Newsletter - 2025-05-10

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W.A. & A.C. Churchman [tobacco : UK] "Air Raid Precautions" - overseas issue (August 1938) 11/48 : C504-405 : C82-93 : C/5 (RB.10/5)  Ha.544 : H.544

Today in 1941 the Palace of Westminster was badly damaged in an Air Raid, after a rain of incendiary and high-explosive bombs was dropped.

The main culprit in the damage was these incendiaries, which consisted of a tube shaped body of magnesium alloy, packed with thermite, a curious combination of an oxide of one, more stable metal, combined with a more easily combustible substance. This tube ended with a tail, which was riveted on and was designed to aid its direction after the bomb was released into the air. 

We call them bombs, but they were technically not, as they did not explode. Instead they touched down, and a quite complex chain of events started to take place, firstly the impact of landing drove a thin spike into a percussion cap, and that ignited the thermite filling. That would blaze away, getting ever hotter, and it quickly melted the alloy casing, at which point the fire was released on to its surroundings. The "best" result was if it hit carpets, curtains, or soft furnishings and upholstery, which definitely proves that it was at least partially designed as a weapon against civilians, and homes. 

This is what happened on that night, and in this blaze the House of Commons Chamber was totally destroyed, with the fire being so fierce that it spread to the Member`s Lobby, pulling down the ceilings as it went, whilst the House of Lords Chamber, Westminster Hall and even the Clock Tower were damaged. 

The bombs were relatively small, and light, and you could fit a lot of them into an aeroplane. And though we speak of the German version attempting to destroy the Houses of Parliament, the British used them too, with devastating effect on cities such as Dresden. 

Now we have an ever-growing blog on this set, all its variations, and the several other issuers, so here we will only discuss this one.

It first appears in our original 1948 Churchman reference book, RB.10, which lists two sets, the home issue of November 1938 and our issue, which, strangely, was earlier than the home issue. It does not really work unless I list both sets, so here they are: 

• 4. November 1938. 48 AIR RAID PRECAUTIONS (titled  series). Size 2 7/10” x 2 1/10” or 68 x 53 m/m. Numbered 1-48. Fronts printed by letterpress 4-colour halftone process. Backs printed in dark green, with descriptions, album clause and I.T.C. clause. Printed by Mardon, Son and Hall. 
  
  - see https://csgb.co.uk/publications/newsletter/2023-02-25
  
   
• 5. August 1938. AIR RAID PRECAUTIONS. Identical to (4) but omitting album and I.T.C. clauses. Overseas issue. 

The World Tobacco Issues Index splits these up, moving the export issue to section three of the Churchman listings, which cover "Export issues without I.T.C. Clause. Issued 1937-39 through B.A.T. in Channel Islands, Malta, and British Garrisons overseas. All series are similar to the corresponding Home Issue under Section 2.B." . The entry reads; 

• AIR RAID PRECAUTIONS. Md. Nd. (48). See Ha.544 – C82-93

And it remains the same in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, just with a new code, of C504-730. The "H" code diverts you to the handbooks, where all the issuers are detailed. And you can see that, plus lots more information, at our blog page called A for Air Raid Precautions

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W.D. & H.O. Wills [tobacco : UK - Bristol] "The Evolution of the British Navy" (1910-15) 2/25 - W675-578 : W62-411 : W/197 [RB.16/197]

This one is an odd one, for it is recorded that today in 973 saw the first Coronation of King Edgar the Peaceful, and his wife/Queen Aelfthryn.

Well, this may have been a Coronation, but it was not the first, and it took place at Bath, in itself an unusual place, for Kings were, at that time, usually crowned at Kingston, hence the name, King`s Stone. 

After this second Coronation, Edgar and his Navy went to Chester, and met with some other Kings, the amount varies, and in order to prove that their fortunes and fates would henceforth be bound together, the other Kings put muscle to oar and rowed him along the river, as he symbolically held the rudder to show he was in charge of steering the country.

You can see that on Wills "Historic Events", card 6, titled "Eight Princes Rowing King Edgar down the Dee".  They also expand on the story, by saying "Shortly after the Coronation of King Edgar, at Bath, in 973, that Monarch visited Chester. Tradition relates that on this occasion the King was rowed on the Dee from Chester to the Minster of St. John, by three Kings - Kenneth of Scotland, Malcolm of Cumberland, Maccus of the Isles - and five Welsh Princes."

Our card tells us that there was also another reason for the rowing, as King Edgar was besotted by boats. The text tells us that "The old historian William of Malmesbury mentions that King Edgar I had a huge fleet of no less than 3,600 ships, which were divided into 3 fleets, in which this King took an active personal interest..."

Oddly, comparing the two cards seems to show the same carved front to both vessels, a serpent`s head - yet the boat on our card seems considerably larger, looking at the surroundings. 

Now for the reason behind the fact there were two Coronations. It all stems from the fact that King Edmund died in office in 955, and two men claimed to be his successor. One was our man, Edgar, and the other was someone called Eadwig, and, though it is seldom reported, they were not only actually brothers, but they were the two sons of King Edmund, newly deceased.. Anyway after several years of wrangling and kvetching, it was agreed that the country would be split in half level with the Thames, and they could both be King of a part of it, Eadwig getting the southern half and Edgar the northern. Eadwig then died, in 959, and Edgar took over his lands to the North. Then, in 973, he was proclaimed King of all England.

The one thing I have not yet discovered is why that took so long.

As for our set, its first appearance comes in our reference book RB.16 – The Cigarette Card Issues of W.D. & H.O. Wills Parts I, II, and III (revised) and Part IV, which was published in 1950. It is catalogued there as :

• 197. 25. THE EVOLUTION OF THE BRITISH NAVY. Fronts lithographed in colour. Backs in black, with descriptive text, inscribed "Series No.1". General Overseas issue, between 1910-1915. 

And to save you asking, there was no series two, though it is possible at that date that it was shelved by the arrival of the First World War. The date is a guess, for this set was one of the ones not listed in the Wills Works Magazine, so it was printed at the site of issue, not in London, then shipped over. And that probably also explains the strange format of the back design.

What we do know comes from our reference book to B.A.T., where, in the front index, it states : 

• The Evolution of the British Navy (1915 - Malaya, Malta) ... W/197 

By the time of our original World Tobacco Issues Index the set is recorded under section 5 of the Wills listings, for "Other Export Issues. Cards without I.T.C. Clause , issued through B.A.T Small size 67-68 x 36 m/m and inscribed "W.D. & H.O. Wills" unless stated." and in subsection 5.A, for "English Language Issues, 1901-1917. Issued chiefly in Channel Islands, Malta, India and Malaya". The description of our set reads :

• THE EVOLUTION OF THE BRITISH NAVY. Sm. 64 x 37. Nd. (25) ... W62-411

And this remains the same in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, save the relocation to section 6 - in order to accommodate sets which were produced and circulated by Wills in the 1960s-1980s - and the card code, which is now W675-578

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Red Man [tobacco : O/S - USA] "Major League All Stars" (1954) 20/52 - T.234 

This card celebrates the birth of this man, Lorenzo Pietro Berra - yet, as he was born today in 1925, it is also a centenary card. 

As you can see on the card, he was a baseball player, specifically a catcher, who caught the ball in his leather glove, or mitt. He later became a manager and then a coach, and  he was most associated with the New York Yankees.

Before all that, though, he had only just signed with the Yankees, in 1943, before he was sent off to war, right into the heat of battle, including taking part in the Normandy landings as a Seaman second class, and gunner, on a landing craft, seeing service on at least two of the beaches, and maybe more, we will never really know because his military records were destroyed in a fire, along with those of many other service personnel. All we do know is that he was wounded, and awarded the Purple Heart.

That sounds life altering enough, but wait - for by the time he had been demobbed, returned home, and baseball had dusted itself off after its enforced retirement and resumed in the autumn of 1946, he was still only twenty-one years old.  

He was married three years later, and had three sons, all of whom were keen and talented sportsmen. His wife died in 2014, and he died eighteen months later, in his sleep. 

There are many biographies of him online, but I have picked the one at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center website, which is a fascinating read, with many personal pictures - and the museum owns much of his memorabilia. 

To close, it took a while to find out why he was known as "Yogi". Apparently it was given him by a friend when he was still a teen, playing in American Legion baseball, And reputedly it was because when our man sat dejectedly waiting to go out on the field, or after a less than successful game, he would sit with his arms and legs crossed, just like an Indian mystic, or master of yoga, meditating. 

This card was issued with chewing tobacco, and the set was the first national issue of baseball cards by any form of tobacco company since the 1920s. However it was on rather rough card, so rough that I presumed it to be a package issue, especially as some cards I saw whilst trying to research this one had dotted lines at the base. That mystery was cleared up when I discovered that the cards originally had a section below the image. These are known as "the tabs" and cards with them are worth more. However they are hard to find, as if you sent fifty of these tabs up to Red Man, they would send you back a baseball cap, from the team of your choice. And you can tell how many baseball caps were distributed by the fact that they changed the system for the three sets which followed - these were then numbered on both the tab and on the card that was left after the tab had been removed. 

The set of fifty-two cards is made up of the best twenty-five players in each league (not sure yet how these were chosen) plus two cards that show the managers of the two teams that were up for the World Series - Casey Stengel for the New York Yankees and Leo Durocher for the New York Giants. .

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Willi STUNINGS [trade : motor parts : OS - Krefeld, Germany] "Das Kraftfahrzeug" / "The Motor Car" (1950) Serie C Gruppe 2 No.1213/1500? 

Still with sport, today in 1950 saw the first Formula One Grand Prix, at Silverstone. 

Of course there was motor racing before, and Grand Prix, way back as far as the 1920s, but what are considered as the origins of Formula One began only in 1946, when the Federation Internationale de l`Automobile rejigged the many assorted rules throughout the many variants of motor racing and made one set of official rules. This was then followed by the staging of a World Championship of Drivers, which took place in 1950, starting with our race. However it was imagined all the way through the rule wranglings that the top classification of this would be Formula A, not Formula One - that was only decided on during the early months of 1950. 

Our race was to be known as The Royal Automobile Club Grand Prix d'Europe Incorporating The British Grand Prix, and it was the fifth British Grand Prix, the first being held in 1926 at Brooklands, which was also the course of choice the following year. Then it was not held until after the end of the Second World War, in 1948, at which point it relocated to Silverstone - but there had therefore been two before our race of today took place. 

That race was won by Emilio Giuseppe "Nino" Farina, in an Alfa Romeo, and his two stablemates, Luigi Fagioli and Reg Parnell brought their Alfa Romeos over the line in, respectively, second and third places. 

Now our card is a bit of a tangent, for it is car 42, and the photo comes from the 1946 Turin Grand Prix - but it was driven to victory in that event by our winner today, Emilio Giuseppe "Nino" Farina. And time was running out, so I grasped this and held firm.

Plus there are many people who completely discount the 1950 British Grand Prix as being the first Formula One race, saying that the rules were already pretty much firmed into cement by the time that racing resumed in 1946 with the Turin Grand Prix, and that from then on until the end of 1950 that not a single alteration was made to them.

Though all agree that the British Grand Prix of 1950 was the first to call the classification as Formula One. 

As for the card, confusion reigns. "Wistu" is often quoted as the maker, maybe because it is at the top of the card, but that just means knowledge. And as far as the bottom, there was not a whiff of Willi Stunings in our World Tobacco Issues Index, which led me to suspect straight away that it was a trade issue, hence a dead end, for few books of German trade cards seem to exist. However if you translate all the wording it says that Willi Stunings was a firm that made car parts, specifically gauges and electronics. The text also tells us that this set is issued in sections, covering different ages and types of vehicles, including motorbikes. So one day there may be a checklist of those groups and what they cover. 

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Orientalischen Tabak- und Zigarettenfabrik "YENIDZE" [tobacco : O/S - Dresden, Germany] "Die Welt in Bildern" (1930) Serie 2, Bilder 3 -  Y260-800 : Y6-1 : X24/.8.J 

Back into the past now, with this portrait, "The Blue Boy" by Thomas Gainsborough, who was baptised today in 1727. 

We know that he was born at Sudbury in Suffolk, and that his father John was a weaver, whilst his mother, Mary, was the daughter of a local Reverend, after whom one of Thomas` brothers was christened. However the fact that his baptism is recorded, and on a Wednesday, inevitably means that his actual date of birth is not. However we do know that the practise, especially in rural areas was simply to ensure a child was baptised before the next Sunday came along. And if we look at Thomas Gainsborough`s parentage, on his mother`s side, perhaps his baptism was much closer to the birth than many. 

He was very young when it was noticed that he was a talented artist, and he attempted his first self portrait aged just ten. he was thought to be worthy of improving, and so in 1740, aged just thirteen, he went to study art in London, ostensibly to be trained by Hubert Francoise Gravelot, but spending more time in the more raucous company of William Hogarth. Some say that he was also allowed to infill some of Hogarth`s works, to a greater or lesser extent.

However this way of life seems to have ended when Thomas Gainsborough met Margaret Burr, the natural daughter of the Duke of Beaufort. She seems to have settled him down, though there are suspicions that he only married her because her father was supporting her, and giving her £200 a year - a sum which equates to almost £37,500 today. It is also known that Thomas Gainsborough`s own paintings of the time were usually landscapes, and had not been selling well, though his expenses in the hunt of pleasure were pretty hefty.

He managed to convince her to move to Suffolk, two years after they were wed, and had the idea of painting portraits of local nobility, etc. By 1752 he had two daughters, and the family moved to Ipswich. The idea of painting the nobility had not worked out, and though he had commissions, they were mainly the clergy, merchants, and gentlemen farmers, not the higher end he had hoped for. His next plan was to move to a more affluent area, and he chose Bath, somehow, and we do not know how, moving into a grand house which was part of "The Circus", a very sought after address to this day. Perhaps because of this he did start getting better clients.

Shortly after this he joined the Society of Artists of Great Britain, and decided to send a painting up to their annual exhibition. Within ten years he was a founder member of the Royal Academy, and also exhibited with them. This also increased his clientele, but a few years after there was some kind of falling out, and he no longer sent them works.

In between, though, he had developed what would become his style, incorporating landscape with portraiture. It appears that this gave him the best of both worlds, he enjoyed painting the landscape, and the portrait made the money, from the person depicted. 

Our portrait is unusual, as it seems that the blue boy never existed, though many art critics have attempted to connect him with people of the time, without success. It is also said to resemble another painting, a double portrait by Anthony Van Dyck, using parts of both the boys, so perhaps it was even a test piece to practise the skill of combining the two genres, landscape and portrait, and we know that it was one of the first of his works of this kind, if not the first.

We also know that it was sold to a Mr. Buttall, a merchant, whose son was long suspected to be the model, then passed through several hands until 1921, when it was bought by Henry Edward Huntington and shipped to California, where it remains to this day.

As far Gainsborough, he eventually moved to London, and did gain considerable fame in his lifetime, but died of cancer aged just sixty-one.

Our card actually fills a important gap in our knowledge and our depiction of this set and all its varieties, which are combined and discussed on a homepage which you can find with our Card of the Day for the 2nd of February, 2022.

The important bit regarding our issuer is that they only ever did this one set, and only the first part of it, just 144 cards. All the other issuers, nine of them, published more than one part of the set, to a maximum of one thousand four hundred and twenty cards (that being the total issued by Josetti, Manoli and Salem).

Our issuer appears in our original World Tobacco Issues Index as : 

Orientalischen Tabak- und Zigarettenfabrik "YENIDZE", Dresden, Germany
German language issue, period 1928-1942. Special album issued. 

• Die Welt Im Bildern (The World in Pictures). Sm. 58 x 40. Nd. Serie 1/24 (144). See X24/.8.J ... Y6-1

This is slightly different in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, where the entry reads : 

Orientalischen Tabak- und Zigarettenfabrik "YENIDZE", Dresden, Germany
German language issue, period 1928-1942. Associated with Salem. Special album issued. 

• DIE WELT IM BILDERN (The World in Pictures). Sm. 58 x 40. Nd. Serie 1/24 (144) ... Y260-800

Now Salem were also in Dresden, and also issued this set; in fact, as we discussed earlier, they were one of three companies who circulated the entire set, of one thousand four hundred and twenty cards.

Whilst I hunt the link between Salem and Yenidze, take a look at the reverse of this card, at the building in the small circular image, and you may think this a mosque, purely designed to symbolise the "Orientalischen" of the company name. However, this is actually the silhouetted skyline of the Yenidze Cigarette Factory, and it still survives, though it was damaged during the horrendous bombing of Dresden by Allied forces, and then suffered years of neglect and emptiness. Recent and sympathetic renovations have now found it a new purpose, as offices.

The company was started by a Jewish man called Hugo Zietz, in order to import tobacco from Greece. The place that the tobacco came from, Yenidze, gave him the company name. The building was designed to support the Oriental connection, as well as to get around planning law which forbade too many factories. Construction in 1907, and it took two years to build, most of which was spent sourcing the tiles to cover it, plus making the six hundred windows, and fitting them all into place. Mr. Zietz did get to see his dream realised, though he died in 1934, by which time his factory had been absorbed into Reemstma. 

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C. BERIOT [trade : chicory coffee : O/S - Lille, France] "Advertising Card" (??) 1/1 ? 

Now we move to a fairly new celebration, which perhaps you will find useful. That is "Bring Flowers to Someone Day", and it is designed not to ask you to go online and pay for someone to deliver such, but to think of someone to whom you can walk and physically take them some flowers.

It is also, rather wonderfully, not a romantic celebration, it is purely a declaration of friendship, no need for mixed messages, or reciprocation of any kind. 

Sadly I cannot bring you my originally intended card, an advert featuring a very handsome frog with a bouquet, I struggled, but it was one of those cards where the back was too light and the staining too dark.

So what we have instead is a standard bouquet, which, I also realised, after I had started to work on it, ties in nicely with the other "A La Belle Jardiniere" card we used in our V.E. Day remembrances, the large clothing store, this "A La Belle Jardiniere" being a brand name used by C. Beriot, of Lille

The flowers used in this seem to be hellebores and snowdrops, a symbol, perhaps, of the end of winter and the coming of spring. However Hellebores are rather interesting in the language of flowers, possibly because their flowers hang upside down, so whilst they mean solitude, and peace, they can also mean lying low after scandal, until the fuss dies down. As for the snowdrops, they bring hope for new beginnings, for and long awaited change. 

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Brown and Polson [trade : baking powder : UK - Paisley, Scotland] "Picture Cards" (1925) 2/25 - BRR-1

Almost forgot this one, after the fun I had with it. I will start by saying that it marks #NationalBarbecueDay, and before anyone comments unfavourably, you can barbecue sausage rolls, and add pickle, mustard, and barbecue sauce. You can also use vegan sausage rolls, and maybe you ought to. 

Anyway I failed to find a sausage, and time ran out. I could say that was because nipper got in the fridge whilst I was not looking, but he only has eyes for the cheese or the cheesecake. So if you find teeth-marks in your cheesecake, and a corner (or a bit more) missing, you know who to blame.

This card is very unusual, and it not only advertises the company products, but a booklet of recipes that could be obtained from them for just 3d. post free.

Some of the cards show pictures of the food produced by following the recipe on the reverse, whilst others show women making the food, and these have no recipe.

Eventually there will be a list, but not tonight, for I only just realised I had not even looked for an event on Friday, let alone a card...

Our original British Trade Index has a very short description, but it reveals that it was their only issue. The full text reads : 

BROWN & POLSON, Ltd., Paisley, Scotland
Cards issued 1925.

• BROWN & POLSON PICTURE CARDS. Md. 88 x 51. Recipes. Nd. (25). ... BRR-1