I write this but a few days before I turn my wall calendar to the month of April. Maybe you will laugh at this, and think me quaint, to not have a more digital version. Anyway, whichever method we use, we should know that moving into April means our eagerly awaited Annual Convention will soon be here.
This year we are at Hemel Hempstead, which has excellent links to trains and buses, so why not nip down and meet like minded collectors, plus see what you can find to add to your collections.
Remember that Cartophilic Society members have unlimited access, on both days - whilst non members have to pay on Saturday, though you can join the Society at the door. And that nobody pays admission on the Sunday, which will be an excellent chance to show our hobby to all your friends - and for you all to explore its different facets, from cigarette cards that slid teasingly from their packets almost a hundred and fifty years ago, to modern film and television trading cards which show some of your favourite stars from the big and small screens. Then there are packets, tins, bookmarks, postcards, and sporting memorabilia. Not to mention all kinds of storage solutions, including albums, leaves, and protective card cases.
Don`t miss it - for it happens only once a year !!!!!
This week the diary came together well, and early, which does not mean I finish earlier, it just gives me more time for extra research. And to make lists, which I much enjoy. I also managed to use several readers cards that I had not come across before, which was great fun. But I waffle too long - it is time to introduce our stunning cast of characters ... which are - a master-stroke of magic, a leaded lie, a map maker, a gum chum, another Indian inheritance, fun and frolic, and a beer bonanza.
Let us, then, explore ....
Chocolats Felix POTIN [trade : chocolate : O/S - Paris, France] "Silhouettes" (19??) Un/??
.....and start with that master-stroke of magic, which is the #NationalDayOfSmokeAnd Mirrors.
Now if you look in a dictionary, for the most part, this gives a very matter of fact description, about creating a diversion to throw you off the truth. However, it has much more romantic origins than that, in the craft of magic, for both smoke and mirrors were used by magicians in order to obscure what was actually going on, whether this be the moving of a prop behind a obscuring screen of ghostly fog, or by tilting a mirror to make the item reflected in it disappear.
This celebration is always held on the 29th of March, but the why seems, fittingly, to be obscure. I did wonder if it was Houdini`s birthday, but that turned out to be on the 24th of March, and I spent ages looking up magicians, until eventually, I found one, an American escapologist and a magician, born Royden Joseph Gilbert Raison de la Genesta, on March the 29th, 1878. His stage name was "Genesta - The Wizard of Wonder", and he died, tragically, on November the 9th, 1930, whilst attempting to escape from a milk churn of water. It was a trick he had performed many times, but on this occasion his churn had been dropped and the incident gone unreported, so when he tried to get out of his secret escape hatch he found, too late, that he could not.
I do not imagine that he has anything to do with the day, but at least I found out about him, and will remember him in future.
Our first ever Felix Potin card was one of their black and white "Celebrites Contemporaines", of Lily Langtry, from the second series, issued in 1906. At that time I knew not of these postcards, and I was fascinated to find that they were sometimes used to advertise those black and white portrait cards - check out our Card of the Day for the 5th of March, 2025.
This card is very mysterious, as it is in silhouette, but it shows a magician, entertaining his audience, at some kind of rural fair. It is part of a set, too, all presumably being silhouettes of scenes within a golden border - but though they are very distinctive, so far we only know of :
- Le Magicien
- Voyez Terrasse 1 - and presumably Voyez Terrasse 2
And if you can add any, please do ...
Guerin-Boutron [trade : chocolate : O/S - Paris France] "Tom Tit - La Science Amusante" (1900) (1889) Un/84
If you think about it, the story of the pencil is pretty magical too, but with a twist, as we have always called it a "lead" pencil, when there is none of that substance there, it is made of graphite, or plumbago. This material is not just useful for leaving a mark on paper, it also conducts electricity, and is used in nuclear reactors to slow down the neutrons so that the chain reaction they instil can be more regulated.
Anyway, the reason for our celebration is that today, and every March 30th, is #NationalPencilDay.
The story of the pencil is quite fascinating, as it is the next stage in development from a brush - its name also refers to the fact that it is a single strand, like a one haired brush.
The first ever pencil was reputedly made in Italy, of wood, from a juniper bush, in 1560. It was actually triangular, and very close to what we now think of as a carpenter`s pencil. At that time they hollowed out the stick and pushed the thin writing material inside it, but I cannot imagine how, and neither could anyone else, because after that time the pencil was made by glueing two pieces of wood around the writing material - and this is still the way that pencils are produced.
This card shows a pencil being balanced on its point, and the whole set is filled with simple experiments that most children would enjoy recreating. There is something that may astound you too, though, for if you look at all the cards you will see the phrase "Tom Tit" - and this was a person, born Francois Caradec, who wrote a book in the year 1900 called "La Science Amusante - 100 Experiences de Physique" - which were also simple experiments in physics. So this set must have been issued in that year, when he was a household name. Not just this set, either, for it was issued by lots of other companies, including
- Yves Antoine, of Bruxelles, Belgium - Chocolat Antoine
- Aux Deux Passages (Department Store) - Lyon
- Beriot, of Lille - Chicoree Belle Jardiniere (chicory coffee)
- Chapu - Perles du Japon
- Hugon, of Paris - Chocolat Debauve & Gallet
- Favarger (chocolate) - Switzerland and France
- Francoise, Bordeaux (chocolate)
- Guerin Boutron (chocolate) - Paris
- A. Haquet, of Lille - La Sans Rival (chicory coffee) -
- Kabiline
- Lombart (chocolate)
- Felix Potin of Paris - (chocolate) - Paris
- Farine Mexicain
- L`Union, of Lyon (chocolate)
- Poulain (chocolate) -
- Protez-Delatre, of Cambrai (chicory coffee)
- Revillon (chocolate) -
- Societe Generale des Cirages Francais (beeswax polish)
- Vinay (chocolate)
- Williot Fils, of Poix du Nord, France (chicory coffee)
And here are all eighty four names....
- 3 bulles de savon dans une seule
- 16 allumettes enlevees avec un seule
- Abreuvoir pour volailles
- Boules magiques
- Chemins de fer Russes
- Couper une bouteille a hauteur voulue
- Courses de chevaux dans un bocal
- Danse du Papillons
- Dessin expeditif
- Dessous de plat Improvise
- Diviser un carre en cinq carres egaux
- Ecrire au dessiner de la main gauche
- Equilibre de la pelle et des pincettes
- Faire bouillir de l'eau en soufflant dessus
- Faire bruler on bougie dans un verre d`eau
- Faire valser un oueuf sur un plateau
- L`Anneau de papier
- L`Eau aussi forte qui la colle
- L`Ecriture sur la front
- L`Eteignoir automatique
- L`Etoile a 5 pointes
- L`hexagone construit d`un coup de poing
- La bougie & L`entonnoir
- La Bougie Flottant
- La coudee
- La cuillere reflecteure
- La danse des bulles de savon
- La glace depolie
- Lantern de voiture
- La piece dans la bouteille
- La piece echappe
- La poire coupee
- La surface de la sphere
- La toupie ebluissante
- Le bougeoir porte montre
- Le canif dans l`arbre
- Le clown culbuteur
- Le coup de canon
- Le crayon debout soir sa pointe
- Le dessin lineaire sans instruments
- Le double cone de carton remontant sur 2 cannes
- Le drapeau national
- Le flacon magique
- Le javelot magique
- Le jet d`eau dans le vide
- Le lavage d`or
- Le libre echange
- Le manche a balai
- Le merveilleuse adresse
- Le muguet Algerien
- Le papier electrise
- Le pendu
- Le pendule emouvant
- Le probleme des trois allumettes
- Le scieur de long
- Le sou sur la pointe d`une epingle
- Le toton dessinateur
- Le trace de l`oueuf
- Le verre de cristal
- Le verre enleve avec la main ouverte
- Les figures de cire
- Les trois des
- Les valseurs infatigables
- Niveau en carton
- Noir et blanc
- Oiseau sur la branche
- Ombres magiques
- Pantins vivants
- Percer une epingle avec une aiguille
- Percer un sou avec un aiguille
- Peser une lettre avec un manche à balai
- Pistolet a air comprime
- Poisson savant
- Poisson voyageur
- Sucre flottant sur L` eau
- Tracer un ovale avec un compas
- Transmission de la force a distance
- Transformation des bulles de savon
- Une course dans un verre de lampe
- Une drole de vielleuse
- Une echelle dans du flamme
- Un petit trou pour une grande piece
- Vaporisateur improvise
- Vider un verre d`eau avec une bouteille pleine
STOLLWERCK [trade : chocolate : O/S - Germany] "Beruhmte Niederlander"/"Famous Dutch People" (1908) Album 10 Gruppe 436 Carte V
Our next subject is not really anything to do with magic, it celebrates Rene Descartes, future philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, who was born today, the 31st of March, in 1596, at La Haye en Touraine, in France.
Now in case you, like me, wondered how he has ended up in this set, with Dutchmen :
- Rubens
- Van Dyck
- Rembrandt
- Ruisdael
- Descartes
- Spinoza
well that is because he spent much of his working life in the Dutch Republic, and even served in their army.
But I have skipped ahead, again. Just after his first birthday his mother died in childbirth. The child died too. His father, a member of Parliament, seems to have sent little Rene off to his grandmother. He, too, was a sickly child, so by the time he went to school he was quite grown up, but this worked well for him, as he was also more advanced in his understanding, so he really enjoyed the lessons, especially the mathematics and physics which his class mates did not take much interest in.
When he left school in 1614, his father wanted him to become a lawyer, and so he moved to Paris. However he found this dull, and wished, instead, to go to war, so much so that in 1618 he turns up recorded as being a mercenary in the Dutch States Army. Now today we think of a mercenary as being a man who fights for prizes and money, and, indeed, they are not even accorded the protection of the Geneva Convention - but in those days it seems to have been slightly different, and he was allowed to take proper classes in military lore and operations, eventually becoming a military engineer, in which his love of physics was tried and tested.
After he left the army he travelled, widely, and then returned to France, staying, for a while, in the town of his birth. He moved, for religous reasons, to the Netherlands, and found lodgings in Amsterdam, returning to University to study mathematics and astronomy. And he had a daughter, born in 1635. Unfortunately she died, aged just five. He seems to have kept friendly with the mother of his child, despite this, and she took him in when another religious inquisition swept the country.
All the time he was writing, and this led to fame, he even met the Queen of Sweden, and moved to that country late in 1649. The idea of this, or so he thought, was to give her regular lessons, but there was a bit of a misunderstanding, either with her, or him, and she only saw him a few times, often being too busy, or simply using that as an excuse. When they did meet, it was chaotic, and they did not get along, and the lessons soon broke up.
Not long after his arrival, he fell ill, and never seemed to recover completely. At the start of February 1650 this turned into pneumonia, and he died on the eleventh of that month, aged just fifty-three.
This is one of the few cards that exist of him, and the Trading Card Database/RD shows ours to be the only one to be issued before the twenty-first century. However there are other cards, we know he is two cards issued by Chocolat Poulain - No. 10 of"Divulgateurs de la Science", and No.34 of "Hommes Celebres" - as well as on an unnumbered card by Chocolaterie d`Aiguebelle, part of their "Serie les Sciences".
Wrigley [trade : gum : O/S - Germany] "Wrigley`s Lustige WM Teilnehmer" / "Wrigley`s Funny World Cup Teams" (1982) Un/24
Today in 1891 The Wrigley Co was founded in Chicago, Illinois, by William Wrigley Junior. He had been born in Philadelphia, and moved to Chicago with a dream - either to start, or enlarge, a business selling scouring soap, for both are reported.
For some reason, the soap did not sell so well, so he started giving things away if you bought it, starting, curiously, with baking powder. I suppose the link there was that both are to be used in the kitchen.
Anyway the soap still failed to sell in large quantities, but people asked to buy the baking powder, so he switched to selling that. However, just like the soap, there were lots of people selling baking powder, and probably in large enough quantities to under cut his price, so, again, he started to give things away to encourage its purchase, and, this time, he hit on giving away gum, to the children of the householder.
The gum really took off, so much so that he was able to concentrate on selling that, and make a really good living out of it - but he still gave away other things, both to householders, and to retailers, and if you hunt you can find a variety of postcards which show household objects on the front, mentioning the word "Wrigleys" - whilst on the back it tells you that if you buy so many boxes of the gum, all at once, you will get the item on the front for free.
- Amazon Lamp
- Angora Collarette and Muff
- Calendars (1922, 1923, 1924)
- Chenille Portieres (Curtains)
- Little Beauty Porcelain Clock
- Onyx Top Table
In 1921, he bought the Chicago Cubs, which we spoke of in an earlier newsletter.
He died in 1932, and his son took over.
This set was for the World Cup of 1982. The twenty-four cards, each of which shows a humorous depiction of a footballer from that country, are :
- Algerien
- Argentinien
- Belgien
- Brasilien
- Chile
- Deutschland
- El Salvador
- England
- Frankreich
- Honduras
- Italien
- Jugoslawien
- Kamerun
- Kuwait
- Neuseeland
- Nordirland
- Österreich
- Peru
- Polen
- Schottland
- Sowjetunion
- Spanien
- Tschechoslowakei
- Ungarn
There was no album, but there was a wallchart, the details of which, and how to obtain one, appear on the back of each sticker.
Colonial [trade : bread : O/S - USA] "Know Your 50 States" (1975) 46/50
Hooray, we have a centenary, plus something I mentioned a while ago, for today, in 1925, this flag was adopted as the State flag for Oklahoma, and it is one of only two which contain symbols from the Native American way of life
Before this it was a red flag with a star that had the number 46 inside it, for the simple fact that it was the forty-sixth state.
Colonial Bread is quite hard to find out about, but with dogged determination I have tracked down the fact that it was founded in 1928, and, strangely, in Oklahoma City, by a man called Carl Skogsberg. He seems to have opened this in conjunction with Mr. Win Campbell who founded his company in 1925 in Kansas City and his new partner A.L. Taggart, who joined together to make themselves into the Campbell-Taggart company just a short time before they met Mr. Skogsberg.
It seems that the Campbell-Taggart company supported lots of little bakeries, twenty of them by the mid 1930s, and was able to help them out by buying their materials and packaging in bulk. They also appear to have put the money in for Mr. Skogsberg`s premises.
In September 1949, Carl Skogsberg died, aged just fifty-five. Another man was put in charge, and in 1958 the company became known as Rainbo.
Today it is owned by Sara Lee, another early company, founded in 1935 - they bought it in 2001.
This set was inserted in the wrapper with loaves of bread and it is quite scarce today. It is a fascinating set though, well looking out for, as it is full of information. Also they have done it so that card number one is the first state ever to be one of the United States, that being Delaware - which is quite unusual.
Something else which I find unusual is that Oklahoma did not appear on a cigarette card for a very long time. The area made its first appearance in 1888, as part of Allen & Ginter`s "Flags of the States and Territories", but as "Indian Territory" - and so it remained until 1910, when the American Tobacco Company featured "Oklahoma" as one of their "Seals of the United States and Coat of Arms of All Countries of the World". Despite this, though, it still remains as "Indian Territory" into the 1920s, on F. & J. Smith`s "Nations of the World", simply because it was a reprint of Wills`s (etc) earlier set of "Time and Money".
Liebig [trade : meat extract : O/S - South America] "Distractions Mondaines du Temps Jadis"/"France in Olden Times" (19??) F.0703 : S.0702
Today, believe it or not, is World Party Day.
This actually comes from a book, written by an American novelist called Vanna Bonta. The book is entitled "Flight", and it ends with a huge party, right across the world, a kind of gentle party, that encourages peace and harmony - and that takes place on April the third.
Now I had never heard of the book, with apologies to the writer, but it seems to have taken off as an idea, and lots of people not only decided to immortalise it as a real day, but observe it.
Our delightful scene of three young ladies trying to tickle a gentleman with a feather has nothing to do with peace, but it is a simple little endeavour, and at least it is not (yet) a wild party of any kind. It is subtitled "Un Partie de Colin Maillard", which I presumed to be the name of the work and its painter, but actually in France what they call Colin-Maillard is what we call Blind Man's Buff.
The set was issued in other countries too, namely
- France - as "Distractions mondaines du temps jadis"
- Germany - as "Aus altfranzosischer zeit ted"
- Italy - as "In Francia ai tempi antichi"
The cards are :
- The dance - 1630
- A salon at Versailles - 1660
- Blind Man`s Buff - 1740
- The Guard of the Royal Palace - 1796
- Walking in the Wood - 1830
- At the Piano (no date given)
Biere d`Or [trade : beer : O/S - France] "Alphabet du Biere" (1930s?) Un/26
Our second centenary records the fact that today, in 1925, Western Australia voted against prohibition - the banning of beer and liquor.
Now prohibition is mostly associated with America, where it was made law in 1920 as the Volstead Act, also known as the Eighteenth Amendment. It was not entirely successful, and you could still buy alcohol in brick form, at chemists, which came with instructions telling you that if you followed them, and made beer, you would be acting illegally. And another problem was that for a long time, several states refused to obey Prohibition - these being Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin - though eventually all but Connecticut and Rhode Island did allow it.
In Australia, the first attempts to ban people from drinking had taken place in 1837 and it had only been for the native Australians By the 1850s, it had spread to temporary bans at the goldfields, to which an assemblage of bars and women soon flocked, and set up camps and establishments, in an attempt to make those who struck lucky in one way spend their money in another.
Later on there were four attempts to ban drink in Western Australia in its entirety, the first being in 1911, and the next ten years after. Neither of these were successful and nor was ours. They did actually try again in 1950 too.
This is a lovely card, and it does suggest that a whole alphabet is available, but they are quite hard to come by. They are pretty distinctive, with that golden yellow backdrop, which reflects the fact that the name translates to "golden beer", or, literally, "beer of gold".
Here we have the "V", which gives us a number of words and phrases associated with the letter V, in French anyway - these being, "You - Will Live - To a great age, in Full - Vigour, if - You take the - Invigorating - Biere d`Or".
Well that wasted a fair bit of time, but it was fun !
This week's Cards of the Day...
....closed out the month of March with a little celebration of some cards which we know were issued in that month.
And we even managed to use two of them as our clue cards - on which note, if you want to see the full list of March issues, nip along to our calendar blog, and scroll on down.
Saturday, 22nd March 2025
This was the odd man out, the only set not to have been issued in March, but our man, Didier Yves Drogba Tebily, fits the bill nicely, as he was born, at Abidjan, in the beautiful Ivory Coast, on the 11th of March, 1978.
Quite a lengthy name for this set - and a lengthy set too, with almost six hundred and fifty stickers!
But wait, because you can actually also get every card with a blue back, which says, right at the bottom, "Made in Brazil", instead of our "Made in Italy".
And that is not all, for there are twenty four black back cards which are billed as "Tournament Tracker" cards, which were used to complete the wall-chart. They fitted around the edge, in the black spaces with the large initials, whilst in the middle were spaces for you to write in the winning teams from the second round matches onwards. However the wall-chart seems to have only had a very limited run, and few of them seem to have more than a handful of stickers stuck into place.
To save you counting, all that makes a total of almost thirteen hundred cards, if you want to "collect them all".... And an awful lot of empty packets, as there were only eight stickers in each!
To the football, the final was played in Johannesburg, at "Soccer City", and it saw Spain beat the Netherlands by scoring one goal in extra time. Our man actually captained his home team, Ivory Coast, but they only came seventeenth.
Sunday, 23rd March 2025
Our first card to have been issued in this month, but also we included it for its military meaning, as this fine man is on a march.
Or march-ing, anyway.
The caption in the middle on this card is rather hard to see, even on the cards themselves, but it reads ""The moment the order came to go forward, there were smiling faces everywhere." Extract from letter written in the trenches of the Aisne by General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien".
He seems to have been a sensible man, and is reported to have said before the actual outbreak of hostilities "that war should be avoided at almost any cost, that war would solve nothing, that the whole of Europe and more besides would be reduced to ruin, and that the loss of life would be so large that whole populations would be decimated."
From the back of our card we find out that the original poster was printed for the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee by the Haycock-Cadle Co. London S.E. - who also printed other posters that were reproduced for this set, namely "Come along Boys", and "There is still a place in the line for you". They also printed other military and recruiting posters, but I have not found much about them.
The Parliamentary Recruiting Committee is easier to find. This was a group of thirty people who were under the direct supervision of the War Office, recruited once it was obvious that not enough men were signing up voluntarily to go to war. Their first idea was to give away small posters in the street, but when this was not met with a large enough response, they started to make larger posters and display them in prominent places. This had a twofold effect, firstly the posters could not be screwed up and thrown away, but secondly, if a man was out with his girl or his wife, maybe even his children, he might be shamed into joining up if they commented. Another scheme was to produce posters for rallies, at which many men could sign up all at once, and on the spot, without the thinking time, or the having to go and find somewhere locally to do so.
You can see the development of the poster on these cards. The ones which were earliest were just lettering, no pictures, and these were enlarged versions of those small flyers that had been pressed into the hand of any man that walked past. As time went by they grew much more elaborate, and used other tactics, including the mention of atrocities, in an attempt to rouse the anger and desire to avenge.
Eventually the poster campaign was subtly changed, after a bit of a backlash, and also due to the arrival of conscription in 1916. Once there was no, or little escape, they concentrated on encouraging women to join up and replace the men, and on what would later be called "The Home Front", ways you could help the war effort, by not wasting food or materials, and by buying government stock, known as War Bonds.
Despite its early date of issue, this set waits right until RB.14 – "The Cigarette Card Issues of W.D. & H.O. Wills Parts I and II (revised) and Part III" - to make an appearance, and that booklet was not published until 1949. Its entry is worth waiting for though, as it is revealed that there is more than one issue, which are described as :
92. RECRUITING POSTERS. Unnumbered. Fronts printed by letterpress in colour. Issued 1914-15.
HOME ISSUE : -
A. Series of 12. Backs in grey, with details of publisher of poster. First words of poster : -
- Another Call
- Come Along Boys !
- "Fall In"
- Follow me !
- He did his duty ...
- Line up, Boys !
- Rally Round the Flag
- Remember Belgium
- There is still a Place ...
- The "Scrap of Paper"
- Think !
- What in the end ...
AUSTRALIAN ISSUE :-
B. Series of 10. Backs per Fig. 52, in mauve, with quotations from speeches, etc, ; each card is found with two different backs. Anonymous issue.First words of Poster Backs
- A Call from the Dardanelles ... (a) In every man`s life ...
(b) In this country ...- (*) Another Call ... (a) He was there ...
(b) Napoleon had said- (*) Come Along Boys ... (a) He was present
(b) Was it unreasonable ...- Enlist (a) Every one of the lists...
(b) The gallant soldiers ...- Halt ! Who Goes There ? (a) Reinforcements are ...
(b) Some men ...- (*) Remember Belgium (a) He made an ...
(b) It was Paramount...- The Empire Needs Men (a) Britain, while ...
(b) Pensions- (*) There is still a Place ... (a) The clarion call ...
(b) Rates of Pay.- (*) Think ! (a) Rates of Pay
(b) Service Conditions- What Will Your Answer Be (a) Probably ...
(b) He was now ...(*) Similar fronts to Home Issue, but redrawn
Now the printing date for the Australian version is not recorded in the Wills "Works" magazine, so these cards must have been printed locally in Australia. We know that the original posters of
By the time of our original World Tobacco Issues Index, the two versions were forever parted.
The Home issue was recorded in section two of the Wills` listing, under sub section 2.A, for "Issues 1902 - 1917", and appears as simply :
RECRUITING POSTERS. Sm. Unnd. (12) See W/92.A ... W62-99
The Australian issue appears at the back of the book, under "Anonymous Issues (1) - with Letterpress on Back" and sub section 2.B.b, which covers "Issues 1905-17" and "Overseas Issues Through British American Tobacco." It is recorded there as :
RECRUITING POSTERS. Sm. 65 x 35. Unnd. (10) Each subject found with two back wordings. See W/92.B. Issued in Australia ... ZB4-30
The text in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index remains the same in both these cases , but the codes are changed, our Home issue to W675-132, and the Australian version to ZB04-690
We must add that the Home issue was reprinted in 1987/88 by Victoria Gallery.
Monday, 24th March 2025
This card is another of our March issues, but there is another connection with the month, as it is when this fine butterfly first begins its flights.
This set is recorded in our original reference book to the issues of John Player, RB.17, published in 1950, as :
37. BUTTERFLIES. Fronts in colour. Backs in grey. Home issue. March 1932, with special album.
- A. Small cards, backs with descriptive text
- B. Small transfers, backs with descriptions for use
This is slightly shortened in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, to :
BUTTERFLIES. Sm. Nd. (50) ... P72-74
- A. Cards
- B. Transfers. Special booklet issued.
The text in our updated version is exactly the same, but there is a new card code, of P644-156.
Now we featured the transfers in a previous newsletter, dated for the 15th of July 2022, and so if you want to read about why the booklet is only mentioned with them, nip off and visit that - though you will need to scroll down to Sunday the 17th of July.
And actually finding the album led to several discoveries about this set, none of which are evident from the cards.
There was also another discovery, because if you look at John Player`s "British Butterflies", the large sized set showing here, they use almost the same picture of this dashing Red Admiral as card 20/25 - except for the removal of the ghostly butterfly that clings to the thistle furthest right on our card. They also, and even more amazingly, use the same text, all apart from the last few lines, where this large sized "British Butterflies" ends with the more expansive : "It is a strong flier, and is to be seen on the wing far later in the day than the majority of our butterflies. The Red Admiral measures about two and a quarter inches across the wings." - and our card ends with the much shorter : "It is a strong flier and is often seen in and near large towns".
As we do not appear to have featured this set yet, I will also add the entry for that, extracted from our original John Player reference book. That reads :
31. 25. BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. Large cards. Fronts in colour. Backs in grey, with descriptive text. Home issue, January 1934.
This was almost two years after our set. I have not yet compared the fronts of those twenty-five larger cards, but will asap. I also wonder if there are only twenty five British and twenty five Foreign butterflies in our set of fifty cards, and, if, so, whether it was planned to issue a set of large cards of the Foreign ones as well, but, for whatever reason, this was not done.
Tuesday, 25th March 2025
Here we have the badge of The Royal Flying Corps, which non military collectors may think a bit odd in a set called "Army Badges of Rank" - but The Royal Flying Corps, founded in 1912, was indeed actually part of the British Army, and its early wartime service entirely geared into supporting the Army on the ground, noting any locations of moving or gathering enemy forces, and taking aerial photographs.
At that time there was only the Army and the Navy, no separate Air Force - that only happened on the first of April, 1918, when the Army`s Royal Flying Corps was merged with the Navy`s Royal Naval Air Service in order to form The Royal Air Force.
This badge was only given to pilots who had proved their skills at flying, and were therefore qualified to wear it. This is where we get the phrase "earning your wings".
The wings curve because they are based on the wings of a swift, one of the best fliers of all birds, and one which, amazingly, leaves its nest and remains in the air for three years, during which it eats, and sleeps whilst flying. This is mainly because it cannot perch or walk very easily. It only comes back to land at the age of three, in order to breed, and it lays its eggs almost on the same spot as it broke from its shell.
The Royal Air Force were not impressed with this romantic idea, and once they were born they changed the shape of the wings, to those of an eagle. The other change was in the lettering, which went from RFC to RAF. After that, the only change came in the 1950s, when the King`s crown on the top was changed to the Queen`s crown for Queen Elizabeth II. And now, once more, it carries the crown of a King, King Charles III.
Now this card is definitely the "odd man out" - as the other twenty-four of the cards are almost identical, being sleeves of uniforms, with the rank markings sewn in place, as showing here.
There is a slight difference, if you look closely, for some of them show the bottom of the sleeve, whilst others show the shoulder - and that purely depends on where the rank depicted wears their insignia - but they are all sleeves, and nothing else.
The only exception to this is our card, which, firstly, shows the badge all alone - and secondly, is the only card in a horizontal format.
The only thing we do not know is why. There is a suggestion that this is because the RFC wings were not worn on the arm, but on the front of the tunic, but a three quarter view of the badge, on the tunic, would still have fitted in way better with the rest of the cards.
Anyway, this set first appears in our original Churchman reference book, RB.10, published in 1948, as :
6. Mar. 1916. 25. ARMY BADGES OF RANK (titled series). Size 2 11/16" x 1 7/16" or 68 x 36 m/m. Unnumbered. Fronts lithographed in colour. Backs in brown, no descriptions, except for 4 cards marked *. Printed by Mardon, Son & Hall.
Numbered below for convenience, titles taken from picture side of card.
- Colonel
- Lieutenant-Colonel
- Major
- Captain
- Lieutenant
- Second Lieutenant
- Colonel, Highland Regt.
- Lieut. Col,. Highland Regt.
- Major, Highland Regt.
- Captain, Highland Regt.
- Lieutenant, Highland Regt.
- 2nd Lieut., Highland Regt.
- (*) Warrant Officers, Class I (Crown in Wreath)
- (*) Warrant Officers, Class I (Royal Arms)
- (*) Warrant Officers, Class II
- Assist. Instruc., Signalling
- Serj.-Maj., Gymnastic Staff
- Serj.-Maj., Sch. of Musketry
- Master-Gunner, 1st class
- Master-Gunner, 2nd class
- Master-Gunner, 3rd class
- Battery Q.M. Serjeant
- (*) Serjeant
- Infantry Pioneer
- Roy. Flying Corps Qual. Pilot
This is understandably much shortened in our World Tobacco Issues Index, to just :
ARMY BADGES OF RANK. Sm. Unnd. (25). See RB.10/6 ... C82-11
Whilst the entry in our updated version reads just :
ARMY BADGES OF RANK. Sm. Unnd. (25). ... C504-180
Wednesday, 26th March 2025
Our next set, another March issue, is very intriguing, for it was issued a fair few years after the end of the First World War, in the mid nineteen-twenties, when the true cost of the war, in monetary, and human costs, was well known and any enthusiasm for such a thing had definitely ended. Maybe that is why the second series is of a hundred cards? All this makes me think that it was designed to be issued during that war, but either through paper restrictions, or whatever, it was readied but never circulated - then, after the war, it was found, and decided that it should not be wasted.
This is backed up by the fact that all the first sets that John Player issued after the war were re-issues. The first of all was "Counties and Their Industries", originally circulated in 1914, and re-issued in November 1919. Others were :
- Artillery in Action", extra large - printed in 1917, a few cards of which, somehow, made it into packets before anyone noticed, but then were kept, to finally be released in May 1920.
- "Cries of London", the second standard-sized series - printed in 1916, again had a few released, and then the issue was shelved until 1922.
- "British Livestock," extra large size - originally issued in May 1916, then reprinted with blue, not brown backs, and circulated in January 1923
- "Players Past and Present, standard size - originally issued in June 1916, then reissued in May 1923, with a few adjustments, caused by the deaths of some of the subjects
- "Miniatures" - standard size - printed in June 1916, again had a few released, then were circulated from June 1923.
- "Characters from Dickens", extra large size, originally issued in June 1914, reprinted for circulation in June 1923.
In our original reference book to the issues of John Player, RB.17, published in 1950, this group is listed as follows :
ARMY, CORPS & DIVISIONAL SIGNS, 1914-1918. Small cards. Fronts in colour. Backs in grey, with descriptive text. Home issues.
13. 50. A Series of 50. Numbered 1-50. Issued March, 1924. Two back printings.
A. Reversed letter panel "John Player & Sons" joining vertical frame-lines.
B. With a fractional white space between the above panel and the framelines
Varieties - Nos. 13 and 36 are known with "Player`s Cigarettes", etc, omitted from front of cards.14. 100. 2nd Series. 51-150. Issued February, 1925.
So there is a little explanation needed of some of this. Firstly, what is meant by "Reversed letter panel" is that the letters are printed in white on a coloured ground, and not that the letters are back to front. Secondly, the "fractional white space" means that sometimes this panel mentioned above extends right to the lines that makes up the frame round the text, and sometimes there is a thin vertical line of white between the panel and the frame. And to save you looking it up as well, card 13 is "The Guards Division", with the eye in the shield, and card 36 is the "47th London Division", with a white flower made of diamonds. I have looked at quite a few of these online and have not yet found any without the wording.
In our World Tobacco Issues Index, the description above is much truncated, though, to be fair, it was only issued six years after the John Player one, and it was still well in stock and easy to buy. It appears as :
ARMY, CORPS & DIVISIONAL SIGNS, 1914-1918. Sm. ... P72-62
- "A Series of 50". Nd 1-50.
A. Back with base panel joining vertical framelines.
B. Back with fractional space between the above- "2nd Series. 51-150". (100)
This text remains more or less the same in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, apart from the excision of the word "Nd", and, of course, a new code, which is P644-134
This regiment, the 21st Corps, was formed in Palestine in August 1917 and was commanded by Lieutenant General Sir Edward Stanislaus Bulfin, who had been at the first Battle of Ypres, on the Western Front, fought in October and November of 1914, as well as the second Battle of Ypres, in April and May of 1915, during which tear gas was deployed to devastating effect. He was badly affected by this, and had to leave France and recuperate in England, and, though he did return to the Western Front in 1916, it was not for long, before he was sent to a more suitable, hotter climate, in Palestine, as the commander of XXI Corps. This card tells us that "All its War Service was with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force" and, that when the war ended, it was occupying Beirut and Tripolis.
As for the green, and for the shamrock, this, on the card, is cited as being a "four leafed shamrock, for luck". But there is another reason too, because the commander was Irish, born in Rathfarnham, County Dublin, on the 6th of November 1862. And that made him in his fifties at the Battle of Ypres.
Thursday, 27th March 2025
Here we have a most unusual sight, a cannon ball used as a door knocker. However, it does not appear to be on the main gate to the castle, as the card twlls us it is "on an old wicket-gate at Chepstow Castle" -though it must be a string gate as it also says it is "an ancient cannonball suspended on two massive links" - and cannonballs are supremely heavy.
Chepstow Castle has rather a history of attack and repel, so such a militaristic thing is apt. It dates from the time of the Normans, and they left it only to conquer, all about, even Gwent, in South Wales.
It is in a grand location, atop a spur of rock, with high cliffs to one side and a deep ravine to the other - routes by which you would imagine there would be little chance of getting up and across to the castle. Though it was captured, during the English Civil War, and, afterwards, was used as a prison, including for the politician Henry Marten, who died there in 1680, and who is still supposed to wander there, to this day, in ghostly form.
I am sure I have used a card from this set before, but cannot track it down. Anyway as I work back through the newsletters I will find it, and one of them will be replaced.
The set first appears in our reference book to the issues of W.A. & A.C. Churchman, RB.10, published in 1948, as :
78. Mar.1928. INTERESTING DOOR KNOCKERS (titled series). Size 2 11/16" x 1 7/16" or 67 x 36 m/m. Numbered 1-25. Fronts printed by letterpress, 4-colour half-tone process. Backs in dark green, with descriptions. Printed by Mardon, Son & Hall.
In our original World Tobacco Issues Index this is shortened, to just :
INTERESTING DOOR KNOCKERS. Sm. Nd. (25) ... C82-56
The only change to this in our updated version of that book is with the code, which now reads C504-530
Friday, 28th March 2025
Here we have another March set, our last of the week, and it shows Mr. Dumkins, "March"ing to the wicket, to take part in a cricket match between his side, Muggleton, and that of Dingley Dell.
I am very pleased to show this card, because there are almost certainly cricket collectors who formerly had no idea that this card of the sport was out there
This set is part of another huge group, so if you want to read more about all the versions, just nip along to its home page, with our Card of the Day for the 24th of December 2021, which holds the details of all the sets and linking out to where the various versions are featured.
The first time our part of the group is recorded is in our original reference book to the issues of John Player & Sons, as :
47. CHARACTERS FROM DICKENS. Drawn by "Kyd" (J. Clayton Clarke). Fronts in colour.Backs in grey, with descriptive text. Home issues.
- B. 25 Small cards, "2nd Series of 25". Numbered 26-50. Issued October 1912
Now in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, this is all changed, and the group split up. The B identifying letter code given above is also, oddly, different too. The main reason for this is the dates of issue, as not only are the pre-First World War cards are in one section, and the post-War in another, but the first two sets of twenty-five and the extra large set are now listed together, in section 2.A, for cards issued between 1903 and 1917 - as :
CHARACTERS FROM DICKENS. See RB.17/47 and H.348 ... P72-25
- A. Small (50) - (1) "A Series of 25". (2) "2nd Series of 25". Nd 26-50.
- B. Extra large. Unnd (10)
This remains the same in our updated version of the World Tobacco Issues Index, except for the removal of the RB.17 references, and a new code, of P644-060