach several actors how to perform stunts and displays, and this gave him the idea of producing martial arts movies - some of which he starred in too.
A few months after he had moved to Los Angeles his son was born, followed a few years later by a daughter.
Sadly, in 1973, he died, aged just thirty-two. His son was eight and his daughter only four. To this day how he died remains a mystery, with many theories. He was in the prime of life and very healthy, which seems to rule out sudden illnesses. Sadly his son also died young, in 1993, aged just twenty-eight, shot on a movie set in a freak accident with a "prop" gun. His daughter is still alive, and she wrote several books about her father, two of which were made into motion pictures honouring his legacy
There is quite a lot of befuddlement about this set, so let us try to sort it out. It is often said that there was only one card set showing it, and that was by Donruss. This is true, but there was also a set of stickers issued by Topps. You can see both at ImageEvent/GHCards
The Donruss set was issued in 1966, is complete in forty-four cards, and you had to pay five cents a pack for five cards and a stick of gum. Each card has a large full colour photo on the front which comes from the television series. There is a very thin white border, and at the bottom there is an official "Green Hornet Photos" logo. The reverse of each card has a section with text, and a reference to tell the collector to "Watch THE GREEN HORNET on your local ABC network station", along with part of one of five sectional puzzles - which, when completed in the right order, make one puzzle of Black Beauty, Miss Case and Kato, and two of The Green Hornet.
The Topps set was also issued in 1966, and is also complete in forty-four, but stickers. You had to pay five cents a pack, but I have not been able to find out how many stickers were in each, or whether it contained any gum. The cards are quite different, either having a solid colour border around a shape in which is a picture, a white border with the picture inside a stamp-shaped frame, or, like our card, a mock poster. Then there is a card of The Green Hornet (card 36) which is just his head and shoulders on a green background with a thin white border. The reverse of each card is blank, but, as in our case, often has a thin grey line.
This was the day that held me back, I was after William Blake, born today in 1757, to no avail. Then I discovered an event of which he would probably have approved, for he condemned all forms of oppression and exploitation.
Unthanksgiving Day, or the National Day of Mourning, occurs annually on the same day as Thanksgiving, but is intended to remember the indigenous peoples whose land was forcibly removed and whose way of life was shattered. In many American states there will be events, and ceremonies, designed to both provide a space to remember and also a place to come together, with storytelling and displays about the times that were. Some of these also include rallies, marches and demonstrations.
As to why we have this card, well let us go back to 1970, the first ever National Day of Mourning, which took place at the site of the landing of the original Pilgrim Fathers, Plymouth, Massachusetts. This was led by a Wampanoag leader called Frank James, who protested, and demanded that people hear the truth about what really happened to the peoples who were on the land long before the invasion came.
Our card shows a Wampanoag King, and, aptly, one who did not take the invasion laying down. He took up arms and fought against the colonists, though, tellingly, our card says that at first he was friendly with them. This definitely seems to suggest that they took advantage of his kindness, and he had no option to rebel - and it is quite interesting that Goudey shows this kind of fellow feeling and understanding way back when this set was issued. I also found out that the war he caused was called the Metacom War, because Metacom was the original name of our tribal King, he only took the name Phillip because his father and the colony were friendly towards each other. And we also learn that Metacom decided to rename himself, and go against his father's friendly alliance after the colonists had repeatedly done things that were unfriendly, and expected them to be forgiven.
Haus BERGMANN Zigarettenfabrik A-G. [tobacco : O/S : Dresden, Germany] "Bergmanns Bunte Bilder von Walter Trier" (19) Buch 3, Series 4, Card 9 - B317-100.3.4 : B60-2.3.4
This subject was chosen quickly, because today in 1929 Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd Junior flew over the South Pole. but the card took longer to find.
He had been born in 1888, and was a pioneering airman though he was also an American Naval Officer. He tried to combine the two, knowing that the Navy was bound by only being able to see the far horizon, whilst an aircraft could fly above and look beyond, something which would be groundbreaking in wars and explorations. It seems likely that he sold it as being of use to war to the Navy whilst all the time personally preferring to have the support so that he could explore.
He actually claimed to be the first person to fly over both poles, but there is a bit of a controversy as to the North Pole, for his aircraft would have needed to refuel along the way, the tanks were too small to hold enough capacity to get there and back, and there is no record as to him having landed and done so.
However he was amply rewarded by the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross and he appears on several cigarette and trade cards, over thirty of which are shown at the Trading Card Database/REByrd. Ours is not there.
This set had three parts, all from drawings by Walter Trier, who had been born in Prague in 1890. He was fond of and good at art from a very young age and he was admitted to the Industrial School of Fine and Applied Arts in 1905, moving to the Royal Academy in Munich a year later, where he began to find employment drawing for magazines and newspapers. He then moved to Berlin in 1910 , in order to work for a magazine called Lustige Blatter, and he got married a few years later.
In the late 1930s he decided to emigrate, and shortly afterwards he started working on the magazine "Lilliput". In fact he produced every one of the first hundred and forty-seven cover images, only stopping in 1949. These continued through the Second World War, though he was also employed an illustrator for the Ministry of Information.
He moved to Canada in 1947, where his daughter and her husband lived, and he died in 1951. Today, much of his archive, over a thousand paintings, items from his collections, and some of his personal effects, is held by the Art Gallery of Ontario.
These cards are described in our original World Tobacco Issues Index as :
BERGMANN`s BUNTE BILDER VON WALTER TRIER (Bergmann`s Coloured Pictures by Walter Trier). Md. 60 x 43. ... B60-2
1. "Buch 1". (100). 7 sub-series numbered from Bild 1 upwards.
1. "Bremer Stadtmusikanten" (10)
2. "Buhne und Film" (20)
3. "Clowns" (10)
4. "Hans im Gluck" (10)
5. "Lustige Trachtenbilder" (10)
6. "Sport Karikaturen" (30)
7. "Zahn Negerlein" (10)2. "Buch 2". (100). 9 sub-series numbered from Bild 1 upwards.
1. "Buhne und Film" (20)
2. "China-Japan" (10)
3. "Die Schnellsten Menschen" (10)
4. "Helden der Jugend" (10)
5. "Hunde aus Aller Welt" (10)
6. "Lustige Trachtenbilder" (20)
7. "Rund um Tabac" (10)
8. "Sport Karikaturen" (10)
9. "Zwerg Nase" (10)3. "Buch 3". (150). 14 sub-series numbered from Bild 1 upwards.
1. "Alles deutsches Spielzug" (10)
2. "Anekdoten" (10)
3. "Bauernspruche" (10)
4. "Der Kampf um den Pol" (10)
5. "Der Kinder-Zoo" (10)
6. "Die Grossen Heerfuhrer" (20)
7. "Forscher und Erfinder" (10)
8. "Im Zirkus" (10)
9. "Jup reist nach Berlin" (10)
10. "Lusitge Musikanten" (10)
11. "Olympia-Sieger 1932" (10)
12. "Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche" (10)
13. "Vorboten des Reisens" (10)
14. "Wild West" (10)
These set title checklists remain the same in our updated version, but the header has been altered, and that reads :
BERGMANN`S BUNTE BILDER VON WALTER TRIER (Bergmann`s Coloured Pictures by Walter Trier) . Md. 60 x 43. Issued as joined pairs, some known with additional advertising wording on left.
This week's Cards of the Day...
saw us going back to our childhoods and remembering Nursery Rhymes. This is because World Nursery Rhyme Week begins today, the 18th of November.
They may be just simple songs, and often repetitive, but they seem to have been proven to improve literacy skills in most children. And they also often have a fascinating and sometimes gruesome tale behind them that slightly older children would appreciate.
Saturday, 16th November 2024
This clue referred to the player`s surname - Toms - for two Toms appear in the popular rhyme "Tom Tom The Piper`s Son", which has been sung since the 1790s.
On the surface this one sounds scary, "Tom Tom the piper's son, stole a pig and away he run, the pig was eat and Tom was beat, and Tom went roaring down the street." However the pig was not a real live animal, as is shown in modern versions, it was a cake, which was sold by street tradesmen, at about the time the rhyme was first sung. It seems to have been shaped like a pig, with currants for eyes. So this seems to have been a morality tale warning small children not to steal.
So here we have Mr. E. Toms, or, more correctly, Edward Vincent Toms, who was born in Richmond, Victoria, on the 28th of July 1872. His talent for sport seems to have been picked up on early, and he went to Scotch College in Melbourne on a scholarship which seems to have been a very early version of what we consider a sports scholarship today. At the end of his schooling he was signed for Melbourne, in the Victorian Football Association, and he played for them from 1890 to 1893, then he was injured and skipped a year, returning in 1895. The following two years he played for South Melbourne, which was in the breakaway Victorian Football League.
This card calls him a follower, which is a player who follows the ball trying to get it away from the opposing team. It is unusual to just call him that though, because there are three types of follower, a ruckman. a ruck-rover, and a rover - so it suggests that he could, and often did, play in any one of these three positions as required. It would be useful to know his height though, because the rover is usually the smallest player on the side, and can get into all manner of tight spots to retrieve the ball.
After two years at South Melbourne, he seems to have given up on sport, and he was only twenty five, so maybe the injury returned. Instead he found another interest, teaching, starting in 1896, at two places, one of which was intriguingly called Toms` Business College, so perhaps he started that.
In 1907 he married a local girl, and they had four children, three girls and a boy. And he lived until 1953.
This is part of a group of three sets, and all have now been featured. There is also a home page for the trio, as our Card of the Day for the 12th of October, 2024.
They first appeared in our Australasian Miscellaneous Booklet, RB.20, published in 1951, and the entry for our third part of the set reads :
Series C. Size 67 x 59 m/m. Fronts per Fig.48-C in colour, head and neck studies, in oval vignettes, with yellow surround. Player`s name at base, below vignette. Brown "Magpie" back, with name of player and position in team. Unnumbered series, in two groups as follows -.
In our original World Tobacco Issues Index, published in 1956, the entry is much reduced. All it says is :
AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALLERS (A). Sm. 66-67 x 39-40. ... S38-1
3. Known as "Series C". Head and neck in oval frame. Unnd. See RB.20-48-1.C and X20/48-1.C.
(a) South Australian League Players. 30 known
(b) Victorian League Players. 27 known.
The X20 reference is in the back of the book, and it simply adds one new card, to our Series C, namely "(b) Victorian League Players, add (27) M. Brown, South Melbourne.
Sunday, 17th November 2024
This clue gave us MacDonald, of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", but his initials "E.A." do also have a nod to "E-I-E-I-O" which is frequently repeated as part of the tune.
This verse is even earlier than our last one, and started as a serious poem, written by Thomas d`Urfey, in 1706, and at first it was part of an opera "The Kingdom of the Birds or Wonders of the Sun". However it soon gained a life outside of that, being a happy tune with an opportunity to make funny noises in company. And it seems that today this is the most popular nursery rhyme worldwide, with hundreds of different translations which, wonderfully, use the local animals, rather than our home grown ones.
Our man here is Edgar Arthur (Ted) McDonald, and he was born on the 6th of January, 1891, at Launceston on the island of Tasmania. He played cricket for the national Tasmanian team at the very early age of eighteen, until 1911 when he moved to the mainland. Strangely he was a Tasmanian batter, but played for Australia as a bowler. His first Test series was in 1920-21, against England, and he excelled, helping them to win the series three-nil. He then played against South Africa. However after that he decided to move to England, presumably Lancashire as he was in the League team in 1922 and picked up by the County in 1924.
This ought to make dating easy, but it makes it harder. You might imagine that this card was issued because of his Lancashire County fame but look, it says "Victoria". Another thought is that it comes from when he was playing in the 1920-21 Test, but then surely it would say "Australia", not "Victoria".
He retired in 1931, but found inactivity did not suit him and he agreed to return to Australia to play a handful of matches. Then he came back to England and bought a public house. Sadly he was killed in a car crash, in Lancashire, in 1937.
This is actually just part of a grouping, and as a card of the day it gets the honour of being the home page for that group.
This is first described in our original Godfrey Phillips reference book, RB.13, published in 1949, as :
58. CRICKETERS. Fronts : Uncoloured glossy photographs. Numbered in left bottom corner, number followed by letter "C", Name of player at top, County or team at base.
1. PINNACE photos - No series title
Backs in black, with details of exchange of cards for cabinet size photographs of players or teams, no descriptive text.
A. Miniature cards, size 45 x 35 m/m. All numbers between 1-c and 225-c have been seen EXCEPT Nos 1-15 and 98. Two cards numbered 84-c are known (a) Gunn, J ; (b) H.K. Foster. (a) is the error card - Gunn, J should be numbered 64-c
B. Large cards, size 85 x 61 m/m. Insufficient cards have been examined to posit the number of cards issued.2. Brown backed cards - titled "SERIES OF CRICKETERS".
Backs in brown with descriptive text. Inscribed "Available for Cabinet Exchange".
A. Small cards, size 64 x 38 m/m. 192 cards between numbers 1-c and 224-c are known. Cards NOT seen : 1-15, 23, 26, 40, 45, 46, 76, 88, 89, 98, 112, 113, 120, 129, 159, 161, 177, 202, 212. Two cards numbered 176-c are known (a) J.C. Clay ; (b) Hendren, E.H. (Hendren appears in the Footballer series at No.176,
B. Large cards, size 84 x 60 m/m. 25 cards have been seen, and it is believed that these were the only numbers issued :-
1-15, 90, 142, 207, 218-224
Now curiously when it gets to our original World Tobacco Issues Index this is much truncated, though there is a link back to the original Godfrey Phillips reference book. If you look without paying attention you will only see that it reads ;
CRICKETERS. Skipped numbers, see RB.13/58.2. Black and white photos. ... P50-54
A. Small, 64 x 38. 192 known
B. Large, about 84 x 60 (25)
However this is not all the cards, it is just our section. The Pinnace ones have been moved off to join the rest of the Pinnace cards under section 5A, and our two sets come first, being Cricketers rater than Footballers. Their listings read :
CRICKETERS (A). Min. Back 4. Nd. 16-C to 225-C (210) ... P50-42
CRICKETERS (A). Lg. Few only seen ................................... P50-44
It is slightly different in the updated version of the World Tobacco Issues Index, and that reads, respectively :
5A. The Pinnace Issues
CRICKETERS (A). Skipped numbers to 224-c, all followed by letter "c". See RB.113/56
A. Min (198 known) B. Lg. (138 known)
5B. General Issues
CRICKETERS (A) Skipped numbers to 224-c, all followed by letter "c". B & W photos. ...P521-314
A. Sm. 64 x 38 (192 known) B. Lg, about 84 x 60 (25)
Monday, 18th November 2024
This card gave us "blackbirds", but only two, not the four and twenty which were baked in a pie.
It is also thought that this rhyme dates to the eighteenth century, first being printed in 1744, though several references to the actual title, "Sing a Song of Sixpence" appear in literature from centuries earlier, and the sixpence coin was first minted in the sixteenth century. Curiously the 1744 version has "naughty boys" baked in the pie and not blackbirds, they did not replace the boys until almost the end of the eighteenth century.
These birds are the male, black, and the female, brown. At the bottom are three names in a cartouche the first one is "Merle" which is French for blackbird and it comes from the Latin, "Turdus Merula", which is the pair of words in the middle. The final word is "Schwarzdrossel", and this is German. All these words are in the singular, though there are two birds.
Now there are a lot of gaps in our knowledge about this set, but there are other cards, which also feature that curious double tin at the bottom, which looks like a broken tin to me but to others is simply one behind the other. You can find the tins in all manner of permutations, with the big titled one as the front or as the back tin, but this does not seem to mean that there were two printings. There are also bird cards with differently coloured tins but our set is only white tins.
By the way some of the cards also show nests and others do not, but we think it is all the same set, rather than a "birds" set and a "birds and their eggs" set.
The cards we have found so far are :
- Alouette, Alauda Arvensis, Lerch [skylark]
- Bouvreuil, Pyrrhula Europaea, Dompfaff [bullfinch]
- Chardonneret,Carduelis Elegans, Steiglitz [goldfinch]
- Elorneau, Sturnus Vulgaris, Gemiener Star [starling]
- Mesange, Parus Major, Kohlmeise [coal tit]
- Mesange a tete noire, Parus Major, Schwartzmeise [long tailed tit]
- Pinson, Fringilla Coelebs, Buchfink [Chaffinch]
- Rossignol, Erithacus Luscinia, Nachtigall [nightingale]
- Rouge queue des jardins, Erithacus Phoenicurus, Gartenrothschwanzchen [redstart]
- Rouge Gorge, Erithacus Rubeculus, Rothkethichen [robin]
- Verdier, Chrysomitris Spinus, Zeisig [Siskin]
If anyone knows the date of issue, the number in a complete set, or any more birds from it, do let us know.
Tuesday, 19th November 2024
Here we have a nursery scene, in which it is almost certain that the woman is a nurse and not a mother. However it is also pretty certain that with one infant starting to walk and the other in the cradle she would have tried to keep order with some kind of song. The cradle also leads us to "Rock-A-Bye Baby", which starts with the words "Rock a bye baby, on the tree top, When the wind blows the cradle will rock".
This is another eighteenth century nursery rhyme, but oddly the words and the song were not written at the same time. The words came first, as a poem, in 1765, which appeared in "Mother Goose`s Melody", a selection of little verses whose author is not known - only the printer, a John Newbery. Now he was a very interesting person, and the first publisher to specialise in works for children, and his shop, in St. Paul`s Churchyard, London, is regarded by many to be the first ever children`s bookshop, or, as he had on his shop sign, "Juvenile Library".
As for the tune, that took almost a hundred years to become joined to the words, and that was in America. Somehow, perhaps through a copy being taken across by an English settler, the book was reprinted (perhaps not entirely legally) at a printers in Boston, and it was reprinted too, with eventually quite a wide circulation, as far as New England. And here, one day in 1872, a fifteen year old girl called Effie Crockett, trying to settle down a baby not her own, used the words but set them to a little improvised tune, which was overheard by her music teacher, who helped her to have it published. The anomaly is that the publishing took place sixteen years after. It was published as Effie Crockett Canning, and the Canning is usually reported as being her grandmother`s name, done to conceal her work from her family until she was sure of their approval. That is a bit misleading as by the time it was published it was her name, too, for she had married a John F Canning, a Boston doctor, in 1881. He died eight years later and she remarried in 1894, another Bostonian, Harry J. Carlton - who she also outlived.
As well as this claim to fame, though, she was also an actress, and she used all three names, Crockett, Canning and Carlton. Her most famous role was in "The Private Secretary" with William Gillette, who co-wrote the first ever Sherlock Holmes stage play with the author Arthur Conan Doyle, in 1899. Therefore Mr. Gillette was also the first person ever to play Sherlock Holmes. As for our actress, she was in many productions, but gave it all up in 1922 when her second husband died. And she died in 1940.
However her fame lives on every time "Rock-A-Bye Baby" is used on screen or stage, as she is credited with its authorship.
I have also been reminded by reader and collaborator Malcolm Thompson, who supplied a great deal of this information, that there are other nursery rhymes which could equally apply -
The child in the foreground with his hobby horse could lead us to "Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross", which is often thought to refer to a visit by Queen Elizabeth I to Banbury - however I cannot track that visit down. Another suggestion is that it was Lady Godiva, but she has no connection to Banbury. Then there is a theory, gaining ground, that the "Fine" Lady is actually the "Fiennes" Lady, after a lady who, rather excitingly, made a very grand tour of England - and yes, she is related to the actor Ralph Fiennes.
Then I also had a suggestion of "Cock A Doodle Do", referring to the rather misshapen head on top of the stick, which is indeed not very equine, and could be a chicken`s. There is also what may just be a "fiddling stick" on the floor, though it looks more like a whip to me.
As for our card, this may be anonymous, but it was issued through Reemstma and it appears as so in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, where the description is :
ALBUM NR. 9 or SAMMELWERK NR. 9 : DEUTSCHE KULTUR-BILDER, DEUTSCHES LEBEN IN 5 JAHRHUNDERTEN (German Culture - German Life Over 500 Years.) Size 70 x 84. Nd. (300). Anonymous.... R16-13
A. "Album Nr. 9"
B. "Sammelwerk Nr. 9". Front (a) matt (b) varnished.
It is exactly the same text in our updated version of this work, but has a new code of R189-375.
Though we give an English translation of of the title, as "German Culture - German Life Over 500 Years", for some reason we do not give the dates of those years in either the German version or the English, though they do appear on the card as part of the title. Maybe space would not allow? Anyway, they run from 1400 to 1900, whilst our card is dated for the eras 1300 to 1550.
The title of our card is also interesting, for it is "Kinderstube", and that has come to mean a nursery, though the direct translation is from the two parts "Kinder" (children) and "Stube" (room). There is sometimes another word used for this, "Kinderzimmer", and that means child bedroom. Kinderstube is also used in another sense though, meaning good manners, or education therein. And I suppose that teaching children good manners does indeed start when they are still in the nursery - though we tend to think of a nursery as only a place for play.
As for the reason why the cards are anonymous, that is because they were not designed to be kept loose, but to be stuck in an album. It was certainly a spectacular one, hardback, and when filled with these little miniature paintings it does look really attractive.
Wednesday, 20th November 2024
This card represents one of my favourites, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and here we have a little ballerina, who, in her heart, surely hopes to be a star. Maybe she never was, but I hope that she was given the support and opportunity to try.
This is a lullaby, rather than a nursery rhyme, and intended for bedtime, when there were stars in the sky to act as illustration. It was first written at the start of the nineteenth century but there are several claimants as to who actually originated it, though it was first published in a book that, aptly for our theme this week was called "Rhymes for the Nursery".
As far as a World connection, well that comes from the tune, which is not British, but French, where it is known as "Ah Vous Dirai-je, Maman", translated as "Shall I Tell You, Mummy" - and this is where the erroneous belief that the nursery rhyme was written by Mozart came in to the picture, for he wrote a piece called "Twelve Variations on Ah Vous Dirai-je, Maman". In fact, "Baa Baa Black Sheep" also uses the same tune.
The card, which is most attractive, is one of a set, and each has the large star with the blue starred background. Inside the star is a child, and some collectors believe they represent professions. The ones we have found so far are :
- 302 - L`etoile De La Danse [ballerina, female]
- 302 - L`etoile Polaire [Polar Explorer, male]
- 302 - Mon Etoile Pour 5 Ans [My star for 5 years - Road Sweeper (?) male]
302 appears up the left hand side of the front, on all the cards, so it must be the series number. The title is at the bottom of the front, beneath the star.
Now we have featured "Royal Windsor" before, in our newsletter of the 27th of July, 2024, as the diary card for Friday, the 2nd August. However as this is a Card of the Day it will become the home page for the issuer and all the cards we feature.
Four months on, however, and I am still no closer to finding out what was in it - though it seems to be quite miraculous, offering to darken grey hair, prevent dandruff, and stop your hair falling out. the last of which makes me think it is some kind of glue.
The first thing that most of us pick up on, though, is the connection with "Royal Windsor" and the fact that there is no Royal Warrant, even though, intriguingly, it had been a registered trade mark, since 1892. However if you research the dates of the product, and the British Royal Family, any concerns about infringement turn out to be baseless - for at that time our Royal Family were not using Windsor as a name, they were using Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, which was Prince Albert`s surname, being the son of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha. And before her marriage, in 1840, Queen Victoria had been a Hanover. As to how they are now Windsors, well, this happened during the First World War, when King George the Fifth decided the present name was a bit too Germanic. Lots of movie stars did that too.
The proprietor, and inventor, was a Joseph Jackson, who claimed that he had been selling it since 1879. As for the address, "entrepot" means a distribution centre, or depot, and Rue de l`Echequier is Chessboard Street, in the tenth district.
Thursday, 21st November 2024
This card has another French connection, for it was issued there. Also "Frere Jacques" is one of the first nursery songs most of us are treated to, though our attempts at the French are often not so good. And not just that, but on one of these cards there is the tune which yesterday`s nursery rhyme was set to - Ah Vous Dirai-je, Maman.
Strangely, then, the French seem to have no direct translation of nursery rhyme. If you look it up you get "comptine", but that refers to games and rhymes which teach children to count, and whilst that applies to some nursery rhymes it does not apply to the more fun ones.
The story of our nursery rhyme, Frere Jacques, is that a Friar at a monastery overslept, and so did not ring the bell to call his fellow monks to morning prayer. It seems to have been written at the end of the eighteenth century. Our card does not seem very monastic though, it simply looks like a child being woken up when he has slept in. There is also no bell. So it seems likely that the card was drawn more to appeal to a child than to be a faithful representation of monastic life.
There is something that you may have overlooked though, for just above the cockerel`s head which is poking through the door is a signature, "H. Gerbault". This is a very famous artist indeed, who was born in June 1863, but look closer and you will see that above or before it is the phrase "d`Apres", which means "after", or, to all intents and purposes, a copy - in other words that this is art modelled on that of Monsieur Jean Louis Armand Henri (or Henry) Gerbault. And he was alive when these cards were circulating, for he only died in 1930.
When I say "these cards", I mean it, for there are several - including :
- Ah Vous Dirai-je, Maman
- As-Tu Vu La Casquette
- Au Clair de la Lune
- Cadet Rouselle
- Fais Dodo, Colas
- Il Etait un Petit Navire
- J`ai du Bon Tabac
- La Bonne Adventure
- La Boulangere a des Ecus
- La Chanson de la Mariee
- La Mere Michel
- La Polichinelle
- Le Pont D`Avignon
- Le Roi Dagobert
- Malbrough
- Mon Per` m` a donne` un Mari
Now they do have several back styles, which seems to suggest they were reprinted. Ours looks very stylised and 1920s, but there is a version with the bottle to the left hand side and the words and music to the right hand side, and one which is vertical and has only words, including to the effect that they have had seventy years of success and won several exhibition prizes, the latest being London 1908
As to what Riqles was, well it was a kind of a soft drink made with peppermint, though there was some alcohol in it and it was sold as being medicinal. Its full name is Alcool de Menthe de Ricqlès, and it was first created in 1838 by Monsieur Heyman de Ricqlès, of Lyon, France. That ties in really neatly with the seventieth anniversary being in 1908.
Friday, 22nd November 2024
After the First World War, a set of nursery rhyme cards were issued by several makers. They had horizontal backs, and thick black borders around the fronts, which were brightly coloured images. Strangely, the issuer of today`s card, Goodwin`s Flour, was not amongst the issuers of that set, as far as we know. And yet they issued this one, in a very similar style, with the thick black borders and the brightly coloured images inside. Tellingly, too, this is called "Extra Rhymes - a Second Series of 24".", which definitely seems to point to them knowing of the other, and, maybe, to even issuing it.
This card was supplied by Malcolm Thompson, who is a keen researcher of Goodwins cards. He suggests that this "Extra" Rhymes set was not issued by any of the manufacturers who issued the first series, and that it must have been printed specially for the company in the mid 1920’s.
He also points out that the Goodwin`s sets are very collectable and informative, often featuring one subject on the front and another on the back of the same card; these sets are known as the "Composite Groupings", whereas our set falls under "Normal Series" . And there is additional interest because as different sets were issued the back designs changed - possibly because the mill also changed hands frequently, and to modernise the style. One thing that a lot of their advertising has in common is the bouncing baby logo, though, oddly, it does not appear on this set.
The set is first described in our original British Trade Index as :
D.W. GOODWIN & Co., Kidderminster
Flour Mills. Cards issued about 1923-38"EXTRA" RHYMES. Sm. 65 x 37. Inscribed "Second Series". Nd. (24) ... GOV-2
The cards known so far are :
- I saw three ships come sailing in
- The man in the moon
- Three Blind Mice
- There was an Old Woman Thrown up in a Basket
- Old Mother Goose
- My Little Old Man
- Merry are the Bells
- Crosspatch Draw the Latch
- two legs sit up on three legs
- The Queen of Hearts
Now I have been asked why I did not feature Fry`s 1917 set of "Nursery Rhymes" this week - but the answer is that we have already shown this charming card from that particular set, in our newsletter for the 3rd of December, 2022 as the diary card for Tuesday the 6th of December.
There are several other sets we could have shown too, including -
* Bassett - "Nursery Rhymes" (1966)
* Como - "Noddy`s Nursery Rhyme Friends" (1959)
* Edmondson - "Illustrated Rhymes & Phrases"
* Edmondson - "Pictures From the Fairy Stories"
* Typhoo - Tipps "Nursery Rhymes" (1914)
And there time has defeated me, so I will close. I will return and tidy tomorrow, and start to add the missing card data from our reference books. The problem is that I should do these first, in the afternoons, and yet I leave them until last, often in the last few hours before the newsletter is scheduled to appear, at which time it is often too late and too dark for me to struggle over reading the books. Next week I will attempt to put the dates and the titles in place and then add the card data, leaving the research until last. And report back...
Thanks for tuning in, as always, and I hope something here stirs you into further researching, or perhaps even to add another set to your wants lists or albums.
See you all next week....