Newsletter - 2026-01-10

W.D. & H.O. WILLS [tobacco : UK - Bristol] "Royal Mail" - `Vice Regal` brand (1913) 38/50 - W675-368.C : W62-235.C : W/95.C

Today in 1840 saw the birth of a Uniform Penny Post, allowing for letters weighing under half an ounce to be sent anywhere in the United Kingdom for a penny.

Originally championed by Rowland Hill, so that anyone could afford to send news to their family and friends, it was mainly agreed to be the postal authorities because they knew it would result in more mail being sent, and more money coming in. And within a year, the amount of stamps being bought, in advance of sending (which was also a new idea, for the letters had formerly had to be  paid for by the recipient), double the amount of stamps were being sold,

Sir Rowland Hill, KCB, FRS was born on the third of December, 1795, in Kidderminster, and at the time he suggested the idea of the Uniform Penny Post he was not a postal official, he would only become one later. He had actually had several jobs, he had worked at the Assay Office in Birmingham, been a teacher and educational reformer, not just in matters of schooling, but of school design, and had been secretary of an organisation which attempted, unsuccessfully, to establish a settlement in Australia, which, quite coincidentally would have been on the site of present day Adelaide. In fact it was, reputedly, though no proof exists, whilst he was working on that project that he saw a young woman crying in the streets because she was too poor to pay for the letter sent to her by her fiance. 

Whether this is true or not, he gave much of his time to developing a postal system which would allow anyone to access it. He used many of the things which were already commonplace; the idea of adhesive stamps coming from the tax office, and the idea of the pre-printed letter sheets, on to which those stamps would be stuck, almost certainly came from Australia, where they had been in use for several years. 

The design of the stamp was the head of Queen Victoria, who celebrated her twenty-first birthday in the same month that the first stamp was issued, May 1840.

Despite the acclaim, Rowland Hill lost his post at the Treasury in July 1842, not through fault of his own, but because the newly elected Conservative Party had been long term opponents of the Penny Post. He soon found employment, with the London and Brighton Railway. However when the Conservative party lost the election in 1846, Rowland Hill was given the post of Secretary to the Postmaster-General, and then, in 1854, of Secretary to the Post Office, a job he held for ten year before his retirement in 1864. 

He died in 1879, and is buried in Westminster Abbey. 

Now the popular opinion is that he only appears on one cigarette card, number one of Ardath`s "Stamps Rare and Interesting", issued in 1939, which shows him and a "Penny Black" stamp. He actually appears on several others, includiing :

• Ogden`s "Royal Mail" (1905) card no.4
• Sarony "Celebrities and Their Autographs" (1923) card no.87
• Weeties "Famous People and Places" (1949) card no.64

...but the card we show today is the only one that spells his name wrong, calling him Roland, not Rowland, and not just once, twice on the back and once on the front on the plinth. This seems a most uncharacteristic error for such a large company as Wills. 

This set was issued several times, as explained in our original Wills reference book part three, the full text of which reads : 

• 95.    50. ROYAL MAIL. Fronts lithographed in colour; backs in black (see Fig.54), with descriptive text (except E and G below). Australian issues, 1913 :- 
  
  With "Wills`s Cigarettes" on fronts - 
  
        A. Backs with "Capstan" advertisement.
       
        B. Backs with "Havelock" advertisement
  
        C. Backs with "Vice Regal" advertisement
  
       D. With anonymous backs
  
       E. With plain backs
  
  Without "Wills`s Cigarettes" on fronts (anonymous issues) - 
  
       F. With anonymous backs
  
       G. With plain backs
  
  This set is entirely different from the similarly titled series by Ogden and Clarke
   

In our original World Tobacco Issues Index under the entry for the Wills version, where this set appears as : 

• ROYAL MAIL. Sm. (50). See W/95 ...W62-235
  
        A. "Capstan" back. Numbered.
  
        B. "Havelock" back. Numbered.
  
        C. "Vice Regal" back. Numbered.
  
        D. Anonymous backs, "Wills`s Cigarettes" on front. Numbered.
  
        E. Plain backs. "Wills`s Cigarettes" on front. Unnumbered.

The first thing you will notice is that sets F and G, the sets "Without "Wills`s Cigarettes" on fronts"  are not there. However, if you go to the back of the book, you will find "F", as : 

• ZA3-5. ROYAL MAIL. Sm. Nd. (50) see W/95.F
   

However, I have not yet tracked down set G, not even in the section for plain backed cards. It is possible that it was an error of reporting, or an error of printing, cut down from a proof sheet, a one off, as it were, not worth recording. 

In our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, the listing is identical to above, and reads : 

• ROYAL MAIL. Sm. (50). See W/95 ...W675-368
  
        A. "Capstan" back. Nd.
  
        B. "Havelock" back. Nd. (a) with (b) without "Wills`s Cigarettes" on front.
  
        C. "Vice Regal" back. Nd.
  
        D. Anonymous backs, "Wills`s Cigarettes" on front. Nd.
  
        E. Plain backs. "Wills`s Cigarettes" on front. Unnd.

C. BERIOT [trade : chicory coffee : O/S - Lille, France] "Instruments de Travail" / tools of work (1900?) Un/84?

Now you may think it is very early in the year for anything agricultural to be going on, but today, in 1378, in Durham, saw the first ever celebration of an event that we now call "Plough Monday" - though it did not have that name until the sixteenth century. 

We do not really know what happened on either of these days, but the event still goes on, annually, on the first Monday after Epiphany, so this year, on Monday the 12th of January, will be the start of the agricultural season, and farmers must go back to work.

There is also an allied day, Plough Sunday, which only seems to have originated in the fifteenth century, and that sees the cutting blade of a plough brought to Church so that it may be blessed., ensuring swift and safe passage through the earth as it does its work. Sometimes you will find that other tools can also be blessed, and we know that some rural areas held ceremonies to bless the soil before it is planted.

This seems to have caused the demise of the original celebrations, which got rather out of hand, with parades and dancing, or races and contests revolving around agricultural skills - even to local people dragging a plough round the area asking for money. But also, farming was much affected by the Industrial Revolution, which saw many farm workers relocating to towns and giving up the land.  

It was not until the 1960s that people started to get more interested in the customs of the past, especially those of the land, and think about reviving them. And we know that they were re-started first on the Eastern side of this country, where the celebrations of the event had always been more prevalent, in places such as Cambridgeshire and East Anglia. Back too came the plough parade through the streets, and the demands for money, but this time the proceeds were to be given to farming charities in the area.  

We actually featured this set before, but by Guerin-Boutron, and I have to say that their version is not even half as colourful as this one. Maybe that was because this one does not have a company name on the front which could be obscured by too bright a yellow.

You can see the Guerin Boutron in our newsletter for the 24th of May 2024, but you will need to scroll down to Friday 30th May. As that version gives us the title of the set and also the fact that it contained eighty-four subjects, it is only fitting that it will one day hold the list of all the tools. But I have not got that far yet.

KAYO Cards Ltd. [trade/commercial : cards : O/S - East Rutherford, New Jersey USA] "Round One" (1991) 248/250

Today in 1944  saw the birth of Joseph William "Joe" Frazier, whose place in history was sealed in 1971 when he became the first boxer to defeat Muhammad Ali. 

He was one of twelve children born to a farming family in South Carolina. They did not have a television until the 1950s, but the father was soon addicted to watching boxing. This was rather fortunate, as one of his relatives put the idea in the father`s head that young Joseph could become a boxer, which is how it all began, training with a home made punchbag in the back yard, running, and lifting weights, which did wonders for the young man`s physique.  Unfortunately there was an accident on the farm and his arm was damaged, and as the family could not afford a doctor it had to mend on its own - which it did not, leaving him unable to fully straighten his left arm. 

He left home aged fifteen determined to be a boxer. He took any jobs he could, and sparred for money, including taking on fights which were barely legal, and sometimes not. However they were all good training, honing his ring-craft for a time when the fights would all count for titles. He won the Golden Gloves heavyweight championship in 1962, 1963 and 1964, but only took part in the 1964 Olympics because the original entry was injured. He was not expected to do well, but made it right through to the final, where, despite a broken thumb, he won. Not just that but this was the only boxing gold won by an American fighter. 

He turned professional the next year, and steadily rose up the ranks. On March the 8th, 1971, he met Muhammad Ali for the first time at Madison Square Garden, and won. However success is always fleeting, and in January 1973 he lost his world championship to George Foreman, being knocked down several times in the process. It was one of the hardest fights of his career. Perhaps because of that he was invited to rematch against Muhammad Ali, and again at Madison Square Garden, in January 1974. This time Ali won. 

That led to what was billed as a grudge match, in the Philippines, in October 1975. That fight was ended after fourteen rounds, and awarded to Muhammad Ali on technicalities. 

In 1976 Joe Frazier announced his retirement and started up as a trainer. He also appeared in "Rocky", the movie, as himself - in the crowd, watching the Rocky v Apollo Creed match.

In the 1980s he attempted a comeback in the ring, but that was not entirely successful, and he sensibly agreed to retire for good. He went back to training, including his sons and his daughter (who would fight Muhammad Ali`s daughter in 2001), and he also made a lot of special appearances on television, including guest roles in many popular programmes.

He wrote his autobiography in 1996, and also a training manual for aspiring boxers. But in September 2011 he was diagnosed with liver cancer, and he died less than two months later. 

There is a difference of opinion as to the title of this set. Most collectors call it simply boxing, but the packets are titled "Premiere Edition  Round One Boxing Cards". That may have been because the intention was to have more than one set, calling the next one "Round Two", but as far as I can establish this set was the only one.

We know that it was distributed in packs, and that each pack contained fourteen cards. There was also a chance that one of those cards could have been a hologram or an autograph, which the company preferred to call signature cards.

They also had a great promotional campaign, giving specially marked cards away at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Anaheim, and two special yellow-backed cards of Virgil Hill and Hector Camacho at several other venues. 

We also know that they circulated prototypes and samples at other places, because some of these have come on to the market, though it is believed these either escaped the pulping machine, or maybe were just not handed back by the client as they ought to have been. 

TOPPS [trade/commercial : cards : O/S - USA] "Wacky Packages go to the Movies - Animated Films" (2018) 18/20

This is the tale of a Bond and a Bear, and, thrillingly, a centenary - as they seem a bit thin on the ground this year.

Lets start with Thomas Michael Bond, an English author, who was born today in 1926, in Newbury, Berkshire. The bear came quite a bit later, in 1958, though Mr. Bond had been considering himself a writer for almost fifteen years, after finding out that conjuring stories out of thin air relieved the monotony of being in the Army, in Cairo. Actually the bear was just a bit of fun, by that time Mr. Bond was working at the BBC, as a cameraman, and it is not really known how the story got into the hands of a publishing company, but they read it, and liked it, and made him an offer.

That is how most of us know the bear is called Paddington - though that is not his real name, it is but the name which was given to him after he came to be adopted by the Brown family, for no other reason than that was where he was found - at Paddington Station, with a label tied to his coat, saying "Please Look After This Bear". I do find that rather troubling, mainly because it was written in English, for though it is said that he comes from Darkest Peru, he must have had some other interaction with the English, in order for the label to be written. As for who that was we are never told, yet it is a whole part of his life that is missing, and will never be known. 

This was actually the point where I realised that the idea of writing the text first was doomed to failure, because Paddington is too young to have appeared on a cigarette card, and seemed never to have featured on a trade one. Which is very surprising to me. However thanks to one of my contacts, this card was supplied me. It comes from a much larger set, but one which is split into segments according to film genre. 

The animated films parodied, in sometimes qute an offensive manner, are : 

1. Minions
2. Shrek
3. Angry Birds
4. Popeye
5. Ninjago (#1)
6. Paddington (#1)
7. Smurfs
8. Hotel Transylvania
9. Peter Rabbit
10. Despicable Me
11. Boss Baby
12. The Squirrel ? 
13. Captain Underpants
14. Ninjago (#2)
15. Nose job ? 
16. The e-Coli Movie
17. My Little Pony
18. Paddington (#2)
19. Mr. Peanut
20. Red Dragon

Chocolat PUPIER [trade : chocolate : O/S - Saint Etienne, France] "Les Instruments de Musique" (1931) Un/?

Now for a musical interlude because today in 1690 the clarinet was invented by a thirty-five year old German called Johann Christoph Denner.

At which point we have to say that primarily it was but a development of another instrument, the chalumeau, popular in the Baroque and Classical eras, which had a simple cylindrical bore with eight finger holes. 

The Denner family were all into music and his father was renowned locally as the manufacturer of whistles and hunting horns. Our man, his son, was born on the 13th of August 1655, in Leipzig, and the family moved to Nuremberg when he was only eleven.

In 1678 we know that our man started a business as an instrument maker, being joined later by his sons. There is a suspicion that his father may have died about this time, and the business took over his father`s trade and place of employment. Our man certainly seems to have specialised in instruments which you blew, and was famed for oboes, horns (like his father) and a rather strange predecessor of the recorder.

He was also well known for acquiring old instruments which had fallen from favour and trying to turn them into something else, which is almost certainly how the clarinet came to be. 

However not much is known about Herr Denner after that, only that he died on the 26th of April, 1707, aged just fifty-one.

This is yet another new Pupier set, and it seems to be of twelve cards, which are ; 

1. Accordeon
2. Bag-Pipe
3. Clairon
4. Clarinette
5. Clavecin
6. Cor de Chasse
7. Guitare
8. Harpe Chromatique
9. Mandoline
10. Orgue Barbarie
11. Tambourinaire
12. Violon

Ogden`s Ltd [tobacco ; UK - Liverpool] "Sights of London - first series" (1923) 3/25 - O100-570 : O/2-174 : O/154

Today, in 1759, saw the Trustees of the British Museum buy Montagu House, an elaborate seventeenth century mansion in Great Russell Street, owned by the Second Duke of Montagu who was relocating to a different part of London.

Their idea, which remains the same today, was to tell the tale of humanity throughout the ages, up to a today which moves continually further forward. And the Museum was already in business, for it had been founded in 1753, by an Act of Parliament which called for a national public collection of artefacts which could be viewed by the general public for free.

The problem was that there was not yet a permanent building. That was solved by the purchase of the Montagu one. However one of the grounds of the Act was not immediately complied with, as anyone wishing to see the items inside had to apply for a ticket, which seems to have ruled out anyone but the wealthy and well connected. And this did not change until the 1830s. 

The first exhibits were the overflow possessions of Sir Hans Sloane, whose tiny home/museum was bulging at the seams. Most of these were books, which are today housed in the British Library, now a separate entity but at that time part of the British Museum. Then they started buying new items; whilst also receiving, gladly, items that had been acquired from other countries as they were explored and colonised.

With all this going on they soon started to run out of room, and, in the 1840s, the collections all had to move out so that the building could be demolished and rebuilt, larger.

This was when the building we know today appeared, with the body of a Greek Temple, as fashioned and imagined by Sir Robert Smirke. However it was an extraordinarily long build, and was not completed until 1852. First to be completed was the room for King George III`s library, almost seventy thousand books, which had been donated by his son, George IV in 1823. 

Our card is recorded in our original Ogden`s reference book, RB.15, published in 1949, as follows : 

• 154.  25.  SIGHTS OF LONDON. Fronts printed by letterpress in brown. Backs in green, with descriptive text. Home Issue, 1923

However, just in case you have not noticed, the back of our card definitely says "1st Series of 25", and this entry makes no notice of a second, it is followed by O/155, which is "Smugglers and Smuggling".

And there is no second series in our original World Tobacco Issues Index either, the text there reading simply :

• SIGHTS OF LONDON. Sm. Brown. Nd. (25) ... O/2-174

... a text which is repeated exactly, save a new card code of O100-570, in our updated version of that work

GUERIN-Boutron [trade : chocolate : O/S - Paris, France] "Decorations Francaises & Etrangeres" / Medals - French and Foreign" (1900) Un/84

Appreciate a Dragon Day is celebrated annually on January 16.

Now we have gone off on a bit of a tangent because the Inn Sign I had here turned out to be from a Whitbread set I had already used, but then this one was sent in after I asked around. 

This is a medal, called on the card "Ordre du Dragon", and the text says it was instituted in China in 1863, in first and second class.  Now that has taken quite a bit of tracking down and I am not there yet. At first I thought it might have been the Medal of the Order of the Dragon for the Tai-Ping Rebellion, 1863. The year is right, and it does indeed have a yellow ribbon, with a suspender of this exact shape, but there is a problem, because that medal has a square hole in the middle. 

Anyway whilst I was hunting for that I did have the time to draw up a rough list of these cards - though it was still a couple short. However they have now been supplied, and, just to stop you wondering they both fell in the pit caused by a medal with the same name being issued in different countries, so we have an extra Ordre de la Toison d`Or (adding the Austrian version) and an extra Ordre de St. Georges (adding the Bavarian version)

So that makes the entire list as follows 

• Aigle d`Or (Wurtemberg)
• Couronne (Saxe)
• Couronne de Chene (Hollande)
• Couronne des Indes (Angleterre)
• Couronne du Croix de Fer (Autriche)
• Couronne Royale de Prusse (Allemagne)
• Croix de Fer (Allemagne)
• Croix d`Honneur (Autriche)
• Croix du Sud (Bresil)
• Croix Militaire (Belgique)
• Dragon (Annam)
• Legion d`Honneur (France)
• Medaille de Madagascar (France)
• Medaille de Sauvetage (France)
• Medaille d`honneur Militaire (Allemagne)
• Medaille du Dahomey (France)
• Medaille du Tonkin (France)
• Medaille Militaire (France)
• Merite Agricole (France)
• Officier de l`Instruction Publique (France)
• Ordre Civil de Savoie (Italie)
• Ordre d`Albert le Valeureux (Saxe)
• Ordre d`Alcantara (Espagne)
• Ordre d`Aviz (Portugal)
• Ordre d`Isabelle la Catholique (Espagne)
• Ordre d`Osmanin (Turquie)
• Ordre de Constantin (Italie)
• Ordre de Charles III (Espagne)
• Ordre de Charles XIII (Suede & Norwege)
• Ordre de Charles-Friedric (Bade)
• Ordre de Galatera (Espagne)
• Ordre de Guillaume (Hollande)
• Ordre de l`Aigle Blanc (Russie)
• Ordre de l`Aigle Noir (Allemagne)
• Ordre de l`Aigle Royal (Allemagne)
• Ordre de l`Annonciade (Italie)
• Ordre de l`Elephant blanc (Danemark)
• Ordre de l`Elephant blanc (Siam)
• Ordre de l`tpee (Suede & Norwege)
• Ordre de la Couronne (Siam)
• Ordre de la Couronne (Wurtemberg)
• Ordre de la Croix Etoile (Autriche)
• Ordre de la Gloire (Turquie)
• Ordre de la Jarretiere (Angleterre)
• Ordre de la Toison d`Or (Autriche)
• Ordre de la Toison d`Or (Espagne)
• Ordre de Leopold (Autriche)
• Ordre de Leopold (Belgique)
• Ordre de Marie-Therese (Autriche)
• Ordre de Medjidie (Turquie)
• Ordre de St. Alexandre-Newski (Russie)
• Ordre de St. Andre (Russie)
• Ordre de St.Anne (Russie)
• Ordre de St. Catherine (Russie)
• Ordre de St. Elisabeth (Baviere)
• Ordre de St. Etienne (Autriche)
• Ordre de St. Ferdinand (Espagne)
• *Ordre de St. Georges (Baviere)
• Ordre de St. Georges (Russie)
• Ordre de St. Hubert (Baviere) 
• Ordre de St. Michel & St George (Angleterre)
• Ordre de St. Stanislas (Russie)
• Ordre des Seraphins (Suede)
• Ordre des St. Maurice et Lazare (Italie)
• Ordre du Bain (Angleterre)
• Ordre du Chardon (Angleterre)
• Ordre du Chefakat (Turquie)
• Ordre du Christ (Bresil)
• Ordre du Christ (Portugal)
• Ordre du Croissant (Turquie)
• Ordre du Cygne (Allemagne)
• Ordre du Danebrog (Danemark)
• Ordre du Double Dragon (Chine)
• Ordre du Dragon (Chine)
• Ordre du Lion & du Soleil (Perse)
• Ordre du Nicham Ihikhar (Tunis)
• Ordre du Sauveur (Grece)
• Ordre Militaire de St. Louis (Italie)
• Ordre Militaire de Savoie (Italie)
• Ordre Royal de Victoria (Angleterre)
• Ordre Royal du Cambodge
• Palmes Academique (France)
• Soleil Levant (Japon)
• Tresor Sacre (Japon)