I cannot lie, this week was a slow burn, I took ages to find the subjects, let alone the cards, and on Thursday I still had a complete blank for one of the days. But it all came together in the end, kind of. And nipper was amenable enough to agree to go to sleep Friday night and give me the time I needed to complete the main text.
UNITED Shoe Machinery Co. [trade : shoemaking : O/S - Boston, USA] "Advertisement Card" (1900?) 1/?
This card celebrates the beginnings of what would eventually become Trade Unions, for today, in Boston, in 1648 a guild was formed as the "Company of Shoomakers". However, it was not formed for protest, only to make sure that its members maintained a certain standard, across the area, and to encourage non-members who met these standards to join. They also set up apprenticeship schemes for people wishing to enter the trade.
And despite the name, it was also open to barrel makers.
As to why it was started, there had been complaints about the quality of shoes being made in the local area. State legislature only made them promise not to run any sort of ring or to fix their prices unfairly.
A reader supplied this card, and it is a Boston Company - however, despite the picture, they did not make shoes by hand, or even make shoes. What they made was the machinery that made shoes, and, for the most part, they rented it, not sold it.
Where the "United" came from was that it was formed, in February 1899, by three companies in the same field, the Goodyear Machinery Company; Consolidated Hand Lasting Machine Company, and the McKay Shoe Machinery Company.
And yes, the Goodyear is a branch of the same company that makes the tyres, and also specialised in rubber shoes.
In fact, the caption on the front translates to "a shoe maker in New England before the Goodyear system became known". So actually, although they use this elderly gentleman, the truth is that what they made, made him redundant...
It seems hard to date this card because they use the abbreviation Co., which suggests the early days when their name ended with Company. After 1905 they became a Corporation, which is usually abbreviated to Corp., but then in 1917 they went back to being a Company all over again. However, look at the top, and it says "Paris 1900", referring to the grand exhibition. And it is presumed that these cards were available there, because the top section of our card is in French - but wait, because you can also get the same card with the top section in German. The addresses are the same, in English, on both.
There is something else very interesting about the company though, because during both World Wars they were heavily involved in the manufacture of defence materials, especially vehicles, artillery, and in the Second World War aeroplanes and their fittings.
G. W. GAIL & Ax [tobacco : O/S - Baltimore, USA] "Industries of the States" (1889) Bk/25 - G040-400 : G8-5 : N.117 : USA.117.b
Hooray! Its 8 am on Friday morning and I have just stumbled on the fact that today does have something to celebrate after all - its National Kentucky Day, and its an annual event to remember the day that Kentucky became a State - becoming the first one west of the Appalachian Mountains to enter the Union.
Now every site I have found agrees that this is National Kentucky Day - but there is a rather large problem as they all also say that it was on June 1, 1792, that Kentucky became the 15th state of the Union and the first one west of the Appalachian Mountains.
But as it is five o`clock on Friday afternoon, and almost dark, and there is obviously nothing else, this wins, and I will tell you of Kentucky.
We know that it was occupied in 9500 B.C., by nomadic peoples who roamed the area hunting for food. And that it slowly split into two distinct regions.
It was first seen by Europeans in the late seventeenth century, as they sailed up the Ohio River. This led to settlements, and to the mass slaughter of the native populations, along with several wars. But at this time it was still part of Virginia, and some of it was technically part of North Carolina.
Then, in 1776, the area, still part of Virginia, became known as Kentucke County, with much complaint from North Carolina, which still goes on to this day.
By that time, many settlers were living in the area, and Virginia was finding it difficult to cope. A lot of the new inhabitants, many of whom had been given land as payment for war service, wanted to join Louisiana, which was then owned by Spain. But after some wrangling, Virginia agreed that they would split off the area of Kentucky, under one condition, that being that the new area applied for, and was passed to be, a separate, legitimate state.
That happened in 1780, upon which the area was renamed The District of Kentucky. It remained so for twelve years, and then was finally admitted as a separate state, of Kentucky, on June 1, 1792.
But I am still none the wiser why they celebrate today!
This card is a kind of a cross-over card because you can find it, almost identical, save the issuer`s name of "W. Duke, Sons & Co.", and the wording "Industries of the States. Packed in Honest Long Cut. The Best 5 Cent Smoking & Chewing Tobacco. Manufactured by Wm. Duke, Sons & Co. New York". That was issued in 1888.
Our card, however, says "Industries of the States. Packed in G.W. Gail & Ax`s Navy. The Best 5 Cent Smoking & Chewing Tobacco manufactured by G.W. Gail & Ax, the American Tobacco Co. Successor, Baltimore Md."
In our original World Tobacco Issues Index, the clue to this is in the header for Gail and Ax, which reads "Taken over by American Tobacco Co. in 1891. Sets G8-6, G8-7 and most od the photographic sets were prepared prior to 1901. All other cards are inscribed "The American Tobacco Co. Successor" and were issued after 1891."
As far as the entry for our card, that reads :
- INDUSTRIES OF THE STATES. Lg. Bkld. (25). Ref. USA/117.b ... G8-5
And this remains the same in our updated version, save the new card code of G040-400.
However in our reference book to North American Tobacco Issues, one of our latest works, the USA code is changed to N.117, and, in the handbook section, which has many coloured images, the text is slightly altered, to read :
- N.117 - INDUSTRIES OF THE STATES. Series of 25. Bkld. Issued by Duke and Gail and Ax.
And this remains the same in our updated version, save the new card code of G040
Nestle Ltd. [trade : chocolate : O/S - Switzerland] "Stars of the Silver Screen" (1936) 55/100 - NES-260.2.1 : NES-12.1
Florence Marjorie Robertson was born today, in 1904, in Forest Gate, Essex, the daughter of a Captain in the Merchant Navy.
Her childhood seems to have not been well recorded, but we know that when she was thirteen she first appeared on stage, dancing, and, slightly later, was picked up by the great C.B.Cochran for his London revues.
However it was not until 1931 that she stepped out of the background, when she co-starred with Jack Buchanan in "Stand Up and Sing", in the West End. That was also the first time she used the name of Anna Neagle, the surname of which was her mother`s maiden name. And it provided her with a husband too, the director Herbert Wilcox - though they were not married until 1943.
Her best film, in many ways, was "Nell Gwyn", in 1934. It was rather a pet project for her husband, who had already made it in silent form, starring Dorothy Gish. The tale, of the mistress of King Charles II, did have censorship problems, especially in America, and in England additional scenes had to be tacked on showing her marrying the King, which she never did, though she did give him two sons.
Other memorable roles were her portrayal of Queen Victoria, twice, ("Victoria the Great" in 1937 and "Sixty Glorious Years" in 1938), plus a third time, for parts of the two were combined together in "Queen Victoria", in 1942. And actually it is four times if you count "Lilacs in the Spring" (1954), where she is knocked unconscious and dreams she is the Queen.
She also played two famous nurses, Edith Cavell and Florence Nightingale.
She started winding down her career in the late 1950s, though she would return to the stage in the middle of the next decade in order to help her husband out, and ended up staying in the production for almost six years. Her husband died in 1978, and she was starting to show signs of Parkinson`s disease, though they were slow developing, and she actually died of breast cancer in 1986.
This is a far more complex set than you might imagine, for it was not only issued in many countries, not just England, showing here, but Belgium, France, India, Malta, and Spain, along with several countries of South America, most notably Argentina and Peru.
I could not find it in our original British Trade Index at all, but a reader helped me out by telling me it is not listed under this title, it appears as :
- NESTLE PICTURE STAMP ALBUMS. Sm. Nd. Special Albums issued ... NES-12
2. Stars of the Silver Screen. Back (a) adhesive (b) non-adhesive
(1) Volume I. (100)
(2) Volume II. (50). Nd. 101/50
it is way easier to find in our updated version, where it has a line all its own, as :
- STARS OF THE SILVER SCREEN. 1936-37. Backs (a) adhesive (b) non-adhesive. Issued as two volumes . 1. Volume I (100) 2. Volume II (50) as 101-150. ... NES-260
Research proves that the English and Spanish sets are the same cards but not in the same order, and they came along first, in 1936, and each had a hundred cards, though the Spanish one was translated into that language and re-titled as "Estrellas de Cine".
We do not think there was a second series in Spain, but there was in France, and Belgium, each of which had a hundred cards in each series, whilst ours is only listed as fifty. The French and Belgian ones were actually issued last, in 1939.
The Maltese version came along in 1937, only one series, and of a hundred and one cards, the extra card being of Joseph Calleia, a popular star from that country, who actually made it quite big in Hollywood too.
As for the South American versions, they were circulated in 1938, but I have no idea of their length. It is possible that some of them are also titled as "Estrellas de Cine".
Typhoo Tea Ltd. [trade : tea : UK] "Great Achievements" (1962) 23/24 - TYP-360 : SUM-52
Today, in 1854, Florence Nightingale, and her team of thirty-eight nurses, left London for the Crimea. They had an arduous journey, over the channel by sea, and then travelling overland through France until they reached Marseilles. From there they boarded another ship, and landed at Constantinople on the third of November.
This may seem an odd thing for a woman to do, but she was also from a wealthy family, and was expected to attract and marry a rich, or preferably a titled husband, not to become a nurse, nor allow that calling to lead her off to war. Yet despite her family`s disapproval and opposition, in 1851, she moved to Germany and trained as a nurse. Three years later, she started to read of the Crimean War, in the papers, how more soldiers were dying of disease than their injuries. Then, quite by chance, she saw an advert, placed by the government, for nurses. And she applied.
Her first hospital was at Scutari, close to where they landed, and it is a testament to the nurses` strength that they even went inside. The building was dirty, with lice, and rats, all over. There were almost no supplies, not even basic medical requirements, and very little to eat. Worse than that, soldiers were coming in all the time, way too many to find beds for, and most of them were bringing diseases that would run rampant through the building, killing soldiers who were expected to survive, and staff too. And record-keeping, even of the names of the men who were brought in, was hardly ever done.
It is often said that the nurses were not welcomed by the doctors who were already there, but I think this led to the solution, for the doctors did not want the nurses working alongside them, they saw them as only fit to mop the floor, wash, and cook. And through that the cleanliness all round began to improve, the food became more substantial and better quality. And they also started to improve morale, by reading to the injured, offering to write letters home, as well as taking over the record-keeping, something that Florence Nightingale was very adept at. In fact she discovered, through analysis, that soldiers who were injured but stayed at the front were three times less likely to die than those who were brought to the hospital at Scutari.
Slowly, the doctors also changed their opinion, and when a large quantity of casualties flooded in from the Battle of Inkerman, in November 1854, the nurses were given the chance to show their medical training too.
On the second of May, 1855, Florence Nightingale went off on a mission, to visit the men at the Balaklava front and make more observations. This was quite unheard of, but she had her way. However not long after she arrived she began to feel unwell, and the nation called for her to come home. She refused, and by the 24th of May was announcing that she felt much better, though she did accept the loan of a mule cart in which she could travel between the field hospitals, and this was later replaced with a carriage, which she actually had converted into an ambulance.
She did agree to return to England in 1856, but kept campaigning for more nurses, better training, and cleaner hospitals, and she was elected the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society for her groundbreaking analysis work. She also started a fund, and that was used to set up the Nightingale Training School, at St Thomas's Hospital, in London. This was the first college devoted to nursing for women, and once they graduated they were sent all over the world. And she also used her knowledge to write two books on hospital practises. However she was not well, she had what was then known as neurasthenia, and would have to spend long periods of time in bed. Today we call this disease Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
In 1907 she became the first female recipient of the Order of Merit - and to this day, less than ten women have yet joined her in being given that honour.
She died on the thirteenth of August, 1910, at the age of ninety. And to the end she had her way, as her relatives honoured her wishes, and turned down a burial plot in Westminster Abbey. And so she lies quietly, at St Margaret's Church, in East Wellow, Hampshire, close to where her parents lived.
We have briefly mentioned Florence Nightingale before, in our newsletter of the 28th of October 2023 (the diary card for Sunday, the 29th of October featuring the fact that she was the first recipient of the Royal Red Cross Medal in 1883) - and in our newsletter of the 21st of June 2025 (the diary card for Tuesday the 24th of June revealing that she introduced uniforms for nurses, making a long grey tweed dress, and a scarf which kept the hair out of the way of the wounds; and was also the first to wear a belt with all the tools of her trade, fastened by a large silver buckle. However we have never done an in-depth study.
I am not sure I believe that her "Rookie" card was as late as 1923, card 6 of Nicolas Sarony`s "Celebrities and Their Autographs", but it is an interesting card, using the painting of her by Augustus Egg that is in the National Portrait Gallery, and the signature from a letter she wrote in 1897 to Dulan, someone I have not been able to trace. As for her actual "Rookie" card, I am certain that she appeared on several chromos in Europe long before that, and I have actually already found one issued in 1910, by Reckitt & Sons.
As for our set, in our original British Trade Index part two, it appears under "S" for Sumner`s Typhoo Tea, where it is listed as :
- GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS. Sm. Nd. (24). ... SUM-52
However by the time of our updated British Trade Index, it is moved along to "T" for Sumner`s Typhoo Tea, where it is listed as :
- GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS. 1962. 68 x 36. Nd. (24). ... TYP-360
Anonymous [trade : confectionery : UK] "Film Stars" (1958) 38/72 - ZJ8-7.1
Here we have another birthday girl, Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland, who was born today, in Tokyo, in 1917 - though you may know her better as Joan Fontaine. And yes, she was the younger sister of another actress, Olivia de Havilland, though the two had a tempestuous relationship, not aided by their mother - and both were also indeed related on their father`s side to the aircraft designer Sir Geoffrey de Havilland.
The Fontaine comes from the maiden name of her mother, also an actress.
When she was just two her parents separated, after just five years of marriage, and her mother took the two children to America. However, for some reason when she was sixteen, Joan went to Tokyo to live with her father.
She only returned to America in 1935, and almost straight away found work on the stage and screen, though she used neither of her names for her first film, she was credited as Joan Burfield. Some think that this was to save blushes if the film was not a hit. It was not a great success but led to her being signed up by RKO Pictures and over the next four years she certainly made a lot of films, though most were fairly forgettable.
Her big break came quite by accident, when she met David O Selznick at a dinner party. She had been reading the novel "Rebecca", and was discussing it with him, whilst, quite unbeknownst to her, he had been hunting for someone to play the title role in a film of the book that he wanted to make. And though she still had to audition, she got the part, opposite Laurence Olivier, and being directed by Alfred Hitchcock, in his first American film. She was even nominated for an Academy Award, but did not win (it went to Ginger Rogers, for "Kitty Foyle").
However she did win the following year, for another Alfred Hitchcock film "Suspicion", co-starring Cary Grant - and that puts her in the record books as the only acting Academy Award ever to be won in a Hitchcock film.
In 1946 she set up her own production company, and they were responsible for one of my all time favourites "Letter from an Unknown Woman", co-starring Louis Jourdan. She also worked for many other studios, but was bound to none.
In the 1950s she moved to television, and also did more stage work. She found the fast pace of television exciting, though strange - especially for fact that it seemed to take a long time to film, and the end result was under an hour.
She remained on screen until the 1990s, and then she retired. She had been married and divorced four times, the last ending in 1969. She also had a long friendship with the politician Adlai Stevenson II, right until his death.
Then, on December 15, 2013, she died in her sleep of natural causes, aged ninety-six, at her home in the Carmel Highlands.
Although this set has neither manufacturer nor set title, we know it is by Kane Products. We are not so certain of the title though, for not all are film stars, and a lot of those do not mention a film, only a studio. In addition it contains several cards from the British pop music television series "6.5 Special" - Freddie Mills, Jim Dale, Don Lang, Johnny Dankworth, and Mike and Bernie Winters. However, it does include a card of Alma Cogan, one of the very few sets that she appeared in.
In fact it does not even appear under Kane in our original British Trade Index part two, unless you look closely, for the heading says : "Confectionery. Cards issued about 1952-67. See Anonymous Set ZJ8-7.1" - and that code, almost at the back of the book, under "Anonymous Issues (3) - With plain back" reads as follows:
- SET ZJ8-7. FILM STARS (A). Lg. 96 x 67. Front per Fig. 2 at Fig. ZJ8-B, number, caption, and brief text in panel inset at base. ...ZJ8-7
1. Border in white, letterpress in black, last line "Printed in Great Britain". Issued by Kane Products (72).
1. Ruth Roman
2. Ann Blyth
3. Rory Calhoun
4. Zsa Zsa Gabor
5. Alan White
6. George Baker
7. Peter Arne
8. Yvonne Furneaux
9. Richard Todd
10. Guy Rolfe
11. Jane Greer
12. Dorothy Malone
13. Susan Hayward
14. Esther Williams
15. Virginia Mayo
16. David Niven
17. Gail Russell
18. Dennis O'Keefe
19. Robert Ryan
20. John Wayne
21. Roy Rogers
22. Doris Day
23. Robert Stack
24. Laurence Harvey
25. Rod Steiger
26. Anita Ekberg
27. Gene Raymond
28. Gordon Scott
29. Hedy Lamar (incorrect, here and on the card)
30. Lucille Ball
31. Elaine Stewart
32. Sophia Loren
33. Diana Dors
34. Carole Lesley
35. Terry Moore
36. Janette Scott
37. John Fraser
38. Joan Fontaine
39. Frankie Vaughan
40. Gianna Maria Canale
41. Vera Ellen
42. Freddie Mills
43. Gilbert Roland
44. Jane Russell
45. Rhonda Fleming
46. Jim Dale
47. Elsa Martinelli
48. Don Lang
49. Trevor Howard
50. Maureen O'Hara
51. Tony Britton
52. John Agar
53. Dennis Lotis
54. John Barry
55. Donna Reed
56. Grace Kelly
57. Mari Blanchard
58. Barbara Nicholls
59. Johnny Dankworth
60. Dawn Addams
61. Alexis Smith
62. Joanne Dru
63. Faith Domergue
64. Margaret Sheridan
65. Ava Gardner
66. Yvonne De Carlo
67. Gloria Grahame
68. Terry Dene
69. Alma Cogan
70. Jill Adams
71. Mike and Bernie Winters
72. Marigold Russell
In our updated version, this set is restored to Kane, and listed as :
- FILM STARS (A). 1955. 96 x 67. Number, caption, brief text in panel inset at base of picture. "Printed in Great Britain" below. White border, black lettering. Nd.(72). Anonymous, plain back. See HX-30.2. A. & B. C. also issued an anonymous set in identical numbered format, To assist both sets listed at HX-30 ... KAN-090
W.A. & A.C. CHURCHMAN [tobacco : UK - Ipswich] "Sporting Celebrities" (1931) 17/50 - C504-650 : C82-79: C/130 [RB.10/130]
Douglas Jardine was born today, in 1900, in Malabar Hill, India. His parents are noted as Scottish, but his father. Malcolm, mentioned but not named on this card, was also born in India, and, whilst studying in England, had been a cricketer too, for Oxford University and Middlesex, with good prospects, but he chose instead to return to India and become a barrister. And as far as I know he never appeared on any cards.
Our man`s cricketing skills were spotted at his school, but he could be contrary, and unafraid to press a disagreement or different point of view. He too went to England, for school, in Winchester, and then to Oxford, in 1919, and then to study law.
Today we seem to pass over his early cricketing career, and only remember him for the 1932 tour of Australia that came to be known as the "Bodyline" tour, in which, for whatever reason, involved bowling the ball at the player and not at the bat, at a time when neither helmets, nor protective clothing was in use. And it may be said that though it was primarily designed to combat the prolific scoring of Australia`s Don Bradman, the practise was a lot older, being known of at least as far back as the nineteenth century, when it was suddenly regarded as a rather unsporting way to play..
The fact is that he was rather a late starter, his studies, and cricket being abandoned for the First World War, meant that he did not start to play seriously until 1923, when he signed for Surrey. And it took him nine years to become their captain. In the mean time he had gone out on the 1928 Test to Australia, in which he did very well.
His next Test was the "Bodyline" tour", which England won four of the five Tests, but with much discussion and distaste. In fact it almost led to the cancellation of the Australian tour of England in 1934, but it did go ahead, with an MCC ruling, that "Bodyline" was unfair and would not be used.
In the late 1930s he started to play less and less, eventually dropping out of first class cricket altogether in 1937. Some people believe that this was because he became engaged and then married in 1934, though this card, dating from 1931 already hints at another reason, for it says "A solicitor by profession, he is unable regularly to assist Surrey..." He also started a second career tat this time, though, which brought him much pleasure, writing about cricket for the papers, and he actually reported on the 1934 Ashes for the Evening Standard. He also moved out of London.
During the Second War he was in the Territorial Army, and was rescued from the beaches at Dunkirk, after which he was posted to India.
In the 1950s he became the first President of the Association of Cricket Umpires and the President of the Oxford University Cricket Club.
He also travelled, to Australia, and to Rhodesia, where he was bitten by a tick. This caused him much trouble, and when he went to the doctor he was told he had inoperable lung cancer. And he died, in Switzerland, on the 18th of June, 1958.
Our set is first listed in the original reference book to Churchman issues, RB.10, published in 1948, as :
- 130. Dec. 1931. SPORTING CELEBRITIES. (titled series). Size 2 11/16" x 1 7/16" or 67 x 36 m/m. Numbered 1-50. Fronts printed by letterpress, 4-colour half-tone process. Backs in dark green, with descriptions. Printed by Mardon, Son, & Hall
I have to say I would never have taken that back for green!
It next appears in our original World tobacco Issues index, as simply :
- SPORTING CELEBRITIES. Sm. Nd. (50) ... C82-79
And this remains the same in our updated version, save the new card code of C504-650
NESTLE, Peter, Cailler, Kohler [trade : chocolate : O/S - Switzerland] "Cathedrales Gothiques" - S.4.B (1930s) 10/12
Today in 1260 Chartres Cathedral, or, in French, Cathedrale Notre Dame de Chartres (Cathedral of our Lady at Chartres) was re-consecrated, in the presence of none other than King Louis IX
This was not the first Cathedral, or even the first religious building on the site, and the first church, built in the fourth century, was reputedly on the site of at least one sacred building, probably more. However they all met with disaster, fires, wars, etc. The current building is definitely the fifth to stand there, and it contains sections of several of the ones before, including the crypt, the pair of towers, and the West Portal of the one which set afire in June 1194.
It was rather a slow build, and the roof was only raised in 1220. After that it still took forty years to complete. And thereafter it seemed to attract more than its fair share of disaster, being struck by lightning in 1506, almost blown up during the French revolution, and suffering another fire in 1836. It was also almost destroyed during the Second World War, when it was thought that it was being used as an observation post.
Today it is a major tourist attraction and pilgrimage site, with world famous stained glass. And pilgrims have visited from the time that building began. The main reason for this, as well as its name, is the fact that it holds the "Sancta Camisa", or Holy Shirt, said to be worn by the Virgin Mary as she was giving birth to Jesus Christ.
Our card is another of those little paper ones issued by the Nestle stable, and you can find it, as usual, in several forms.
- Cailler`s Chocolate au Lait - serie XXIII (issuer in brown cartouche at bottom, "Cathedrales Gothiques" in top margin)
- Nestle`s Chocolat au Lait - serie I (issuer in brown cartouche at bottom, "Cathedrales Gothique" in top margin)
- Nestle, Peter, Cailler, Kohler - serie IV ("Cathedrales Gothiques" in brown cartouche at bottom, issuers in top margin)
- Nestle, Peter, Cailler, Kohler - serie 4.B ("Cathedrales Gothiques" in brown cartouche at bottom, issuers in top margin)
- Nestle, Peter, Cailler, Kohler - serie 4 ("Cathedrales Gothiques" in brown cartouche at bottom, issuers in top margin)
As for the Cathedrals, they are not all French, as you may be thinking, there are some English ones too, Westminster Abbey, and York Minster. And some from other countries. Whilst it must be noted that though the second card says only Paris on it, it shows the other Notre Dame. :
- Reims
- Paris
- Westminster (Londres, London)
- York
- Milan
- Lausanne
- Bourges
- Cologne
- Strasbourg
- Chartres
- Rouen
- Amiens
This week's Cards of the Day...
were designed to make us think about something which seems to have gone out of style, but is still as important as ever, and that is hand washing.
For on the 15th of October, every year it is Global Handwashing Day, designed to encourage everyone, worldwide, to regularly stop and wash their hands, with soap or with a sanitiser.
And if you were to write down everything you touched from the moment your eyes opened in the morning until they closed for the night, you may start washing your hands more regularly as well...
Strangely this day was added to the awareness calendar in 2008 , almost ten years before the arrival of covid-19 made us much more prone to doing it, and also much more likely to see facilities in shops and offices.
However, washing our hands regularly does not only prevent pandemics - as hand washing is estimated to reduce the incidence of between a quarter and a half of all diseases and maladies like colds, flu, and fever, as well as breathing difficulties and intestinal disorders.
So our clue cards were :
Saturday, 11th October 2025
This is rather a cunning clue, but Peter James Crouch was the figurehead for Ariel washing powder. Apparently he was picked because he was tall and the washing powder pods were the largest on the market. Anyway, Ariel also make powder specifically for washing clothes by hand, which is a massive tangent, but there you go!
Our man was born on January the 30th, 1981 in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England, and for such a talented player, he seems to have worked his way through an awful lot of clubs. Maybe wandering was in his blood, as his father moved the family to Singapore when he was not even a toddler. They were there for three years, and then came back to London. His first team was the Northolt Hotspurs, in North West London, from where he was spotted and asked to join Brentford. He was also spotted there, and picked up three offers, from Chelsea (which was the team his father supported, and where he had briefly been a ball boy), from Milwall, and from Queens Park Rangers, which he picked.
Then it gets a bit sketchy; most sources say he stayed for just one season, and then he found himself at Tottenham Hotspur, who took him on as a trainee, but, for some reason, never played him as a senior, instead they chose to loan him out, to a fairly local team called Dulwich Hamlet, and then to a club miles away in Sweden. After this, he was either sold back to Queens Park Rangers, or he had been there all along and the three intervening teams were all loans. I have not been able to find that out yet.
Whatever happened, he only stayed there a year, moving to Portsmouth when Queens Park Rangers were relegated in 2001, because the demotion meant they could not afford to keep all their top players.
He moved to Aston Villa in 2002, which is reputedly when his "Rookie" card appeared (as No.56 of the Merlin "Premier League" stickers) but I am pretty sure there would have been earlier ones. He never really settled there, though, and was again loaned out, this time in an easterly direction, to Norwich City. The following year saw him at Southampton, back on the South Coast again, but in 2005 he joined Liverpool where he seems to have enjoyed things more, and where he was also on the team that not just lifted the F.A. Cup in 2006, but was runner up the following year in the UEFA Cup. However, after three seasons, he went south again and turned up back at Portsmouth. He spent just one season in his second spell at Portsmouth and left for Tottenham Hotspur, then turned up at Stoke City in August 2011. He also stayed for almost eight years, his longest time with any one team. Then, suddenly, he joined Burnley, for six months, before announcing his retirement - at the age of thirty-eight.
These stickers record the 2010 Panini FIFA World Cup, in which he came on as substitute only twice, once in the opening match and once in the second round.
Intriguingly, there are a few variations of the set - all of which revolve round the backs. Our card is the blue back version, which says "Made in Italy", but you can also get another blue back version which says "Made in Brazil", and, uniform with these, there is a black back version which says "Made in Italy". There are two more though, just for good measure , though they are pretty scarce. One of them says "Industria Argentina" (or made in Argentina) and it was circulated only in that country - whilst the other has a pink back, and it was only circulated in Switzerland, and you can easily tell that because they have gold borders and there is a large circle on the back which says "Schweiz - Suisse - Svizzera".
Sunday, 12th October 2025
Here we have Babylon, and they were one of the first places, if not the very first, to combine fat with alkali (tallow with wood ash) and use the result for cleansing. The other two places claiming the honour are Sumeria, and Egypt - but at the moment the earliest evidence comes from Babylon, where a formula for the production of the material was discovered, dating to 2800 B.C. However, the text is written on a clay tablet, and the clay is Sumerian, so perhaps their claim is not quite over yet.
Now though the "soap" was not designed for cleaning hands, as such, it was for washing woollen clothing, but there is evidence that servant girls used to use it at the end of the day remove stains from their hands, after they had been working, which seems to point to our theme as well.
I originally said that I did not know much about "Resi", but suspected it may have been a brand, for along the bottom of our card it also says "Resi-Trumpf" (which is margarine), "Resi-Nuss" (nuts), "Resi-Schmelz (also margarine) "Palmarol" (palm oil?)".
However now I can share that yes, I was right, a reader has told me that it was a brand, belonging to Fritz Homann of Dissen (Teutoburger Wald).
And you can read more about them with our Card of the Day for the 24th of November 2024
There is a bit more info under the set title on this card, and that tells us the set covers 4000 years from the birth of Christ, through Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and Germany`s culture, and is complete in a hundred pictures. And that the album costs two deutschmarks.
Resi, the margarine, issued not just cards, but small plastic figures - houses, people, animals, trees and fences - which were in packed in the margarine. And at least one other set, not to my liking, called "Grosswildjagd in Aller Welt" [Big Game Hunting].
And if anyone would like to expand this, please do!
Monday, 13th October 2025
This card supplied the hand after all that washing. And I am surprised I have not used one of these before, as I really like the blue of the background. Though when I researched it I found a really intriguing twist that I had not expected.....
Now though this card was used to only show a hand, it is intriguing that it is yet another set on palmistry - just like the ones that were issued by Major Drapkin, in April 1927, which we featured as our Card of the Day for the 8th of March, 2023.
Palmistry is seen by many as a skill, even a science, and it aims to read the lines on the palm and from those determine the fortunes and future of the person whose hand is being examined. And it is not a new thing, we know that it was being done in ancient times, beginning in India, and then moving into Asia and the Middle East. It also had a brief but shining moment in ancient Greece, and Alexander the Great reputedly picked his warriors from the lines on their hands. The surprising thing was that it was strictly something for men, women`s hands were never read.
Then, in the fifteenth and sixteenth century, the practise was suppressed, and lots of early works destroyed.
It stayed a dark, forbidden art for almost three hundred years, and then in 1839, one of Napoleon`s soldiers, a Captain Casimir Stanislas D'Arpentigny, published a book about it, called "La Chirognomie". He claimed that whilst he was fighting the Peninsular Wars in Spain he had been taught to read palms by a young gipsy girl whose family had guarded the secret for centuries, but who seems to have taken a bit of a shine to him and furthered their acquaintance, shall I say, by offering to teach him the skill. He was certainly interested by the subject and made his own studies of all the hands he came in contact with, noting that the basic shape of the hands did often vary between people who were artistic and others who were scientific, the artists tending to have rougher squarer hands and the scientists having smoother hands. He would go on to develop this into six main hand types, and one called a "mixed" hand, where some of the pieces of the hand are of more than one type - and this system is still used today. Curiously he continued to perpetuate the belief that the shapes of the hand only counted for men`s hands, not women`s, they were dealt with in a separate part of his book. And he never seems to have done anything about the lines on the palms.
The book was a cult classic, though it took fifty years for any form of governing body to be founded. The first was called "The Chirological Society of Great Britain", and less than ten years later there was an "American Chirological Society".
The first attempt at making the craft more available to the general public came in 1894, with the Irishman William John Warner`s self-published "Cheiro's Language of the Hand". He also adopted the name of Cheiro as his own, which came from "cheirology", one of several names which palm reading became known. He had travelled widely through India, studying with several gurus, and then set up a palmistry centre in London. He soon attracted a massive following of celebrities all of whom would do anything to have him read their palm and tell their future, including people you would have thought not so easily swayed - Mark Twain, General Kitchener, Grover Cleveland, the President of America, and a Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone - as well as Joseph Chamberlain, the father of future Prime Minister Neville. And he had some amazing predictions that proved to be truths - the sinking of the Titanic, and the abdication of King Edward VIII, which is even more astounding as it happened slightly less than two months after Cheiro had died, in Hollywood, on October the 19th, 1936. In fact this story is even more interesting than this - for it was only on the 16th of November 1936 that King Edward called the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to Buckingham Palace and told him for the first time that he planned to marry Mrs. Simpson as soon as he could. Before that their relationship had been kept under wraps.
Sadly there is not much recorded about this set in our World Tobacco Issues Index, only :
- PALMISTRY. Sm. 69 x 40. Nd. (50) ... C18-63
And that text is repeated in our updated version, with only one change, a new card code of C151-355.
However, if you carry on to almost the end of the Carreras listing in this updated book, then you will find this set listed again, which makes it appear a re-issue, but it is not.
Those cards. and we show one here, were issued with "Black Cat" cigarettes in the late 1970s and are very different. Gone are the blue backgrounds and the actual hands, and in come very stylised hands, on different coloured backgrounds.
The first ten cards have mauve backgrounds and, harking back to Captain Casimir Stanislas D'Arpentigny; they deal purely with the shape of the hand, attempting to define the realist, the charmer, the power-seeker, the inventor or individualist, the introvert, the extrovert, the intellectual, the sensitive type, the single minded and ambitious and the easy-going, gentle type.
Then the other forty cards deal with the lines on the hand, but in combination, like we show here, three or four lines at a time in thick black ink. They are split into groups of ten, each of which have backgrounds in different colours, cards eleven to twenty being blue and covering the palm as it relates to career, cards twenty-one to thirty being red and covering love, cards thirty-one to forty being on green and covering money and success, and cards forty-one to fifty being back on mauve again and covering health.
Tuesday, 14th October 2025
Not too much of a leap from palmistry to cartomancy, or divination by cards, though you may be wondering why these are not the more usual "Tarot" cards. So let me explain, for the skill of telling fortunes with cards started with a standard pack cards, almost as soon as they were first seen in Europe in the fourteenth century - and continued through to modern times.
The "Tarot" cards that we know of today were only invented in Italy in the fifteenth century but were not used for divination until almost the end of the eighteenth century. Whilst the Rider-Waite Tarot, probably the best known, was only published in 1909.
Now let us return to our subject, and this card shows the worst case scenario of what can happen if you do not wash your hands - not that you will get ill, but that you will pass the germ to the one you love. So here we have a small child and her doll lies sick abed, rather a morbid card really, but i imagine it will all end happily and the morning will see the doll restored and the illness all forgotten.
Sadly, in real life this is not always the case. Yet washing hands just with soap and water, not even with anti-bacterial gel, for just fifteen seconds, removes ninety per cent of all the bacteria that you have accumulated on them since the last time they were washed. And these germs are mobile, they can easily come off your hands and on to your eyes, nose and mouth. Or on to someone else, who is maybe looking after an ailing relative, or friend, and passes the germ along, without even knowing...
To cards, whilst you ponder
This set is actually very akin to yesterday`s subject as every card has a meaning, which is shown as the illustration, and also titled on the card at the bottom.
And I have a list, which like the card, was supplied by a reader. Now when the list came in the reader was hoping that we could answer a question, because cards two to six are missing in all of the suits, and though he keeps looking for those missing cards, he never finds them. But, as I am rather interested in all forms of divination, as you may have guessed, I was able to tell him the good and bad news, that being that in France they use a short deck for divination, of only thirty-two cards, these being the sevens to tens, the court cards, and the ace, the ace being high and following the King. So this set would have followed that practise, and he can halt his hunt.
Therefore here is the checklist for this set
Coeurs (hearts)
- 7 - douces pensees [sweet thoughts]
- 8 - rejouissance [rejoicing]
- 9 - reuissite [success]
- 10 - bonte [goodness]
- J - militaire generositie [military kindness?]
- Q - bon repas [a good meal]
- K - fidelite [fidelity]
- A - visite [a visitor]
Carreau (diamonds)
- 7 - heritage [legacy]
- 8 - patience [patience]
- 9 - cupidite, richesse [greed with riches]
- 10 - excursion, voyage [travel]
- J - mariage [marriage]
- Q - modestie [modesty]
- K - eloquence [eloquence]
- A - nouvelles [news]
Trefles (clubs - from trefoils)
- 7 - trouvaille [travel]
- 8 - succes [success]
- 9 - jeux et argent [games and money]
- 10 - prosperite et fortune [prosperity and fortune]
- J - trahison [treason]
- Q - bonne mere [being a good mother]
- K - homme d`affaires [businessman]
- A - orgueil [pride]
Piques (spades)
- 7 - femme mechante [a nasty woman]
- 8 - maladie [sickness]
- 9 - chagrin, querrelle [worry and quarrel]
- 10 - accient [accident]
- J - jeune homme a marier [marrying a young man]
- Q - sagesse [wiseness]
- K - gourmandise [gluttony]
- A - amitie, declaration [a declaration of friendship]
Wednesday, 15th October 2025
Another thing we seem to have abandoned, post Covid, is the practise of wearing a mask on public transport. Though some still do, I have to say.
Yet airborne germs are not the easiest way to pass on disease, it is by touch, of the handrails, the floor, the seats, the bells you ring to get off, the straps that you hold when the bus is full and you have to stand.
And trains are no better, because you can add the ticket machines, the gates, and the rails to help you down the stairs.
Do you honestly wash your hands when you get to the end of your journey, or, at the very least, before having something to eat?
Our bus is described as "The K-Type LGOC bus". They were made by Associated Equipment Company, the LGOC refers to the London General Omnibus Company, the operator, not the maker. Though we know that a few were sold to other parts of England as well, so they were not only used in London.
The K-type started to be produced in 1914, but this was halted by the First World War. After that, in 1919, they began to enter service, but only in limited areas, and on test runs, so it seems likely that this was because they were using the completed pre-War vehicles whilst they started to build a new batch. Therefore it was the following year that they were really rolled out into proper usage.
Their main benefit was that because the driver sat alongside the engine, twelve more passengers could be carried.
Between 1919 and 1932, approximately a thousand were made, but now but a handful survive, one of which is at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden, and, I am delighted to say, it is still able to drive to events.
This card is a new set to me, but I looked it up in our original British Trade index part two and there it was. The header tells us that JESK was a trademark, a corruption of the name J.S. King & Co., who were based in East London.
The set is described as :
- BUSES AND TRAMS. Sm. 68 x 38. Nd. (25) See D.242 ... JES-1
And they also tell of a curious issue "Facts and Figures", 76 x 33 on paper, just wording, in red.
Returning to our set, the D.242 can be found at the back of the book and it is a list of all the other duplicate issuers of the same cards. In our case these are actually not so many, only ;
- Fizzy Fruit Picture Bars - Set FJZ-1 (issued 1959)
- Hitchmans Dairies - Set HIT-5 (issued 1966)
Now there is a spot of intrigue, also mentioned, about the Hitchman`s Dairies issue, for it says that "No.11 in this printing has the advertisement "Priory Tea" removed from the tram" - and that suggests that Priory Tea must have also used the set, or maybe just the card. I can also state that in the Jesk format the "Priory Tea" advert is still there on card eleven. Perhaps it was just Hitchman`s getting snippy about a rival, because, like Priory, they sold tea. And if you are wondering what it was replaced by, it was an advert for "White Horse Whisky. It was only the banner, too, the bus is still heading for Shepherds Bush..
By the time of our updated British Trade Index the main set is described as :
- BUSES AND TRAMS. 1959. 68 x 38. Nd. (25) See HX-109 ... JES-040
"Facts and Figures" is also updated, to give an issue date of 1961.
Thursday, 16th October 2025
And as we almost close off our week, a little nod to another place where you really ought to wash your hands after walking round, and that is a shop, especially a large, crowded one, or a food shop - and especially if you are prone to doing your shopping then having a bite to eat in the on-site cafe.
In a study, it was discovered that the food is fairly safe, as most people take the first item they touch - it is the checkout, with its touch screens, that harbours the most germs. The only other places that come close are the doors to the bathrooms, and, this will surprise you, the doors to the freezers....
Benson & Hedges, tobacconists and cigar importers, was founded in 1873 by two men, Richard Matthias Benson, who was born in 1817, and William Hedges, who was born in 1836.
Mr. Hedges is recorded as having been succeeded in 1885 by his son, Alfred Paget Hedges, though it turns out that he must have only handed over the reins, for he lived until 1913, longer than Mr. Benson, who died in 1882.
The men picked their location, 13 Old Bond Street, in London, to impress, and it worked, because they did have an amazing clientele, including Royalty.
Not long after that they started to export, and to set up branches in America and Canada. And thecompany remained in family hands until the 1950s, when the American branch was bought out by Philip Morris, and Gallaher picked up the English one.
This card was obviously issued to mark their centenary but it does not appear in any of our reference books. It shows the original shop, which it is still in existence, though it is also listed as permanently closed.
Friday, 17th October 2025
This card is a pleasant end to the week. And it reinforces the fact that good hygiene should start young, as well as being much more fun, and more memorable, when taught in little groups.
I am delighted to be able to have this, as we featured a very similar set by Chocolat Menier of France in our newsletter for the 21st of December 2024 - on that day, Saturday the 21st of December. However we said at the time that whilst there were similarities, there were also major differences, not only that the Chocolat Menier set has more cards, we showed card 103, whilst ours is of a hundred only. And though it is certain that the artwork was either supplied by the Disney Studio, or both sets were drawn by the same artist, the pictures are different in both sets. They are also very similar to sets issued by Cadum and Palmolive.
We also know that our set was issued with Snow White Cookies, in a variety of flavours, including “Heigh-Ho nuts”, orange, vanilla, raspberry and cocoa, raspberry cream, and even avocado. Not sure I like the sound of that. And there were also Snow White chocolates.
Another thing we know is that the backs do differ, with several brands being mentioned. We believe that the brand on the back was the brand in which that card was distributed, which seems to suggest that you had to buy a lot of product to get a complete set. You can also get it with two lines at the bottom, and in both French (as "Blanche Neige et les Sept Nains") and Dutch (as "Sneeuwwitjen en de Zeven Kabouters")
And if that were not enough, they also offered jigsaw puzzles, which may not seem to have anything to do with cartophily, but they use the picture from off the album cover.
And so time has beaten me, again. Over the weekend, I will add the card gen from the reference books, so watch the banner on the front page to see what I have updated last - and then I will begin next week`s newsletter.
It was a very good week, which actually ended with my getting a flu jab, Friday morning - something which scared me a lot, but all seems to have gone well. Have you got yours yet? If not, ask at your local chemist, where they are free for over 65 year olds (which does not include me) and also for registered carers (which does).
Happy reading, and a great weekend....