Newsletter - 2025-01-11

Anonymous / British American Tobacco [tobacco : O/S -] "Jockeys & Owners Colours" - untitled (1914) 5 Diamonds/53 - ZJ03-440 : ZJ3-48

We start our weekly adventures with the birth of Frederick James Archer, in Cheltenham, today,  the 11th of January, 1857. We planned to have Pagets Awareness Day, but bones on cards seem few and far between, on sets we have not used before, anyway, so we went back and found Frederick "Fred" Archer, showing here

However, his story really starts with William Archer, born in 1826, who was also a jockey, and a really good one; good enough that, aged just seventeen, he left his home in England to become head jockey and stud manager for none other than the Tsar of Russia.

Now there seems a bit of fogginess over what happened next, some accounts say that he came back to ride in the Grand National of 1858, which he won, on a horse called Little Charley, and then he met his future wife, Emma Hayward, the daughter of a publican near Cheltenham. However that might not be true, because little Frederick, the man on our card, was already a year old when he won that race - though, as we all know, babies do not always wait until you are married. And, by 1861, there were other children, all squeezed into a tiny cottage, until, in that year, his wife`s father died, and left him his inn, or maybe just the tenancy of an inn. This was in Prestbury, the perfect location for William Archer, close to many racing stables and, more importantly, the home of many trainers and owners. 

William Archer taught all his children to ride, on all manner of mounts, from carthorses to donkeys. Three of the children followed in his footsteps, and became jockeys, Fred, Charles, and William, who was sadly killed, in a fall, over the sticks, at Cheltenham Racecourse. 

Fred was definitely the best rider, and when he was ten years old his father sent him to Newmarket as apprentice to the trainer Matthew Dawson. His first race was in 1869, and by the end of the year he had also had his first win. He also fell in love with the trainer`s niece, Nellie Rose Dawson, and they were married in 1883.

Though they were very happy, it did not last, their first son died at birth, in January 1884, doubly sad, as it had been planned to call him William, in honour of Fred`s much missed brother. His wife was also very sick, and it was feared she would not live. She did live, but was soon pregnant again, against the advice of the doctor; she gave birth in the November of the same year, to a daughter, called Nellie, but died shortly after, aged just twenty-three. 

Fred Archer threw himself into his racing, and rode almost two hundred and fifty winners in the following year. In October 1886, he caught a chill, whilst competing, which led to a fever, and then to what is now thought to have been typhoid. Within the month he was dead, but not of the fever; he had shot himself, almost two years to the day that his beloved wife had died. He was not yet thirty years old.

His daughter went to live with her grandparents, but I have found nothing more about her. 

The strangest thing of all is that I have only found this one card depicting Fred Archer. But maybe you know of others? It is also hard to tie this down to a specific race, or horse, because Evelyn Boscawen, Lord Falmouth, mentioned on the card, was the principal owner for whom he rode. and he may have been Lord Falmouth, but he had his yards in Kent. He started out using the pseudonym "Mr. Valentine", and he employed the Yorkshire trainer, John Scott. However, when John Scott died, in 1871, he sent his horses to a Mathew Dawson, at Newmarket, which is where he met Fred Archer, then his chief jockey. Within three years, Fred Archer was retained by Lord Falmouth, and over half of all his winning rides were under his employ. 

As for those of you who are yelling, what about the card in Ogden`s "Steeplechase Trainers & Owner`s Colours", issued in 1927 (he is card 2/25), well, this is not our man - it is his nephew, also named Fred Archer,  one of whose horses, "Double Chance", won the Grand National in 1925. 

Our set is recorded in our original World Tobacco Issues Index as : 

JOCKEYS AND OWNERS COLOURS (A). Sm. 63 x 38. Playing cards inset. (53). See W/249.B Issued abroad through B.A.T. ...ZJ3-48

It is the same text in our updated version, save a new card code, of ZJ03-440.

Curiously, though it was issued by British American Tobacco, it is not listed in RB.21, save as a title and date of issue in the index, and a link, once more, to W/249, the Wills version, which was issued in April 1914, and is recorded in the original World Tobacco Issues Index under section 4.G, that covering Export issues distributed with their "Scissors" brand, as : "JOCKEYS AND OWNERS COLOURS (A). Sm. 63 x 38. Playing-cards inset. (53). See W/249.A. ...W62-363". That too is the same text in our updated version, save a new card code, of W675-509

A. & B.C. Gum [trade : bubble gum ; UK] "Batman" - red bat, "A" suffix (1966)

This was the first day that caused all the trouble. It started out as the attempted assassination of Al Capone by the North Side Gang, which was the first time that Thompson sub machine guns were used by gangsters. However though there is a card of this weapon, as part of Parkhurst "Guns", I found nobody with one they wanted to share.

I then did a little digging, and found that today, in 1966, Batman aired on the American Broadcasting Company network, so we can fill a gap in our index and show you one of the "Red Bat" cards, which, rather neatly, was issued by another, homegrown A.B.C., that being A.& B.C. Gum. 

Now originally, Batman was planned as a one hour show, and scheduled to start in the Autumn of 1966. However this was shelved, for all manner of reasons. All that was offered in exchange was to postpone it until January 1967, with another change, that being that A.B.C. had no space for an hour show and each episode would have be shown in two halves, over two different days. This did have an unexpected bonus though, as it  created the opportunity for a cliff-hanger, a hark back to the early silent pictures, where a serial would end with a car, hanging over a cliff, and you would have to wait, sweating, until the next episode; and often, when that started, the car had miraculously managed to swerve out of danger instead.

This set is one of several known as the "Red Bat" versions, because on the front of the card the title is framed by a bat, coloured red. There were four "Red Bat" sets, the first having an "A" behind the number, the second using the phrase "Bat Laffs", the third having "Batman" in a bat, and the fourth having the picture in corner mounts and using the phrase "The Riddler`s Riddle". You can read all about these on our home page for the entire A & B.C. "Batman" sets, which is with our Card of the Day for the 15th of February, 2024

By the way, I did have a question about this card, but the Batman Forum answered it admirably. However I still have not encountered the phrase before, so maybe any Bat-Fans out there can let me know whether they have ever come across it elsewhere?

W.D. & H.O. WILLS [tobacco : UK/export - Australia] "Flag Girls of All Nations" (1908) 7/50 - W675-350.B : W62-223.B.2 : X.21/200-64.2

 Today, in 1822, this flag was officially adopted by Greece, decreed by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus. 

It looks quite a simple flag, but there are many theories as to why it looks the way it does.

The blue is universally regarded to represent the sea, or the sky, though it has become darker and lighter through the years. The white, however, is either thought to be the waves, the land, or the white houses which cluster on the hillsides above the sea. The cross is less debatable, and stands for the main religion of Greece, Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Blue and white are also the colours of this religion. 

As for the number of the stripes, there is no official reason, but if you research it there is a belief that they are a reference to the motto of the Greeks who rebelled against their Ottoman oppressors, "Eleftheria i Thanatos", or "Freedom or Death", for there are five blue stripes for the syllables in the first word and four white ones for the syllables in the second. 

There was an earlier flag, though, which came from Crete, and represented a noble family. Though no examples exist, it is said to have been blue and white, or blue and silver, with nine horizontal stripes and a cross. The family were sent to Crete by the tenth century Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas, to whom they were related.Then they either moved, or were moved, to the Ionian Islands, which were then part of Venice but,  in the mid nineteenth century, became part of Greece.

This set has many permutations, including other Wills versions, branded for "Scissors" and "United Service", and we have so far not featured any of them as a Card of the Day. We will do, and soon. For now though we will simply record the information for this version of the set, which appears first in our original reference books to the issues of W.D. & H.O. Wills, parts III (1949) and IV (1950). The first of these will be scanned in, for it also includes a table of the variations over the seven Wills issues. 

However part IVs entry is smaller, being only relating to column "G", which reads : 

64. FLAG GIRLS OF ALL NATIONS. - see page 102. 
     In the Australian issues "A" and "B", card no. 30 is found with caption on front (a) Sibiria (b) Siberia.
    The anonymous plain-backed issue under "G" can be subdivided into two series of 25 : (a)  large letter captions - subjects same as other 25 card issues listed on page 102 (b) small letter captions - balance of 25 subjects. Issued in Canada, see page 42, item C.91, of Mr. Burdick`s American Catalogue.
     An issue by B.A.T. similar to this series and issued with "Motor" Cigarettes is now known

By the time of our World Tobacco Issues Index, the Wills versions are recorded as : 

FLAG GIRLS OF ALL NATIONS. Sm. 63 x 36. Nd. (50). See W/64 and RB.21/200-64. Brand issues. 25 subjects with captions in (a) small (b) large letters, 25 with captions in medium letters - see X.21/200-64 ... W62-223

A. "Capstan" back
B. "Vice Regal" back

This is exactly repeated in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, with one exception, for that is missing the X.21 code. The reason for that is that this code was printed in the handbook which accompanied the original World Tobacco Issues Index, at first as a separate hard backed book, and then, in the reprint, was combined as one volume beneath the same covers. The entry, in both versions, reads :

X.21/200-64  FLAG GIRLS OF ALL NATIONS. There are two printings of the Wills Capstan and Vice-Regal numbered series as follows :

1. 25 cards numbered 1-5, 11-14. 18-21, 28-38 and 50 with captions on front in lettering all the same size (a) small letters about 1 1/2 m/m high (b) large letters about 2 m/m high. Printing (b) has the error card "Sibiria" at No.30.

2. 25 cards numbered 6-10, 15-17, 22-27, and 39-49 with captions on front in medium size lettering with the first letter about 2 m/m high, remaining letters about 1 3/4 m/m high.

Guerin-Boutron [trade : chocolate : O/S - Paris, France] "Compositeurs de Musique" / "Composers and Music" (1905) 14/78 

This was the second day which held me up. At first it was pencilled in as Marilyn Monroe marrying Joe di Maggio, but we have featured him before, or so I thought, but I could not find it. It then changed to the launching of RMS Oceanic, in 1899, which was on a Guinea Gold, or at least the RMS Oceanic was, but when I tracked that down it was on one of the Guinea Gold versions we have featured before. That left a big blank.

However it is now filled, with the premiere of an opera, today in 1900, by Giacomo Puccini, called "Tosca", at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome.

And our card shows almost the same picture as was used on one of the posters, namely Floria Tosca, who was a famous singer, and Baron Scarpia, the chief of police, who tried to seduce her, and instead was slain. Actually "Tosca" is a very odd opera, full of death and murder, hardly a fun night out at the opera, though it is ostensibly a depiction of what would happen if Napoleon had invaded Italy a hundred years before.

In fact Puccini took the idea of the opera not from his head, but from a French play, called "La Tosca", written by Victorien Sardou  just three years earlier, and which was staged with Sarah Bernhardt in a leading role. It was extraordinarily popular, and Puccini saw it several times. He also asked his publisher to contact Mr. Sardou and ask if he could convert the play into an opera. Mr. Sardou was not so keen on this, he liked the idea of his work being an opera, but he hoped a fellow Frenchman could do it, rather than an Italian. There were all kinds of back and forths, ending with Puccini pulling out of what was, at best a very speculative agreement. Then he wanted back in, by which time someone else had taken the job. He then lambasted this other writer, and it is said he convinced him that it was not a good story, too violent, and he would certainly be mocked for his ever attempting to make what would undoubtedly be a failure. One of these thoughts must have struck home, and the writer wavered, on which Puccini jumped immediately in and took over, that was in May 1895.

It was successful, and moved, quickly, to La Scala. And it still remains a favourite today. Through the years it has also featured the very greatest of stars in the lead, Enrico Caruso, and Maria Callas, but not, of course, together.

It is still an odd subject though, or so I think...

And there is another curious thing, because the man in the inset miniature to the front is not Puccini, it is Leon Carvalho, who seems to have no connection with either Puccini or Tosca - unless you know of one

Now this is another of those long sets by Guerin-Boutron and there will, one day, be a list. However there is not time to attempt it yet, more than the first one, which is : 

1. Mercadante : 1796 - 1870 :  "Horace"

Liebig [trade : meat extract : O/S - South America] "Comedies d`Auteurs Francaises" / "Productions at the Comedie Francaise" (1901) Un/6 - F.0662 : S.0663

Today, in 1622, Moliere was baptised, though you will often see it given as his date of birth. This does not mean that he was born on that day, and hurriedly baptised, though when the child is sickly, this can happen; for the most part, and especially in rural areas, where things like dates were not so vital, babies were born, and as long as they were baptised by the Sunday that followed their arrival it was okay. It was only later that baptismal records started to show the date of birth and the date of baptism. Younger readers may find it amazing that when I was born, in the 1960s, a hospital still only showed the time of birth on the certificate if it was a multiple birth, twins, triplets, etc. Otherwise your parents just remembered the time you were born; or not...

Curiously, the man we know as Moliere was actually born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, in Paris. His parents were reasonably comfortable, financially, but his mother died when he was ten and he was sent away to school. It seems that his father had little time for him, and seems to have been chiefly interested in social advancement, he had fairly recently begun working for the King, as "keeper of carpets and upholstery", kind of an interior designer, we would say today, but tellingly he had bought this job, rather than been chosen on merit. He also wanted his son to study law, and even chosen the school he went to because it was almost guaranteed to bring him into contact with several members of French nobility.  

Our man was not too interested in this side of life, but he did enjoy one of the extra-curricular activities, which was the theatre. Here, he discovered a flair for acting and writing, so much so that in 1643 he decided that he wanted to take it up as a career. Apparently this was not to his father`s liking, and it caused a separation. Our man was friendly, to say the least, with a woman called Madeleine Bejart, and the two of them teamed up to set up their own theatre. She was four years older than him, and already famous, though her beginnings were far humbler than Moliere`s. She was to act, and he was to write the plays, which her sister and brother also took part in.

The troupe then fell on hard times, began to miss rent payments on the theatre, and, in 1645, it went bankrupt. Our man even went to jail, overnight, before someone stepped up and paid the money they owed. There are several theories as to who this was, it seems unlikely to be his father, for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that once released our man abandoned his family name forever and took the stage name of "Moliere". 

Now his female friend was a very interesting lady, and could have had her pick from many lovers, but it seems that her torch was lit for Moliere alone, and also that this was frequently reciprocated. However, as she grew older she retired gracefully and let others take the leading roles. In 1662 she even allowed Moliere to marry, her daughter, Armande, who had been born in 1643. There seems no record of who was the father of this daughter, but it was obviously not Moliere; some say the child was from a fellow actor, whilst others say she was of Royal birth, presumably Louis XIV, who may have paid their theatrical dues, and who also seems to have had a lot of interest in Armande and her subsequent children with Moliere.

The third of these children was born in 1672, and died shortly after. Moliere was showing signs of ill health too, which we now recognise as tuberculosis, and even attribute to his time in jail, plus the stress of the failing theatre. And on the 17th of February, 1673, he collapsed on stage, amidst a fit of coughing. suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis, possibly contracted when he was imprisoned for debt as a young man. He was escorted home, but died a few hours after. His death led to the legend, common amongst actors, that to wear green, on stage, is unlucky.

Worst of all, because he was an actor, he was not permitted to be buried in sacred ground, so his wife went to the King, (which again proves there was some kind of connection there), and the King arranged that Moliere could be buried overnight, in the plots which were set aside for unbaptised infants. He was then dug up in 1792, and his remains moved to a museum, from where they were removed and reburied, at Pere Lachaise, in 1817.

Now this set of cards celebrate the Comedie Francaise, or, more correctly, the Societe des Comediens-Français, which was founded in 1680, by the merging of Moliere`s own troupe, and the Theatre du Marais. They continue to perform his works, including the one shown here, L`Avare, or The Miser, first performed in September 1668. The man in the centre is thought to be Moliere, but the green coat is not the fatal one, for this is a different play.

The other plays shown in this set are : 

• Frou Frou, by Meilhac and Halevy
• L`Ami Fritz, by Emile Erckmann & Louis Alexandre Chatrian 
• Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, by Moliere
• Le Monde ou L`on S`Ennuie, by Pailleron
• Les Precieuses Ridicules, by Moliere

Moliere also features on several other Liebig sets, as well as many French chromos. 

La Fine Fleur [trade ; bread : O/S - France] "Les Novateurs" / "The Innovators" (1962) 4/? 

Now this is a fascinating tale, for today, in 1903, William Charles Frederick Grover was born, in France, to a French mother, but an English father, who was out there in connection with his love of horses and his skill at breeding and training them.

When the First World War broke out, the young boy was sent to England; afterwards the family relocated to Monte Carlo. This was a place full of amazing cars, and William much preferred horse power of that kind, and so, as soon as he could, he started learning to drive, though it appears he started with a motorbike.

He had many adventures, over all kinds of terrain, and he loved speed. This led to him holding the honour of becoming the first ever Monaco Grand Prix winner, in 1929, driving a Bugatti Type 35.B, the type showing here; though this is Ettore Bugatti at the wheel. Our man actually bought his vehicle himself, and entered as a privateer, not as any official Bugatti entry. To make this clear he also painted his car green, in the shade which became known as British Racing Green. 

He may have won the Monaco Grand Prix, but he had won the French Grand Prix, two years in succession. In all his races he competed under an alias, W. Willliams - sometimes it is said that he was such a keen competitor that the alias was to save himself embarrassment if he did not win. However, it is also said that he liked playing at being someone else, without anyone finding out it was him. 

His love of adventure led to him taking more and more risks, and when the Second World War broke out he joined the Special Operations Executive, which sabotaged and spied on the German forces, in conjunction with the French Resistance. In August 1943 he was captured, and taken to a prisoner of war camp, where he was executed in March 1945.

Now this is where the story takes a strange turn, as there are not only varying dates for his execution, but also several reports that he survived, took a false name, George, or Georges, Tambal, which would definitely have been something he would have enjoyed, as with his racing alias. Tambal means a drum, specifically a kettledrum, and I am certain if I play with that long enough I will get somewhere with a link to aliases and spyings. He also reputedly returned to his wife, a former model, but by that time was a dog breeder, in Normandy.  Unfortunately, she died not long after, in 1948.

Whoever this Georges Tambal was, he was killed, in either 1973, or 1983, there are even varying stories there, whilst he was riding his bicycle, by a German tourist.

There is an excellent account of his life at The Scotsman/WGW, and very well researched. And I am running close to the time of uploading.

As far as our card, little is known. I cannot find "La Fine Fleur" (which means `the rose maker`). The cards were designed so that you sent the flower symbols to the address given and received what i thought was a book in exchange, but now I am starting to think they are records. More research. Unless anyone knows more in the meantime?

F. & J. SMITH [tobacco : UK - Glasgow, Scotland] "Famous Explorers" (October 1911) 9/50 - S548-180 : S84-7

Today in 1912, Captain Robert Falcon Scott reached the South Pole, five weeks after the flag had been planted by Amundsen. 

Captain Scott was not just an explorer, he was an officer in the Royal Navy, and he had been born in June 1868. He had form for he had already led an expedition to the Antarctic, aboard the Discovery, between 1901 and 1904. During that he had actually discovered the Antarctic Plateau, on which the South Pole was located. 

The expedition on which he went further and discovered the South Pole started in 1910. It is known today as the Terra Nova Expedition, from the name of his ship. Before it started there was controversy, for Ernest Shackleton had announced that he too would be attempting to reach the South Pole. Captain Scott attempted to stamp this out, even going as far to stake a claim to the whole area around the Ross Sea. 

Captain Scott`s journey to the Pole was arduous, but successful, however, on the way back things went badly wrong, and this was only found out when he failed to turn up at a meeting point. Then the search was on, and they found the bodies of Captain Scott and his men. However they could only estimate when they had died, for many reasons, not least the fact that the weather had taken a terrible turn for the worst and reached minus 40 °C.

There are quite a lot of cards which show the expedition, which really captured the feeling of the time. Chief amongst these is the Fry's Cocoa set of "Captain Scott at the South Pole", which we featured as our Card of the Day on the 9th of October 2023. Another important set is Cadbury`s "Antarctic Series", which we featured as our Card of the Day on the 6th of July, 2022

Our card is thought to be his "Rookie" card, but we know that he appeared on a card by Felix Potin, albeit as part of the third series. If a Potin collector can supply a date of this, we would be very interested. 

As far as this set, we have already featured it as a Card of the Day, on the 24th of September, 2024, this being the home page to which all the different backs link back to. That also includes the chart, extracted from a "Cartophilic World" magazine that was originally published in 1945, that shows which brand was advertised on each card - ."Albion Gold Flake" being on cards 1 to 10 inclusive. 

Smith`s "Albion Gold Flake" were cigarettes, and they came in packets of ten, printed in red on a yellow, or probably gold, background. They were marketed as being "Rich and Cool". Curiously, a lot of other companies also had a "Gold Flake", most notably W.D. & H.O. Wills, whose packet was also yellow.