Newsletter - 2025-08-16

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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 : 

1. Chez MM Cadusseau, 54, rue de l`Arsenal, Martin Aujard, 55 rue de l`Arsenal, Rochefort.
2. Chez MM. E. Dumond Fils, Vins et Liq., C. Maurin, Vins et Liqueurs, Chateauneuf (Charente)
3. Chex MM Eug. Brousse, Vins et Liqueurs, Vve Eng. Testort, Perpignan
4. Chez MM. Gallicher Confiseur, Peybernat place des Halles, Auch
5. Chex MM Larde, Epiceries et Comestibles, Fournies, Sens
6. En Vente chez M.G. Foucault, 13 Place de Bretagne, Nantes
7. En Vente chez M. Marette-Grenet, 5 bis Grande Rue - Bolbec
8. En Vente dans M. Thibault-Evrat Epicieries et Comest. Chateau-Landon 
9. 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

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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. 

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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.

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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. 

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KANE Products Ltd [trade : confectionery : UK - London and East Grinstead] "Cricketers Series" - first series (1956) 20/25 - KAN-210 : KAA-15.1

And now, to a spot of cricket, for today in 1921 saw the birth of John William Wilson, at Albert Park, in Melbourne - which is today more known as a location for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.

John, or "Jack" as he preferred to be known, only played in one Test match, in 1956, when Australia brought their men to our shores - so it but chance that he appears in this set. If the Test had been away there would have been less interest, for there was no way to watch it live on the internet, nor on Sky, at that time. Even odder, he did not actually play in any of the Test matches, he only played in a local one, Australia vs Gloucestershire, at Bristol, which the touring team won. He was down to play India, on the way home, at Bombay but did not bat, and though he was down to play in Calcutta, for the Third Test, he was replaced by another man and did not take the field at all. 

He also only played one match for his home county, Victoria, before moving to South Australia in 1950. 

He was a strange player, too, not too fast, but reliable, and, due to an injury on the footy field, his delivery was done in a very odd and jerky style. 

This set first appears in our original British Trade Index part two, as : 

• 1956 CRICKETERS. Sm. 67 x 35. Nd. (50). ... KAA-15
  
  1. 1st Series. Nd. 1/25. Black
  2. 2nd Series. Nd. 26/50. Coloured

This is slightly altered in our updated version, to : 

• 1956 CRICKETERS. 1956. 67 x 35. Nd. (50). ... KAN-210
  
  1. 1st Series. (1/25) 2. 2nd Series.(26/50)

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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.

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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/