Newsletter - 2025-08-16

After last week I did start this edition a little earlier, and by Thursday I had have the cards done, and, for the most part, written. Then it all fell about me.

But never mind - that`s what weekends are for ! Especially if they are too hot to venture outside of the house in the middle of the day. Tonight, though, a cooling breeze, which was most pleasant, and much welcome.

This week there has been a few changes to the front page, we now have two banners for events, which is also easier for me, as all I have to do is un-publish the first one and leave the second one, which is the next event, still on show. Then I can change them over and get them back up with good time for the third event in line. There is also a new banner for research, the click button on which will lead to our contact form, as I really hope to crack on with the card index(es) - but also I am starting, from the birth of "Cartophilic Notes and News", and the demise of the Cameric Cigarette Card Club, to add some more information from the magazines.

Don`t forget that there is a card fair in East Anglia tomorrow, from 8.30 am to 3.00 pm. at Roydon Village Hall, High Road, Roydon, Diss, Norfolk IP22 5RB - and an auction at 12.30. And if you are a member of our East Anglia Club you get free admission. Non-club-members are also welcome but admission is £3.

And now to this week`s newsletter.....

M. MARETTE-Grenet [trade : rum and liqueurs : O/S - Bolbec, France] "Vues d`Operations, sur les Antilles" / Views of our operations at the Antilles (19??)

I will start with a glass of the sailor`s favourite, Rum, for today is #NationalRumDay. It rolls around every August the 16th, but I have not been able to find out why.

I do know that it is nothing to do with the demise of the daily rum ration on board Royal Naval ships, after three hundred years, for that happened on the 31st of July 1970.

As to why, it was decided that the drink would make the sailors unsteady on their feet and unable to do their job - though there had been no recorded cases of that in the three centuries prior. However, if you think about it, the Royal Navy was becoming increasingly mechanised, and those devices more dangerous, which did mean that the operators needed higher concentration.

The rum ration is dealt with on Gallaher`s "The Navy", card 14/48, issued in 1935. This tells us that "The only alcohol permitted to Naval ratings is the rum ration. This is drawn neat from the spirit stores each forenoon and is diluted with water in the time-honoured rum tub bearing the words "The King. God Bless Him".

Whilst you will also find rum on Hill`s "Nautical Songs"card 17/30, issued in 1937, which supplies a verse of the song "Yo-Ho-Ho and a Bottle of Rum".

I have not been able to find any other cigarette cards showing rum, but there are plenty of early trade cards, and some of them are actually issued by rum manufacturers and exporters. Our card is one of those, and was circulated by the Compagnie des Antilles, about whom I can find almost nothing, only that the Antilles is in the Caribbean. Though in the last moments I have discovered that the company was founded in 1880, and the sugar cane, etc, was taken to their base in France to be blended into the rum, which they branded as "Rum Chauvet". As far as the base it was taken to, that was in Le Havre, as it says on the cards, I just did not make the connection until now.

Best of all, our card is one of a set, not just a one off advertising card - and so far as I trawled the internet I found these six, and plenty of them, but no others - and also six is a nice round number. There are some of the cards which involve slave labour though, so the set is not to modern tastes, but our card is okay, as are the other two mentioning the home base port. So I reckon the set is :

Debarquement du Havre - sailing ships by harbour (our card)
Entree au Port du L`Havre - sailing ships by lighthouse
Macouba - man rolling barrel to bottom left hand corner
Rade St. Pierre. Martinique - harbour scene, white dressed overseer to centre
Recoult de la Canne a Sucre - men cutting cane, overseer to centre
Une Distillerie de Rhum a la Jamaique - inside a distillery. overseer to centre.

It seems that the Compagnie des Antilles printed the cards and sent them to their stockists, as the red section on the bottom of the reverse is an overprint and each advertises a different company. You can also find the same cards but with a blank bottom, and no red overprint, and these, presumably, were remainders.

So far I know of the following overprints of companies :

Chez MM Cadusseau, 54, rue de l`Arsenal, Martin Aujard, 55 rue de l`Arsenal, Rochefort.
Chez MM. E. Dumond Fils, Vins et Liq., C. Maurin, Vins et Liqueurs, Chateauneuf (Charente)
Chex MM Eug. Brousse, Vins et Liqueurs, Vve Eng. Testort, Perpignan
Chez MM. Gallicher Confiseur, Peybernat place des Halles, Auch
Chex MM Larde, Epiceries et Comestibles, Fournies, Sens
En Vente chez M.G. Foucault, 13 Place de Bretagne, Nantes
En Vente chez M. Marette-Grenet, 5 bis Grande Rue - Bolbec
En Vente dans M. Thibault-Evrat Epicieries et Comest. Chateau-Landon
En Vente dans toutes les bonnes maisons d`Epiceries, de Comestibles et de Spiritueux

But if you know more do tell us, at webmaster@card-world.co.uk

Figurine PANINI [trade : stickers : O/S - Modena, Italy] "F1 Grand Prix" - Yugoslavian version (1980) 50/144

Racing swiftly on, today is the birthday of Nelson Piquet Souto Maior, born in 1952, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

He was a Formula One driver from 1978 to 1991, winning three Drivers Championship titles. 1987. Before that., as so many young drivers do, he went karting, and became the Brazilian National Karting Champion in 1971. As today, such success attracts the attention of scouts for the lower formulas, and he was given a drive at Formula Vee, winning that championship in 1976. Then he was on to Formula Three, and, swiftly, to Formula One, with a team that few remember today, Ensign, founded by Maurice Nunn. One of their other drivers was Jacky Ickx.

Ensign split his races between McLaren-Ford and Brabham, and in 1979 it was with Brabham that he won his first Formula One Drivers title. You can see him in a McLaren-Ford and also in a rather lairy yellow Brabham in the set usually known as RTL Grand Prix 1978-79, though it was issued by several manufacturers throughout Europe.

The car let him down the following year, but he won the Championship again in 1983. After that the car again was problematical, and he accepted an offer to move to Williams in 1986, where he took his third Drivers title, in 1987, but winning the title caused a major rift with his team-mate Nigel Mansell. It possibly also led to Piquet`s moving to Lotus in 1980. That did not go too well either, and after a late move to the Benetton team, in 1990, he retired from Formula One, but not from racing, as he raced at Indianapolis, and also in sports cars.

Most of this glory is unknown to the younger generations, they only remember him for causing quite the commotion with what he said about the drivers they knew better, and which saw him barred from the paddock. And that is a great shame, as in his day he was a fantastic, skilful, driver, and he deserves to be remembered, instead, for that.

This card is not the usual version, it comes from Yugoslavia, and the back is without the Dutch and Spanish translations. Instead we have this large figure and different wording, "Album za ove slicice mozete da nabavite u svakom kiosku. Decje Novine". Though below that it does still say "Edizione Panini S.p.A - Modena".

Decje Novine was actually the publisher, the largest in Yugoslavia, who somehow pulled off the amazing feat of holding the rights to Walt Disney, Marvel and DC. They were founded in 1956, and lasted throughout many changes, only ending with bankruptcy, in 2001.

Like the other versions of this set there are several cards of Mr. Piquet. He appears as this head-shot first, on card 50, then in his Brabham on card 51 and 53, 54, and 56. Card 52 is rather odd as it shows his Brabham almost off the screen as it were, the emphasis is instead on the red Ferrari, being driven by Gilles Villeneuve. And card 55 shows just the nose and right wheel.

RITTENHOUSE [trade/commercial : cards ; O/S - USA] "The X Files" - Seasons 10/11 (November 21, 2018) 69/96 -

I am not sure why but I straight away wrote down "Brian Aldiss born" for today,

Then I failed to find any cards, which I probably ought to have seen as more than a possibility. My last hope was the fact that one of his stories, the 1969 novella, "Supertoys Last All Summer Long", was turned into Steven Spielberg`s "A.I.". In fact the rights to the story were originally bought by Stanley Kubrick, shortly after it appeared, but he felt that he could not do the character of the android justice by casting a human.

What he needed, of course, but did not have, was special effects.

In the end he gave up, and passed the project to Steven Spielberg, who, for a variety of reasons, did not really start working on it until 1995, after Stanley Kubrick had died.

This got me no closer to a card, though I hunted for Steven Spielberg, just in case there was a mention on the reverse text that he was about to film "A.I.". But I did find that the film had starred a human as the android, a young actor called Haley Joel Osment, and set off looking for cards of him.

What I found was an autograph card, one of the many parallel cards from Rittenhouse`s tribute to The X Files, or at least to Series 10/11. I don`t have any autographs from that set, but I was certain that if I looked carefully at every card I would see him, as "Davey", the son of one of Skinner`s Vietnam buddies, even if only in the background - and here he is, featured, all on his own, on the reverse of card 69 of 96, part of the subset for episode "Kitten", which runs from card 67 to card 72. And he is only on this one card, which is a miracle in itself

Mind you, in a week where I am quickly heading to a deadline I will have to curtail my usual discussing, at length, about the X Files. So you will be spared, for now, but it will be added later.

Briefly, this was the revival of the X Files, more than fourteen years since the series had ostensibly ended. Season ten, also known as "The Event", began with the two main characters being reassigned to the FBI, and was first screened on January the 24th 2016, at least in America. It had only six episodes whilst season eleven was extended to ten.

There were lots of parallel cards to this set, including the identical set but with each card having blue borders, and another duplicate version with gold borders. Then there were one offs, like the autograph cards, case toppers, and cards made of metal, separate subsets - Monsters Aliens and More, Mulder`s Conspiracy, My Struggle Monologues" Quotables, Relationships, and Stars of The X-Files. Oddly, whilst the "My Struggle" cards remain a firm favourite as far as the cards are concerned (as I am always outbid on the ones I want), the episodes that they came from and commemorate were not that popular with fans.

As far as the autographs the prize card shows both the main stars on the one card, and both of them have signed it - but you had to buy nine cases of cards all at the same time to get one. There is actually one of the cards on eBay right now for almost £1800.00, plus £66 postage. Not sure which of these two amounts surprises me more, but I guess I will hang on a bit longer, for a cheaper one, though this seller says they are open to best offers. I have to say that it is not a great card, though, it simply has a picture of both stars to the left and their signatures, one above the other, on a white background. I would want a bit more for that sort of money.

GUERIN Boutron [trade : chocolate : O/S - Paris France] "Le Tour du Monde en 84 Etapes" / "A Tour of the World in 84 Stages" (1900) Un/84 ?

Well I have found us a centenary, but its an odd one. For today in 1925 saw what came to be known as the Canton Embargo.

The events of today saw the government ban any British or Japanese vessels from coming in or going out of any of its ports. It was just part of a larger action, involving a strike in Hong Kong, the result of policemen fatally shooting nine demonstrators at the International Settlement in Shanghai, and fifty other deaths during a peaceful protest march on Shameen Island.

The most important thing about Canton was that since the seventeenth century it had been the main exporting and importing port in Southern China. At first it was only the East India Company that were there, but other companies and related industries soon followed hoping to get a piece of the pie, as it were.

In the eighteenth century it had also become the centre of the Opium trade, causing the Opium Wars, in which the Chinese attempted to ban the opium trade that was proving so popular with, and profitable to, British merchants. This had been solved, or so the British thought, by sending in the might of the Royal Navy and imposing the Treaty of Nanking, which also included China having to give Hong Kong to Britain. And in 1856, the Second Opium War also ended in failure for China, after which large areas of their land was given to Russia, and Britain, the invaders, were rewarded with the area about Kowloon.

This card shows Canton looking very peaceful, two small children watching the gentle progress of a boat. And this duo, or at least the girl in a red dress, appears on all the cards seen so far.

I have actually used this series before, but only in a newsletter, and to illustrate the White House in Washington, so I am certain it will be much easier to find another one of those than another Canton, which has been quite hard.

There is some confusion over the date of issue of this set, and a lot of collectors think it was done in 1880, however the reverse of our card proves this wrong as it states that Guerin Boutron won Gold Medals at the 1889 and 1900 Exhibitions, both of these being in Paris. So it must be post 1900, if not in that year, newly flushed with the award.

Also, to burst a myth, there also seems to be no real connection between this set and Jules Verne`s "Around the World in 80 Days", which was published in 1872.

Anyway, here is the start of a list. And do join in if you can add any more :

Embarquement pour l`Angleterre le quai sur de boulogne
A LONDRES - Le pont de la Tour
VISITE DE LONDRES - En Allant au Parlement
EN ANGLETERRE - Excursion au chateau royal de Windsor
EN ECOSSE - Visite au Chateau de Balmoral
UNE RUE DE NEW YORK - La Chemin de Fer aerien
A WASHINGTON - Devant la Maison-Blanche, residence de President
Traversee des Etats-Unis dans le Chemin de fer du Pacifique
Un Marchand de netts sur une place de Mexico
AU MEXIQUE - L`aqueduct de Queretaro
Arrivee a Taiti dans le port de Papeete
EN AUSTRALIE - Devant la Cascade en fer a cheval a Victoria
A CEYLAN - Une audience chex un haut dignitaire
AUX INDES - Le jardin botanique de Calcutta
Devant les 7 pagodas aux environs de Madras
Arrivee a Pondicherry (Inde Francaise)
EN COCHINCHINE - Course de pirogue a Mytho

49. A PEKIN - Une porte du Palais de L`Empereur
56. A MOSCOU - La grosse clotce au pied de la tour d`Ivan
59. Entree de la gorge de Dariel et fort de Djerakhovsky (Caucase)
60. AU CAUCASE RUSSE - Les lacs de petrole a Bakou
67. Le pont du Rialto et le grand canal de Venise
72 EN ITALIE - Visite des ruines de Pompeii sous la conduite d`un guide du pays
83. La Cote D`AZUR - Devant le rocher de Monaco
84. L`entree du vieux port de Marseille et la Cathedrale,

F. & J. SMITH [tobacco : UK] "A Tour Round The World" descriptive - "Glasgow Mixture" brand (1906) 42/50 - S548-440.C : S84-16.2.C

Readers may be surprised to hear that today marks the anniversary of Hawaii becoming the fiftieth American state, but not until 1959.

Hawaii, on the face of it, is an odd place, almost a hundred and forty islands, most of which are volcanic. Two thirds of the people live on just one of the islands, O`ahu. It is also much closer to Polynesia and Australia, than it is to America - and it is also the only state which is not part of the continent of America - but it was used as a base by American troops during the Second World War, and it was the site of Pearl Harbour.

As far as Hawaiian history, it was settled, by Polynesia, some time before the twelfth century, and operated, successfully, under rural chiefdoms. The first Westerner to arrive was Captain James Cook, and he called the islands "The Sandwich Islands", which is how they appear on our card. He did that in honour of his patron, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, is Captain James Cook's name for the Hawaiian Islands in 1778. He chose the name of his patron, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, and yes, it was that very Earl, the fourth, who invented the sandwich we eat today.

In 1795 everything changed, when Kamehameha conquered O`ahu, Maui, Moloka`i, and Lana`i, and made himself King. I have no idea why but whenever I write about Hawaii and use these names, I find myself thinking of Higgins, played by the wonderful John Hillerman, in the television series, "Magnum P.I.", the title role of which was played by Tom Selleck.

The two other main islands joined this kinship in 1810. It was still relatively peaceful, until almost the end of the century, when the monarchy was deposed by a group of Americans and English, who turned it into a temporary republic. But in 1897, with a war looming against Spain, Hawaii said it would not support the Americans but it would offer its lands to them as a stop over, something which proved vital. And so, the following year, as an odd form of thank you, sovereignty was transferred to America. Though it must be noted that almost no Hawaiians attended the subsequent ceremonies, and none of the former leaders were there. In fact, in a poll of Hawaiians, taken between the war and the annexation, over half of the voters were opposed to America taking control. And there are still those who feel aggrieved that it happened enough to lodge complaints and hold protests.

Now in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes you will have to hunt for these a bit, because they are listed after "Shadowgraphs", taking the T of Tour as the first letter and ignoring the A in front.

In both our original World Tobacco Issues Index. RB.23, first published in 1956, and our updated version, RB.124, published in the year 2000, you will find a very lengthy description which also includes the postcard backed and the handwritten advert versions above ours, but our part reads :

A TOUR ROUND THE WORLD. Sm. Nd. ... S84-16

2. With series title (50). See H.75 and Ha.76. Multi-backed in brown, 10 wordings.

B. Glasgow Mixture Cigarettes

And the same is reprinted in the updated version, just with a new card code of S548-440.

Larry Fritsch Cards AAGPBL - S 1 Girls Professional Baseball (1995)

Larry FRITSCH Cards [trade/commercial ; cards : O/S - USA] "AA:GPBL - Series 1 Girls Professional Baseball" (1995) 55/234

This one took me about as long as Monday to fill. I wrote down "Terry Donahue, baseball player, Canada, born" - but then I was surprised to learn, when I researched them further, that name was not indicative, as they were christened Theresa. And it was not a case that they found their true identity whilst playing as a man, and decided to live the life they wanted, they found a way to be a girl and still play baseball.

And I still like the idea of her, so I just kept on hunting a card. Then I was delayed and distracted by going back to Monday, but now I have great pleasure in being able to attach this one - as well as to tell you more about her.

Theresa Paz Donahue was born in Saskatchewan, Canada, on the family farm. Her brother noticed a talent for baseball, and it was encouraged at school, though she was not a tall girl, by any way, she was just 5` 2". When she left school she joined the local team, then, in 1945 she was scouted by the AAGPBL, mentioned on this card, an acronym which stood for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She went to Spring training with them, and was offered a place on the Peoria Redwings, a women's baseball team in Illinois. She first played for them in 1949, and soon became their regular catcher though she played in other positions as well. In 1950 she joined the rival National Girls Baseball League in Chicago, but was not so happy there, and left, taking various jobs in and around Chicago before becoming an accountant and bookkeeper for an interior design company.

She died in March 2019, aged ninety-three, after a long struggle with Parkinson`s disease. And four years earlier, on her birthday, she had at last married her long term love, after knowing them for almost seventy years.

Larry Fritsch was a baseball fan, and fanatic. He was a collector, turned dealer, turned card producer, who produced, and mailed out, a two hundred page catalogue every other month. At one time he had almost forty million second hand cards in stock for immediate despatch. Most of all he loved the baseball that nobody knew or really cared about, so this set was a real labour of love.

And yet I am pretty sure that few readers of this newsletter know his name.

He died young, from stress, aged just sixty-one, but he had suffered with stress, in all its variations, for probably all his life. His son took over the company but also died young, aged only fifty-eight.

The current man in charge is Larry Fritsch`s grandson, Jeremy, who has added another facet to the company - a museum, of amazing scale. And they also have a newsletter, which you can sign up to at their website - https://fritschcards.com/

This week's Cards of the Day...

looked up, into the sky, to see if we could catch a sight of the Perseids, one of the best, and most visible, meteor showers, which reached their peak on the 12th and 13th of this month. They are actually visible, if you are in the right place at the right time, from the middle of July to the end of August, but they peak, which means that there are more of them, and brighter, at a different time each year, and this is often associated with a full or a new moon.

The pieces of debris actually come from the comet Swift Tuttle, also known as 109.P, and they fall from a cloud of dust and debris which stretches along beside it as it flies along, these are souvenirs of impacts with other objects in space, and the natural wear and tear of great age - for some of the material which forms this cloud has been there for many centuries. Indeed the comet was first seen in 322 BC.

It is very slow moving though, and only visits us once every hundred and thirty-three years. Its last pass was in 1992, so few of us alive today will ever see it.

Our clue cards this week were :

Card one is here simply because it is "stars", and that ought to have directed you skywards. Though our man, if you had researched, also guided you towards the date, for he was born on the 22nd of July, 1935, well into Perseid Season.

Ron Springett was actually born Ronald Deryk George Springett, on the 22nd of July, 1935. And, as you can tell from this picture, he was a goalkeeper.

He started out with Queens Park Rangers, in 1953, but according to the text on the reverse of Barratt`s "Famous Footballers" series A.8, card 40, he "was rejected by one club because he was too small". He was not at Queens Park Rangers for long as he was head hunted by Sheffield Wednesday and it is in their strip that he appears on that card - and, reportedly, there are no cards of him at Queens Park Rangers, though he did play in almost a hundred and fifty matches for them.

His career at Sheffield Wednesday was much longer, and he was there for almost ten years, 1957 to 1967, almost four hundred appearances; though he did not actually play on the squad until 1958. And it was during this time that he became an international player, gaining the first of his thirty three caps in a 1959 match for England, against Ireland, at Wembley Stadium. That information comes from the Barratt card too, but it was issued too early to mention that he was also part of the squad who won the 1966 World Cup.

That leads us to another tale, for he was not playing in the actual final, and so he did not receive a cup winner`s medal. However, subsequently, the Football Association petitioned the World Cup organising body so that all members of a team, not just those on the field, would be treated the same. And so, in 2009, our man, at last received his medal. But sadly this decision was only retrospective, and only allowed for players who had missed out before 1974, so there are still players who find themselves in the same sad situation of being a World Cup team player without anything to show for it.

In 1967 another strange event, mentioned on our card, took place, where he was traded for his brother, also a goalkeeper. That sent our man back to Queens Park Rangers and Peter Springett on to Sheffield Wednesday.

And lastly, to complete the trio of curiosities, all the Barratt A Series "Famous Footballers", from A.8, through A.9, and A.10, to A.11, are all the same picture, and also all card 19. This may have a lot to do with the fact that you can find the same card with either A.8 or A.9 on the back.

He died in September 2015, but his name lived on, as his daughter, Terri, also became a footballer, playing for her country. And, after her retirement, she also became the club secretary for Queens Park Rangers.

Our set is described in our original British Trade Index, but not until part four , and then very quickly, as :

WORLD CUP STARS. 78 x 45. Footballers. Inscribed "Presented with the ..." Nd. (72). Hornet/Hotspur ...THO-254

This is slightly lengthened in the updated volume, to read :

WORLD CUP STARS. (H)(HO). 1970. 78 x 45. Nd. (72). Issued as 4 sheets of 8 and 4 sheets of 10 ...THO-805.

We actually know a bit more than this, thanks to a reader. They tell us that "The Hornet" cards were the first to be issued, on June the 6th, 1970, and they also tell me there is a list, at The Football Cartophilic Information Exchange/WCS

Clue two was another sky signal, but this one tells you that if you want to see the Perseids, or any astronomical event, you must look away from the moon. In that way, you will allow your eyes to become accustomed to the darkness of the night, which can take about half an hour, and you will be able to pick up fainter trails as well as bright ones.

This set was issued during the revival of what was known as "Japonisme", a sudden fancy and fascination with Japan. It had started by way of business, when, in the late 1860s, the trade borders and export market had opened with Japan, but the early visitors also brought back souvenirs, like clothing, pictures, furniture, and suddenly being Japanese became a trend, all over the world. And popular culture reflected that enormously, with Gilbert and Sullivan`s "The Mikado" being written in 1885. Whilst the first set of Liebig cards to feature the Orient was S.35, known as "Children in Oriental Costumes", issued in 1873

The craze was affected, rather, by war, specifically the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894, which happened just at the time this set was issued, but it did resume, towards the end of the nineteeth century - and with gusto.

Each of these cards shows a girl in Japanese costume, though not necessarily a Japanese girl, and she is portrayed with an instrument which is often wrongly described as a guitar, but it actually a shamisen. At the top part of the picture is a moon with a face, and an expression. And at the bottom, below the picture, is a two line verse. Some time I will get my magnifying glass and tap them all in.

And lastly, but not leastly, clue three showed the constellation of Perseus himself - stealing a bar of chocolate from a swan!

The connection of these meteor showers to Perseus is not just that they are best seen around the area of his stars; there is another link too, as the King of Argos, Acrisius, was so desperate for a son to inherit his crown, that he took to asking the priestesses at the Oracle at Delphi. They said that he would never have a son, but he would have a grandson, though it would be a mixed blessing as the child would kill him.

He did not think much of that truth, so he decided to prevent his daughter, Danae, ever giving birth, locking her in an underground chamber made of impenetrable bronze. But one night the god Zeus, who had admired the daughter for some time, made it rain, and during the rain he visited her, through a crack in the roof, disguised as a shower of gold. I tell you they knew all about romance in those days.

The net result of that though was that Danae had a son, and that son was Perseus, and despite every attempt to stop the word of the Oracle coming true, Perseus did kill his grandfather, in what we would call a freak accident. This happened when Acrisius was visiting an athletics event and Perseus was competing in the discus, during which, somehow, as the discus went along, it hit Acrisius, and he was killed instantly.

However, this created a bit of a problem as the gods would not allow any one of them to profit by murder - so it was deemed that Perseus could not be King of Argos, but they arranged a swop, the current king of Tiryns becoming King of Argos and Perseus becoming King of Tiryns.

There are twelve cards in this set, some of which, like ours, show more than one constellation. The constellations are not named, but they are shown as gold stars on top of the item that they represent, so for instance our card shows the stars of Perseus, the hero, and Cygnus, the swan.

By the way these two constellations are not neighbours in the sky, but they do have a connection, as Zeus, the father of Perseus, actually disguised himself as a swan to steal away the affections of the wife of King of Sparta. And, before you ask, Perseus was one of over ninety children fathered by Zeus....in his various disguises!

You can see all the cards at Cartolino.com/111 - and at some time I will fathom them all out and add them to the list below below. You can also make each card larger by clicking on it. Or I will try to find cards with the alternative reverse, which must be an earlier version of this set, as that has the names of the constellations on each one!

Hercule et le Dragon - Hercules and Draco
Perseus et Le Cygne - Perseus and Cygnus
Le Serpent et Le Vierge - Serpens and Virgo

And if like me, you look at the back of the card and asked yourself what a "dujas" was, I can tell you, it is a plural, for hazelnut pastes. or, more correctly for sweets made containing such a substance.

Here we have a comet, and at first I thought the standing male figure may be Perseus, especially as he is near to Andromeda and her parents, but I think it is Orion. The reason for this is that Perseus does have a helmet, borrowed from Pluto, and a shield, borrowed from Minerva, which he used in order to kill the Gorgon Medusa, but traditionally the figure used for the constellation of Perseus is depicted with her head in one hand.

Our card is the French version, "Effets Lumineux", but the set was also issued in Italian, as "Effeti di Luce". Both titles translate to effects of the light. All of them feature a large female figure as part of the design, and they are very attractive cards indeed, especially the three night cards which have a deep blue background. And look at the date, whilst pondering that in the British Isles we were currently being treated to Guinea Gold cards - which started to be issued in 1894.

The cards are :

Aurora
Comet
Mirage
Moonlight
Rainbow
Spectrum of the Alps?

Our card today shows an actual fireball, but looking for such things is also a good way to hone in on the Perseids, as the larger ones do indeed have glowing heads, though they move in a more diagonal manner than the fireball shown here.

The fireball on this card was seen in 1965, and it "streaked through the April sky from below Washington to Ottawa, its sinuous trail glittering in the twilight". You can read more about it in an excellent article which has been uploaded by Harvard University.

This set does not appear in our original British Trade Index part two, instead it waits until part three, issued in 1986, where it is recorded under section 3 of the Brooke Bond listing, for "North American Issues", between 1959 and 1974. The entry reads :

Series 12. The Space Age. Nd. (48). Issued 1969 ... BRM-17

Unfortunately these were not recorded in our updated British Trade Index.

Now you may be wondering what the canals on Mars have to do with the Perseids, and I will tell you. They were discovered, and called canali, by Giovanni Schiaparelli, who also was the first to link the Perseids with the Comet Swift-Tuttle.

Unfortunately his "canali" was mistranslated, to canals, leading to all sorts of theories about water and that planet - and also to claims that he had foolishly believed this to be the truth, when in actuality he did not, for "canali", in Italian, simply means channels.

The firm of Williot began long before Mr. Williot got involved. Its roots, dare I say, started in 1779, by Monsieur Charles Francois Giraud, who first planted chicory in France, eventually opening a factory near Valenciennes in which he cut up and roasted the roots. As to who first thought that chicory would make a good substitute for coffee, I have no idea. All I found out was that coffee was first recorded in Europe in the seventeenth century, and became a craze pretty much everywhere shortly after, even spreading to London, where, for a certain class of people, a daily coffee became a fact of life. It is thought that the first person to try and find a cheaper substitute, and tried chicory, was Dutch, or at least living in that area. We do not know who that was, but we do know that in 1801 Messrs Giraud, of Homing, and Orban, of Liege, were importing it into France.

The cards in the set are :

5577:1 - La Naissance du Planete
5577:2 - Le Canaux de Mars
5577:3 - L`Aspect de L`Anneau de Saturne, vu de Saturne
5577:4 -
5577:5 -
5577:6 - Saturn au Coucher de sa Lune

Presumably the 5577 is the series number.

This set was also issued by other manufacturers, but I am running late tonight, who knew arranging respite care was so difficult. I don`t know what is on cards four and five either, so if you do let us know, please.

In the few moments I had whilst waiting for a scan, I found the following issuers, all of which are presumably French :

Chicoree Williot (no location)
Chocolat Stanislas, Usine 4, Essey-les-Nancy
Le Chocolat de L`Union, Lyon
Le Vin de Viande Aubery (no location)
Librairie d`Education Nationale, 9 Rue Hautefeuille, Paris

This version of this card was issued by a seller of clothing, and a relatively new one, as he is still mentioning "Successr. de Mighel", and Mighel would have been the predecessor at that address, possibly also selling clothing. They may even have issued these cards, but I have not found them yet.

As for rue Notre Dame, it was named after a convent, which had once been at one end, though today we know the street as rue Emile Zola. It was the main shopping centre for many centuries and even had a market on certain days of the week. It was also a centre for printing, unsurprisingly, as the printers would have made good money selling advertising cards etc to the traders.

I said "this version", because this card was a popular one, and I have found several other issuers. One of them also gave me the name of the set, which I have now changed from my thought of "Astronomie", and also a possible series number, 70. Plus I have located some other cards, with which to start to build a set, namely :

L`Arc-En-Ciel
L`Aurore Boréale
Le Feu Follet
Les Etoiles Filantes

The other issuers I know of so far are :

Chapellerie Daloz - (hats) - Troyes (F)
Chevallier - Paris (patisserie) - Tonnere
Chocolat Bessede - (chocolate) - Marseille (F)
Collet-Auvray - (food) - Charleville
Fluteax - (shoes) - Villiers Cotterets
Marelle-Bounaix - (shoes) - Paris
Mon. F. Musy - (clothing) - Lyon

And do note that some of the issuers went overboard, and had the cards printed on the front as well - denoted by an "(F)".

Several of them say they were printed by Monsieur L. Dupont, of 48, Rue de Talleyrand, in Reims, whilst others credit another printer, namely Courbe-Rouzet of Paris.

Newsletter - 2025-08-16

Saturday, 16th August 2025

Sunday, 17th August 2025

Monday, 18th August 2025

Tuesday, 19th August 2025

Wednesday, 20th August 2025

Thursday, 21st August 2025

Friday, 22nd August 2025

This week's Cards of the Day...

Saturday, 9th August 2025

Sunday, 10th August 2025

Monday, 11th August 2025

Tuesday, 12th August 2025

Wednesday, 13th August 2025

Thursday, 14th August 2025

Friday, 15th August 2025