Newsletter - 2025-12-27

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Anonymous [? - O/S - France] "Louis Pasteur Centenary Medal" (May 1923) 1/1 

Today in 1822 Louis Pasteur was born in Dole, a place with a long and surprising story, for it had been the capital of the Franche-Comte region, home of the university and the court right until Louis XIV took the region over and moved both of the latter to Besancon.

Louis Pasteur was born into a very poor family, his father was a tanner and leather worker,  there were already two children when Louis came along, and two more would follow.

When he went to school, aged nine, he was a poor student. Modern scholars believe he may have actually had learning difficulties, because he struggled so with examinations, but at that time such were not even heard of. However he refused to give up, and would eventually pass his master’s degree in 1845 and his doctorate in 1847. 

Whilst he was working out what to do next, he worked as a laboratory assistant, where he spent his spare time experimenting and researching. His dissertation had been on using crystals to show and twist the light. This would lead him into further investigations with molecules, but his work was halted when he found a position in Strasbourg. He then moved to their Lille campus.

Whilst there he started working on fermentation, which he believed was caused by living microorganisms, contrary to current opinion, which believed fermentation was random and caused by chemical reaction. This led him to invent and patent a system of heating the substance to a temperature high enough to kill the living organisms. This worked, and was eventually named "pasteurization" after him. But he also wondered if diseases of the human body were not caused in the same way. And he used that theory successfully in the 1860s to discover that the silkworm crisis was also caused by microorganisms. However further research was halted when he had a stroke in 1868, paralysing his left hand side. He believed that had been caused by overwork, and managed to coerce the government to build him a laboratory and lessen his teaching work. He was also awarded a pension, which meant he did not have to work so hard. 

The new facility allowed him to devote most of his time to his passion, the study of human disease. In fact there was a sad reason for this, as three of his five children died from infectious diseases. The government actually wanted him to start by investigating anthrax, which was first described in a clinical fashion by Maret in 1752 and Fournier in 1769, though the disease had been known for centuries. He was more interested in a fatal bird disease called fowl cholera, thinking it may be related to the human version, and it was whilst researchng this that he discovered vaccination, injecting a light dose of a same disease into a healthy body in an attempt to build immunity. To prove this he did a mass experiment on various animals, injecting half with a weakened anthrax compound, then returning and injecting all with anthrax. This resulted in undeniable proof that the system worked. 

He then turned his attention to rabies. His vaccine also worked in animals, but no human was brave enough to be injected, until a nine year old boy, Joseph Meister, badly infected, agreed. That led to the opening of the Pasteur Institute in 1888. 

Sadly he did not live for much longer, had several, ever increasing strokes, starting in the late 1880s, and he died, aged seventy-two, on September 28, 1895, in Marnes-la-Coquette, near Paris. He was then buried, in a vault, beneath the Pasteur Institute.

Since uploading this, when I stated that this card does not belong to me, but the owner would very much like to know more about it, I have actually found something quite interesting, and that is the fact that the Government of the French Republic announced that to mark the centenary of his birth there would be a joint celebration of Louis Pasteur and Strasbourg, where he began his career. Unfortunately they did this in 1923, and he was born in December 1822. Anyway, they also held an exhibition "L'Exposition Internationale du Centenaire de Pasteur", which showed updates and discoveries in the areas that he chose to research, primarily medicine. Many of the exhibits would then be moved to a new museum, of Hygiene. This seems never to have come about, unless it was removed to Dresden later, for the one there is the only one I can find.

However there are still problems with this, as the exhibition was not opened until the first of June, with, on the same day a monument in the Place de l'Universite being unveiled. And also Louis Pasteur was not in Strasbourg until 1848, when he started teaching Chemistry at the University

I have had time to research the words on it though, which are "sans laboratoires les savants sont des soldats sans armes". These must have been his own, because they translate to "Without laboratories, scientists are soldiers without weapons". 

According to the Trading Card Database, Louis Pasteur`s "rookie" card was number 62 of Ogden`s "General Interest Series A, issued about 1901. That may well be true. However it is
certain that he does not wait until 1937, and card 27 of Ardath`s "Your Birthday Tells Your Fortune" to reappear. 

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MOORE & Calvi [tobacco : O/S - USA - New York] "Playing Cards" (1890) King of Spades /53 -  M854-600.3.B: M138-4.3.B : X2/457-8.3.B : USA/457-3.B

For our next trick, we celebrate the art of having good hands and a steady nerve. For it is #NationalCardPlayingDay.

As you probably know by now I am rather fond of these small pasteboard wonders, and even more so when they were issued as true cartophilic items. And I have to say that this group of sets is one of my favourites, with its curvaceous beauties and elaborate, often theatrical costumes.

There is a theory that the Kings represent real people - Alexander the Great (King of Clubs), Julius Caesar (King of Diamonds), Charlemagne (King of Hearts), and King David (King of Spades). These Kings cross the boundaries of area and religion, being Macedonian, Frankish, Roman, and Jewish respectively, however it must be stated that these identities were only assigned them in the fifteenth century, and did not last longer than the eighteenth.

However I mention it here because the theory is actually backed up in our case, because this lady is carrying a sword. of fairly large proportion. In fact, if you look, most of it is hidden, but you can see that it continues inside of her clothing and pushes it out of shape. And although we remember David for killing Goliath with a simple slingshot, in fact, as we are told in the first book of Samuel - "Then David ran over and pulled Goliath’s sword out from its sheath. David used it to kill him and cut off his head.”

Our lady comes from the third group of these playing cards, and you can read more about the various sets in our newsletter for the 4th of October 2025 -  by scrolling down to Wednesday, the 8th October. Now we have another group on display, we will start excising the pieces, so the third group, which this card comes from, is described as follows - 

The whole group appears in our original World Tobacco Index as follows : 

MOORE & CALVI, New York, U.S.A.
Associated with Maclin-Zimmer Tobacco Co. and Thompson, Moore & Co. Cards issued about 1885-95. Includes brand issues inscribed "Hard A Port Cut Plug" and "Trumps Long Cut". 

• PLAYING CARDS (ACTRESSES). (A). Lg. 109 x 60. (53). Subjects unnamed. See X2/457-8. ... M138-4
  
     Third Pack. Engraved back in blue. 
  
         A. "Trumps Long Cut" brand issue. Ref. USA/457-3. 
  
         B. "Hard A Port" brand issue. 35 m/m circle in centre of back. Ref. USA/458-3. 
  
         C. Back with Moore & Calvi name in centre circle. Ref. USA/458-4. Back overprinted at top in red as follows :- 
  
             (a.) "J.N. Cullingworth, Inc.- Factory No.34 - Richmond, 2d. Dist. of Va."
  
             (b.) Inscription in (a) cancelled by mauve or grey rubber stamp, with new name "John H. Maclin & Son, (Inc.) - Factory No.10 - Richmond, 2d. Dist. of Va."
   
             (c.)  Inscription in (a) corrected in red with Cullingworth  name blocked out, reading "J. H. Maclin & Son, (Inc.) - Factory No.10 ..."
  
             (d.) "The Maclin-Zimmer Tobacco Co., Inc - Factory No.10 - Richmond, 2d. Dist. of Va."

That "X" reference leads to the accompanying handbook, where there are pictures of the backs, which I will try to track down the originals of, as these are hard to see, and this entry

• X2/457-8. PLAYING CARDS (Actresses). (A). Large size. Fronts pictures of girls with playing card value in corner or embodied on dress design. Three series, each of 53 (pack and joker). Issued by Moore & Calvi.
  
  All series are brand issues except set 3.C. For details of minor printing varieties see Set M138-4 in the World Index. Set 3 was also issued by Maclin-Zimmer, see Set M20-3 in the World Index. 
  
      3. Third Pack. Engraved back in blue. Three styles.
  
             A. Back per Fig X2/457-3 - "Trumps Long Cut" brand issue. Ref. USA/457-3. 
  
             B. Back per Fig X2/458-3 -  "Hard A Port" brand issue. 35 m/m circle in centre 
  
             C. Back per Fig X2/458-4  with Moore & Calvi or Maclin-Zimmer names in centre. Various overprintings.

By the time of our updated World Tobacco Issues Index,about a half a century on, the entry had not changed vide the header, but some new information had come to light. That entry reads : 

MOORE & CALVI, New York, U.S.A.
Associated with Maclin-Zimmer Tobacco Co. and Thompson, Moore & Co. Cards issued about 1885-95. Includes brand issues inscribed "Hard A Port Cut Plug" and "Trumps Long Cut". 

• PLAYING CARDS (ACTRESSES). (A). Lg. 99 x 60. (53). Subjects unnamed. Ref.USA/457/8 ... M854-600
  
  3. Third Pack. Engraved back in blue. 
  
        A. "Trumps Long Cut" brand issue. Ref. USA/457-3.
  
        B. "Hard A Port" brand issue. 35 m/m circle in centre of back. Ref. USA/458
  
        C. Back with Moore & Calvi name in centre circle. Ref. USA/458-4. Back overprinted at top in red as follows :- 
  
              (a.) "J.N. Cullingworth, Inc.- Factory No.34 - Richmond, 2d. Dist. of Va."
  
              (b.) Inscription in (a) cancelled by mauve or grey rubber stamp, with new name "John H. Maclin & Son, (Inc.) - Factory No.10 - Richmond, 2d. Dist. of Va."
  
             (c.)  Inscription in (a) corrected in red with Cullingworth  name blocked out, reading "J. H. Maclin & Son, (Inc.) - Factory No.10 ..."
  
             (d.) "The Maclin-Zimmer Tobacco Co., Inc - Factory No.10 - Richmond, 2d. Dist. of Va."
    
            (e) Back without overprint.
   

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Biscuits GEORGES [trade : biscuits : O/S - Courbevoie, France] "Musique" (1900) Un/?

This day has two, closely linked, anniversaries, for it is #InternationalCelloDay and also the birth date of Pablo Casals. The first celebration of this day was held in 2015, which seems to have nothing to do with Pablo Casals, but maybe I will find something as I investigate. 

Pablo Casals was actually Pau Casals, and he was Spanish, or more correctly, Catalonian. He was born today in 1876. His mother was Puerto Rican and his father Catalan; and his father, who was the parish organist and choirmaster, encouraged his son`s musical ability from a very young age. By the age of four, Casals was skilled in piano and flute, by the ago of six he played the violin, and liked it much better. Then, one day, not so long after, some travelling musicians came to town, and one of them produced a cello.Our man was enraptured, by the sound and by the size, so much so that he pestered his father to build him one, which he did, out of a hollowed gourd.

When he was twelve, his mother took him to Barcelona, and signed him up to the Escola Municipal de Música. He believed that he could dedicate himself to the cello, but he had to learn other instruments, and also work hard on music theory. The time at school was much enlivened by a local shop, which sold second hand sheet music - and one day he stumbled on an old, almost unreadable copy of Bach`s "Cello Suites". When he played them, his life was changed forever, for he would not only go on to make them part of his repertoire, but he would rework them, and make them known across the globe. To this day they are the one things that most people know him for. 

In 1899 he even played for Queen Victoria, at Crystal Palace, and went on to play for President Roosevelt five years later, at the White House. In 1919 he started his own orchestra, which was extremely successful, but which he closed down at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. 

He died on October 22, 1973, aged ninety-six, in a hospital in Puerto Rica after suffering a heart attack three weeks before. Six years later, his body was returned to Spain and buried.

The cards were printed by F. Hermet, the F. standing for Felix. The illustrator is "Guillaume"

And the eight cards known so far are :

• La Flute
• La Guitare
• La Harpe
• Le Biniou - a type of bagpipe from Brittany
• Le Tambour
• Le Trombone
• Le Violoncelle
• L`Orgue de Barbarie

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Sears Roebuck [trade : department store : O/S - Chicago, Illinois, USA] "Ben Hur Wallace Memorial Edition postcard" (1908) 1/1

In our last centenary of 2026, we have selected the theatrical release of Ben Hur : A Tale of the Christ".

Today we never use and seldom even remember that second part of the title, but it was indeed an attempt to tell a biblical story, starting with Mary and Joseph in Jerusalem. Today we mainly only remember it, if at all, for the chariot racing, and most people are thinking of the coloured version. released in 1959, with Charlton Heston. Our 1926 version was black and white, and was directed by Fred Niblo, from June Mathis` adaptation  of the 1880 novel by Lew Wallace, and it had actually been filmed before, in 1907. However that was rather a disaster as it saw the film studio getting successfully sued by the author`s estate for not asking before they made it, a case which actually paved the way for the idea of authors rights. 

The story is a simple one, padded out with action scenes. A wealthy Jewish man, called Judah, meets up with a boyhood friend, a Roman called Messala. It is  a grudging friendship now though, as both feel their religions are the only one. As the new Roman governor passes by the house where the two men stand on the terrace a roof tile tumbles to the ground and Messala blames Judah, which gets him arrested and enslaved, then pressed into servitude, rowing a galley. During this period he meets Jesus, a carpenter`s son, who gives Judah water. Judah`s skill at rowing sees him sent to a warship, and the Roman in command of that vessel seems to have admired him, so much so that Judah was not chained to the oars as all the other slaves were. This means that when the vessel is attacked by pirates Judah is able to save the Roman from death by drowning, a feat which is repaid by Judah being adopted almost as the Roman`s son. During this time he shows that he is also an excellent horseman, and charioteer, which leads him to competing in a no holds barred race in Antioch. One of his fellow competitors turns out to be Messala, and the old rivalry flares up again. leading to a frantic chariot race that is more like war, in which Messala`s chariot is wrecked. Judah wins and decides to give all his money to Jesus, to help him overthrow the Romans, but before that can happen Jesus is arrested, and meets his death. Then, for some reason there is an earthquake, and the film ends with Judah vowing that Jesus will live forever. 

Strangely, Ramon Novarro was not the first choice for the lead part of Judah/Ben Hur. June Mathis wanted it to go to Rudolph Valentino, on whom she was very keen. In fact when he died and had nowhere for his body to go she put him in her mausoleum and there he remains to this day, along with her. However when he did not meet with anyone else`s approval, George Walsh was cast. Then for some reason George Walsh was fired, after quite a lot of filming had taken place, and Ramon Novarro was hired. Apparently there are still some scenes where you can see George Walsh, either in the background or in crowd scenes. You can also see several other future stars watching the chariot race, including John and Lionel Barrymore, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, Dorothy and Lillian Gish, and even Harold Lloyd. 

The film was popular, though rather a niche market. The set piece, of the chariot race, involved over forty different cameramen so that views could be interspliced. Many of the accidents were real, caused by the use of tripwires, something that is luckily outlawed today, many horses, and reputedly some extras were killed. May McAvoy, one of the stars, playing Esther, was also injured, in an other, unrelated, chariot scene.

The film was neither nominated for, or won any Academy Awards - for they did not begin until 1929. However the 1959 remake with Charlton Heston won eleven. 

This postcard was sent out by Sears Roebuck in 1908 in order to advertise their forthcoming issue of a memorial edition of General Lew Wallace`s book "Ben Hur - A Tale of the Christ". That book was published in 1908. On the left hand side of the reverse is a box which tells more of the book, "Gorgeous jacket in colours and gold - The Chariot Race - and illustrated pictorial end sheets.560 pages. Size 7 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches. Bound in blue cloth, stamped in purple and gold. A larger and better book than the $1.50 edition. It is a thrilling grand story and the handsomest book of the year. The picture on the other side is a copy of the jacket. No.3N101. Ben-Hur. Price 48c. 

And this is true, for if you are lucky enough to find an original copy of that book, complete with dust jacket, this is indeed the picture on that dust jacket, running from front to back across the spine, though there is a decorative border added on the book. It does not look like that decorative border was ever reproduced on the postcards, which are way more easily available, for by now one would have turned up. 

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Farine SALVY [trade : baby food : O/S - Courbevoie, France] "Animaux Humoreux" (1920s) 

When the year ends, it seems natural to want to reach out and make connections, and so we close our 2025 with the following tale, of London trying to send a message to New York, via Belfast.

Strange then that it starts with the U.S. Navy pretty much seizing Marconi`s ship to shore radio transmission facilities and setting them up as the Radio Corporation of America. This also resulted in the British military, who ran radio, for military purposes only at that time, pretty much banning present and former employees of Marconi from experimenting with any form of commercial radio broadcasting. 

However, in 1922, the General Post Office agreed to license a non-military radio station, called the British Broadcasting Company; which was allowed to sell radio equipment to listeners and also charge license fees to use it. They were not, however, allowed to sell air time to commercial advertisers.

There had been experiments in non-military radio for a short while, even a radio station, call-signed 2MT, which had begun on the 14th of February, 1922, in a former army hut next to the Marconi facility at Writtle in Essex. This was run by an ex Royal Flying Corps wireless officer, called Captain Peter Pendleton Eckersley, (who was a relative of Aldous Huxley). He had joined Marconi as the head of the experimental section of the Aircraft Department, after proving his value at the wireless station at Biggin Hill. The station ]sent out its messages, for testing purposes, on Tuesday evenings between eight and eight thirty, hoping that people would tune in, though they had no way to know. Now because voice messages were often interrupted, or faint, and had to break for breathing, and, after all, because the station only operated on two hundred watts, it was realised that to play music would give a better chance at the broadcasts being picked up by the outside world. Therefore 2MT holds the honour of being the first radio station to provide entertainment, rather than just a stream of vocal testing messages. 

Captain Eckersley`s skill was also picked up by his next employer, who wanted him as their chief engineer. His new job, at Marconi House, on the Strand, in London, included presenting and producing a similar regular broadcast for a new station, set up on the 11th of May 1922, and called 2LO. Again that only aired for one hour a day, and curiously operated on only a hundred watts, half of what was available at the little army hut in Writtle.  

On the 14th of November, 1922, this station officially became part of the British Broadcasting Company, and relocated to premises at Savoy Hill. Later that year they first aired the chimes of Big Ben, live, to mark the coming of New Year`s Day, 1923. And today in 1925, the reason for all our preamble, they transmitted music, live from the Savoy Hotel, to Belfast, who sent it on to New York and Washington, the first attempt at the BBC going international. 

However, earlier in 1923 the company had begun to question their non-selling of airtime, something which had led to the G.P.O. stopping their radio license, and eventually to the closure of the British Broadcasting Company in November 1927. After that they re-opened, as the British Broadcasting Corporation, though curiously their self imposed ban on commercial advertising remains to this day. Then, on the 9th of March, 1930, 2LO was no more, it was split into two, the BBC National and Regional programmes, which at first operated from the same studios, but slowly found local premises and presenters across the land.

Sadly Captain Eckersley flirted rather with scandal for the rest of his life, starting with the cause of it all, an affair with a fellow employee`s ex wife, who brought him into contact with such as William Joyce, Oswald Mosley and even Adolf Hitler. He was never actually stripped of his Life Vice-Presidency of the Radio Society of Great Britain, but it was questioned severely, especially after he attempted to set up a rival radio station in Europe using cable, and definitely after these were "captured".by the enemy.  It is even more curious though, because from 1937 our man worked for M16, in the propaganda department, despite his attendance at at least two Nuremberg Rallies, one that very year, and one the next - and the fact that his wife and her son by her previous marriage both worked for German radio. In fact she recruited William Joyce and seems to have started his "Germany Calling" broadcasts. And in 1945 both the Eckersleys were tried for supporting the enemy - our man was bound over for two years but she went to jail, for a year.

This card is way more humorous than all that, but it does show two different species attempting to communicate through radio. I am not sure if is a one off, or not. Maybe you will let me know of others. 

Farine means flour, and Farine Lactee was one of Salvy`s best selling products; the words translate to milk flour, and it was designed for babies. Another word on this card is equally important, and that is "diastasee", which is an enzyme called alpha amylase. Today it is still an important health product, called Diastase and it is used to break up complex carbohydrates like starch into smaller, more easily digested sugars.

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C. REMONTEY [trade : shoes : O/S - Paris, France] "Cloches" / bells

Two days in one today, for it is #RingABellDay and the beginning of the National Bell Festival, at least in America. So if you listen out, wherever you are in the world, you will hopefully hear your local church joining in, though maybe not as many as in 2023, when the United Kingdom was chosen as the host country. And poignantly, this year the host nation is Ukraine, proving that the sound of bells can unite and inspire a nation, and give strength to one besieged. 

Through the centuries, as long as bells have been around, they have acted as calling signs, much like a radio - they call the remote and isolated to gather, sound over life changing and lijfe ending events, even mark the changes in the calendar and the hours in the day. And they also warn of enemy attack, or the cessation of hostilities, so that they can once more resume their peace-time lives

Now we have featured this set before but in a much different format, and there is absolutely no question that the card we illustrated as our Card of the Day for the 9th of May, 2025 ever had these huge white borders, though there is speculation as to which version came first. 

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PETER, Cailler, Kohler, & Nestlé [trade : chocolate : O/S : Europe] "Animaux Humoristiques" - Serie XXXII (1930s) 9/12 

Today in 1926 saw the first edition of "Melody Maker" magazine, and they did issue cards, showing musical performers, and, rather oddly, Alan Partridge. However I have none of those, and nor does anyone I know. So we have hopped away from that in leaps and bounds, and are going to chat about kangaroos. 

The reason for that is that today, in 1913, Australia introduced a range of postage stamps which showed a kangaroo and a map of Australia. They were, rather prosaically, known as the Kangaroo and Map series, but they were very important, and timely, for the Commonwealth of Australia had been established some twelve years ago (on the 1st of January 1901), and these were the first stamps that were valid across the land. And they were enormously popular with the general public. 

However, behind the scenes there had been many shauries. The stamp was to be chosen from all entrants of a design competition which began in January 1911, and ended in June, the winning artist of which would also receive £100, with the runner up getting £50, but the Postmaster-General, Josiah Thomas, did not like any of the entries. He had still not announced a winner by October, when he was replaced as Postmaster-General by Charlie Frazer. Mr. Frazer did not like any of them either, though he did like the idea of having a stamp with a kangaroo, and another design, with a map, was also pleasing, but both lacked something, though he did not know what.

He then reached out to the Victorian Artists’ Society (Victorian referring to the state, not the century), to see if there was anyone there who could design a stamp instead. They put him in touch with Blamire Young, an English artist living in Australia, and, after a few discussions, it was decided that the new artwork would feature a kangaroo and a map.

This was harder that it sounded, as Mr. Blamire soon realised that a map showing even just the largest towns would be too cluttered, and fitting the kangaroo in almost impossible, so what he did was to just draw the outline of the map of Australia, and have the kangaroo inside. That looked a bit odd, so he added vegetation for the kangaroo to stand on, and a plant called kangaroo grass just to its left.

The cabinet was happy with the finished artwork, but the media made fun of the tuft of kangaroo grass, comparing it to the head of a turnip, or the ears of a rabbit - so much so that this little tuft was painted out. There was also a lot of grumbling that the stamp did not have the King`s head on it, but strangely this was never inserted.

The stamp went on sale, in Sydney, New South Wales, on the 2nd of January 1913, then was released to the other states. We have said "the stamp" but it was sold in fifteen denominations, all in different colours for easy identification - these being ½d, 1d, 2d, 2½d, 3d, 4d, 5d, 6d, 9d, 1/-, 2/-, 5/-, 10/-, £1, and £2. 

Now you may think our card flippant but look closer and you will see the kangaroo is actually a postman, delivering a letter from out of his pouch, and it does seem likely that our stamp was on the artist`s mind when he thought of something for the kangaroo to do. 

The animals are :

1.  Cat mending a roof
2.  Dogs in running race
3.  Mother pig washing baby
4.  Doctor? fox with gladstone bag
5.  Wild boar chopping wood 
6.  Wolf with shotgun
7.  Lynx barber with goat client
8.  Two beavers building a brick wall
9.  Kangaroo delivering post
10.  Crocodile selling handbag to fox
11.  Monkey dentist with a hippopotamus
12.  Hyena washing clothes ? by miners lamp

Now we featured card 1 in our newsletter for the 15th of June, 2024, but in the B version, and also with the top line of names in a different order, for there they say "Nestle, Peter, Cailler, Kohler" (to save you looking our card says Peter, Cailler, Kohler, and has Nestle last). However the list of cards with that entry is nothing like the above, so I will investigate.

This set, as usual, was issued in several variations - 

• Nestle, Peter, Cailler, Kohler - Serie 32 and Serie 32 B
• Peter, Cailler, Kohler, Nestle - Serie XXXII

We also know that there were three sets of "Animaux Humoristiques", Serie 30, Serie 31 and Serie 32, so we will investigate.