Newsletter - 2026-02-14

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Chocolat REVILLION [trade : chocolate : O/S - France] "Cartomancie" / Fortune Telling (1900) ten of hearts 

 On Valentine`s Day, here is a tale of a different kind of love. It all starts with eleven friends who came from all kinds of show business backgrounds, and started a club in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, which they called the Variety Club. They used to meet together and chat about the business, and try to use their knowledge to help any of the members who were in difficulties. Perhaps that is how it would have remained, but fate stepped in on Christmas Eve, 1928, when a small baby was found in a cinema during the nightly inspection, after all the clients had long gone home. The baby had a note with her, from the mother, saying this baby was called Catherine, and there were already eight children in the family when she came along.

In those days there were no CCTVs, and no records of who went to see movies, but advertisements were placed, and nobody remembered a mother with a baby. The police never did find the mother, and so the child was placed for adoption, on which the Variety Club adopted her, calling her Catherine Variety Sheridan. The story touched the hearts of America, and everyone wanted to help, they sent toys, and clothes, far too many for one child, and so the Variety Club found other needy children to give them to. And that was how their charitable enterprises started, leading to the event we celebrate today, Gold Heart Day. 

You see every year the Variety Club sell golden heart badges and the money goes to a fund for disabled or underprivileged children. The Gold Heart Pin scheme began in 1991 and is often linked to a film studio, to make them extra collectable. In America you can also buy them at cinemas which is another link to how the charity started.  

Though the Variety Club is mostly based in America, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand, there are other groups in other countries too, and they also operate in areas with no branches, especially in emergencies. And though I said earlier that the fund is for disabled or underprivileged children, is can also provide educational resources, clean water, and nutritional care. 

This set was actually issued twice - one having a full frame and a long poem lauding the delights of Revillon - and the other having just a frameline on the top and left hand side, which encloses a recipe, "Recettes Simples et Precieuses", which means recipes, simple and exact. However the fronts of both appear to be the same. So this list is a combination of both, with the recipe cards in bold -  and when I come across any with the recipes I will add them in. 

Trefles / Clubs - 

• Seven - Argent trouve
• Eight - Usurier
• Nine - Cadeaux a recevoir
• Ten - Fortune et grandeurs - Souffle au chocolat
• Jack  - Jeune homme a marier - mousse simple us chocolat
• Queen  - Mariage heureux
• King - Homme genereux et serviable - entremets au chocolat
• Ace  - Bonne nouvelle argent

Piques / Spades - 

• Ten - Chagrin
• Jack - Hogier 
• King - Homme de robe a redouter
• Ace - Succes dans sa carriere - creme noisette

Coeurs/ hearts - 

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AMERICAN Tobacco Group Issues [tobacco : O/S - New York, USA] "Historical Events Series" (1900) Un/25 - A565-102.B : A54-50.B : ABC/T.70.b : USA/T.70.b

Today, in 1898, saw the USS Maine suddenly blow up in Havana Harbour, and events spiral rapidly into the Spanish-American War, fuelled by newspaper coverage that swore the Spanish were responsible for the attack. 

The Maine was a curious ship, for she was variously described as a cruiser or a battleship. Now the technical definition of a cruiser is a vessel designed for long-range patrolling, scouting, and protecting trade routes - whereas a battleship is a ship that is armed and ready to wage war.

She was ordered on the third of August, 1886, but did not start to be built for over two years, and she was not launched until the 18th of November 1890. Then it took just under five more years to commission her for active service, which basically meant that she was out of date before she went anywhere. However, on the twenty-fifth of January, 1898, she was sent down to Havana, in Cuba, which had been at war with Spain since 1895. 

Just three weeks later, on the evening of the fifteenth of February, 1898, she suddenly exploded, and sank, along with at least two hundred and fifty sailors, most of whom were asleep. For some reason, oddly, on a military ship, records of the men aboard are not consistent across all sources, but it was, more or less, three quarters of her crew, because some were  saved, but died of their injuries later. And it was known that lots of bodies were trapped inside the ship in areas that the divers were unable to reach. 

There was an enquiry, by the U.S. Navy Board, who started with the certain knowledge that she had been sunk by an external explosion, from a mine, but even at the time not everyone was happy with this, for one thing the ship lay at the bottom of the harbour, there was no way it could be proven, nobody could know more than that they heard an explosion and she disappeared. In fact several prominent officers said that it may not have been a mine at all, that  it may have been an internal blast, caused by spontaneous combustion of a coal bunker, which was quite common at the time, especially given the fact that the USS Maine used bituminous coal, the sort is prone to sudden explosion in mines.

Now the strangeness starts, because on March the nineteenth, 1898, that Naval inquiry came to the conclusion that USS Maine was indeed blown up in the region of its ammunition magazines, but that they could not tell if it was from an internal or external explosion. However this was roundly ignored by the press, who were still set on the Spanish mine theory, and on April the twentieth, 1898, America declared war on Spain, openly citing the outrageous assault on the US Maine by the dastardly Cubans, and even using the phrase "Remember the Maine!" to drum up support for the war.

USS Maine stayed at the bottom of Havana Harbour until 1911, when she was raised by using a steel structure built around her, inside of which  the water was drained so that she could be seen. However, she was then towed out to sea and sunk to the bottom of the seabed. And no attempts were made at that time to discover the actual reason for her sinking.

Her main mast must have also been removed at this time, as this is now a memorial in the Arlington National Cemetery, called the USS Maine Mast Memorial, and it commemorates those men who lost their lives aboard her. 

It is not known where the parts of her deck come from that were included in the 2008 set of Topps "Mayo Century Relics" or the 2008 Topps "American Heritage Heroes - American Heroism Relics" sets - but they are pretty scarce because research eventually told me that the latter was only inserted one in every three hundred and twenty-eight packs.

This card is an oddity, all I know is that "Just Suits" Cut Plug was produced by Buchanan and Lyall, of New York, and they do appear in both our original and updated World Tobacco Issues Indexes, but in each it is only showing one set and it isn`t this one, its their untitled set of "Italian Series". So I asked if anyone could identify this set and a reader duly did, telling me that it was actually issued by American Tobacco with several different brandings. It first appears in Jefferson Burdick`s "American Card Catalogue" as :

• T.70 - Historical Events Series (25) Lg. 
  
  a) 2 1/4 x 3 1/2. Hoffman House, Flexo Giants, Buffo Grande, etc
  
  b) 2 x 3 1/8., Just Suits
  
  c) the a) size trimmed to b) size. One card in the large size is a triple folder.

He values the standard cards at just ten cents each, but the folder at forty cents. So now I had better hunt for what the folder shows. Any idea? 

Armed with this new info I was able to find them in our original World Tobacco Issues Index too, though I am still a bit baffled as to why Buchanan and Lyall is elsewhere in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes with another set.

Anyway the listing in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, under American Tobacco Co. Group Issues, is as follows :

• HISTORICAL EVENTS SERIES. Lg. Unnd. (25). Brand issues. See ABC/T.70. Ref. USA/T.70 ... A54-50
  
  A) Size 89 x 57, one subject a triple folder
  
       a) "Buffo Grand - Poncico...."
  
       b) "Buffo Little Cigars"
  
       c) "Flexo Giants"
  
       d) "Hoffman House Magnums"
  
  B. Size 79 x 52. "Just Suits"

And in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, it remains ,more or less the same, save an intriguing discovery, that being that presumably the triple folder was not issued in our printing, for that entry reads : 

• HISTORICAL EVENTS SERIES. Lg. Unnd. (25). Brand issues. Ref. USA/T.70 ... A565-102
  
  A) Size 89 x 57, one subject a triple folder (25)
  
       a) "Buffo Grand - Poncico...."
  
       b) "Buffo Little Cigars"
  
       c) "Flexo Giants"
  
       d) "Hoffman House Magnums"
  
  B. Size 79 x 52. "Just Suits" (24)

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Zigarettenfabrik GREILING A.G. [tobacco : O/S - Dresden, Germany] "Filmstars der Welt" (19) G800-840 : G74-53

Today in 1921 saw the birth of a little girl called Vera-Ellen Westmeier Rohe, in Norwood, Ohio.

Her father. Martin Friedrich Rohe, was a piano dealer and tuner,  and at the time of her birth he was almost forty. He had also been married, to Alma Catherine Westmeier, for quite a few years, for they were wed on the thirty-first of January, 1914, in Cincinnati, Hamilton. It sounds like Mrs. Rohe had almost given up on being a mother but one night she had a dream, of a little girl, called Vera-Ellen, complete with the hyphen, and pretty soon after she fell pregnant. 

Little Vera-Ellen was lively and pretty and she loved to dance. Her mother doted on her and enrolled her at ballet school at the age of ten, and, after winning a radio talent show she knew that was where her future lay. However it took until 1939 for her to hit Broadway, and it was on Broadway, a few years later that she was spotted by none other than Samuel Goldwyn, who cast her in a film called "Wonder Man" which starred Danny Kaye. Strangely, although she could sing, and well, her voice was not in the finished film, it was dubbed by another singer, June Hutton, the sister of Ina Ray Hutton, leader of one of the first female big bands, called The Melodears. 

It was, however, her dancing that propelled Vera-Ellen to stardom, and gave her an array of wonderful dance-partners including Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, and Bing Crosby. She also found another kind of partner in the dancer Robert Hightower, and they were wed in 1941, but it did not last, and they were divorced in 1946.

In 1954. she married Victor Bennett Rothschild, but also kept on making movies. Her final film was "Lets Be Happy", in 1957, shortly after which she suffered great personal tragedy, losing her only daughter at the age of three months. After that she withdrew from the public eye, save a couple of radio appearances which she seems to have already signed up for. 

After that little is known of her, until she died, on August the thirtieth 1981, of ovarian cancer, aged just sixty. 

Sadly her career falls into the hungry gap, too late for cigarette cards and too early for trade cards, except for European ones, and she is a stalwart of those, posing for a variety of leggy shots in slightly revealing outfits. Most of these are not only anonymous cards, but have nothing on the backs by way of biographies or descriptions. In fact I know of only one card which describes her on the reverse, that being her first American cartophilic appearance, in the 1953 set of Topps` "Who-Z-At Star?" - though don`t be confused by the baby picture, as that is not her, it is of another dancer, Jane Powell,  Vera-Ellen`s baby picture actually appearing on the reverse of card 23, which shows Lionel Barrymore on the front. 

One card which is much sought after was issued by Maple Leaf and it shows her with Fred Astaire, with whom she starred in "Three Little Words" (1950) and "The Belle of New York" (1952) .

Our card is one of the anomalies, as it is a tobacco card but it was issued after such things had stopped being issued in the United Kingdom, however in Germany that was not the case and in the early 1950s Greiling seem to have issued several sets of cards, starting with "Serie A - Konig Football" and going through to "Serie F - Europa im Bild". Our set was issued third up and is catalogued as : 

• SERIE C - FILMSTARS DIE WELT (Filmstars of the World) Black and white photos. Inscribed "2. Band" ... G74-53
  
  1. Small, 63 x 46. Nd. (180)
  
  2. Cabinet size, 165 x 120. "Bild d" seen, probably 9

That is slightly altered in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, to 

• SERIE C - FILMSTARS DIE WELT (Film Stars of the World) Black and white photos. ... G74-53
  
  1. Sm. 63 x 46. Nd. (180)
  
  2. Cabinet size, 165 x 120. (4. Nd. "bild a" to "bild d"")

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Pokemon [trade/commercial : cards : O/S - Japan] "Pokemon Scarlet and Violet 151"  - reverse hologram (2023) 77/165

Today is the Chinese New Year, and this year it is the turn of the fire horse, so that could shake everything up. For the horse is the most wilful of all the signs, they need their freedom and they are quick to revolt if they try to be coerced to do something they do not want to do.

Add that to the impulsivity of the fire element and well, lets just say a rebellion could well on the cards this year. For the last year that the fire and the horse joined forces was in 1966 - which saw widespread protest against the war in Vietnam and for civil rights. 

There are two fire horses in cartophily, if you are into moderns, as part of the Pokemon series. One is called Ponyta, and the other is called Rapidash. Ponyta was introduced in generation one, and is a young horse, cream in colour with a flaming mane and tail. It is not born alight, but the fire starts to erupt about an hour after birth. There is also a variant, in the forests of Galar, which is more like a unicorn, with a purple and blue furry mane and tail. Even as a youngster, both have the ability to look into a person`s heart and know if it is pure or harmful. 

Both of these evolve into Rapidash, an older horse, which also has flames on its legs, at least in the standard form, for the Galar Rapidash has a pink and blue, non flaming, tail and mane, and its horn has grown much longer with age.  The name Rapidash alludes to its great speed, which is cited as a hundred and fifty miles an hour, and as it travels its mane and tail catch fire all the more and grow longer and more sparkly. 

I cannot lie, the reader who sent this in had no idea what set it came from and I have looked at a thousand Ponyta cards and found very few like it, but the one that looked the most like it got the nod. But if you are a Pokemon buff do please tell us if we are wrong. 

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Abdulla [tobacco : O/S - Berlin] "Abdulla-Autobilder" / "Abdulla`s Motor Cars" Serie II (1932) 48/150 : A065-010.2 : A5-1.2 

Today in 1926, one hundred years ago, Citroen opened a factory in England to make cars, in Slough, Berkshire. Eventually it would become the largest factory under a single roof anywhere in the country, and be capable of producing two hundred cars a day.... 

This all sprang from a smaller offshoot, also set up in England, called the Citroen Gear Company, which, with not such great timing, opened just before the First World War. That was to produce gears and bearings for the industrial market, not cars, but it did suggest the idea was plausible. After the war, about seven hundred and fifty French made Citroens were shipped to London and marketed through Gaston Limited. In the first two years they sold almost two thousand five hundred vehicles, and business expanded until there were almost twenty-five thousand Citroens on the roads of the British Isles.

In 1923, Citroën Cars Ltd was opened in London, with a new HQ at the renamed Citroën Building in Hammersmith, as the main import and distribution centre. It is not hard to see that they soon realised it would be cheaper to open factory here as well which would save the cost and trouble of making them in France and then shipping them across - but there was also another reason, because the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Reginald McKenna, decided to introduce a tax levy on luxury imports, and at that time, this included cars, though at first commercial vehicles were exempt. They had begun in September 1915, and actually lasted until 1956, and from September 1926 commercial vehicles had to pay the tax as well. 

As for our factory, it lasted until 1965

I thought this set would be in our Cartophilic reference book Np.5, issued in 1943, which covers the issues of Abdulla, along with Adkin and Anstie. Sadly it is not, as that booklet only has the English language issues in it, which means that this set`s first appearance is in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, with the other German Language Issues as section one of the Abdulla listings. And the entry there reads : 

• ABDULLA AUTO-BILDER (Abdulla`s Motor Cars). Md. 75 x 49. Nd. 
  
  1. "Serie I". (150)
  
  2. "Serie II". (150)

It is virtually the same in our updated version but the 1 and 2 descriptions are on the same line, to save space. 

Now we have been told of a few other things that are not here. There was an album, for one thing, on which the title was "Autobilder (Automobile der bekanntesten Marken des In- und Auslandes) - aus der Reihe" - and that translates to "Automobile Pictures (The best known automobile marques, at home and abroad) - all lined up [or perhaps "on display"]. 

There is also a strange thing with our series, series II, in that the set is listed as being of 150, but two of those cards, 28 and 29, were replaced later. Now since this newsletter was originally compiled, one of our readers, and contributors, Stuart Arnold, has written in to say that the cards which were changed were actually illustrated, both sides, on his website. He thinks that what happened was that a newer model came along and so the card was changed to show that instead. Curiously these cars are both from the Stoewer factory, which was originally founded in 1896, near the Polish border, to produce sewing machines. Just three years later the brothers founded Gebruder Stoewer, Fabrik fur Motorfahrzeugen, a car manufacturer. This set was issued at the time that they developed one of the first ever front wheel drive cars, and you might think that worthy of inclusion on it, or maybe the reason for the change, but it was not. It is recorded that in 1936 the company started to branch out into four wheel drive, and started making cars for the German Army. However, in 1935, their town of Stettin had become, almost overnight, the headquarters for many military units - so it seems to be more the case that the decision to do this was not entirely theirs. Within a year Bernhard Stoewer, the younger brother, was dead, in his early sixties, but at least he did not see his factory taken over entirely by the Germans and forced labour being introduced. The older brother, Emil, lived until 1942, and I think it better to not investigate how he died. Then, after the Second World War was over, the Russians took control, and relocated all the contents of the factory back home, closing it forever. 

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Godfrey PHILLIPS and Sons [tobacco : UK - London] "Sporting Series" (1910) 13/36 - P521-180 : P50-22 : Ph.130.A [RB.13/130.A]

Today is Tug of War Day, a strange pastime which spectators seem to think is all the better for being performed in the mud. 

How you play the game is to get two teams, traditionally of men, and a rope with a small identifying flag at the very middle. One team lines up behind each other at each end, and then the war begins, each side trying to pull the other team off balance and bring the flag across to their side of the central line, on which they win. 

In fact, and this will surprise you, it was once an Olympic sport, beginning in 1900 in Paris. That was won by a team comprising three Danish and three Swedish entrants. They beat France (who, oddly, had a Colombian on their team), but no bronze medal was awarded, though there was an American team entered - and the reason for that was that three of the four Americans were also competing in the hammer throw which was on at the same time, and so they had to withdraw. In fact this may have happened to the French team too, for three of their men were in the rugby team, but that event did not conflict. 

In 1904 the Olympics were held in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, and there were six teams, four of them from America, plus a Greek and a South African team. The winners there were the Milwaukee Athletic Club, with the silver and bronze medals both going to the Southwest Turnverein of St. Louis, who had fielded a number one and a number two team. 

By 1908, when the Olympics were held in London,  there were seven teams, but Germany and Greece withdrew. Three of the remaining teams were from Britain, and all of them won medals - gold to the City of London Police, silver to the Liverpool police, and bronze for the Metropolitan police "K" division. That left Sweden and the United States medalless. 

In 1912, the Olympics shifted to Stockholm, and five teams were down to compete, but Austria, Bohemia, and Luxembourg simply failed to turn up, they did not even send a message. That left just two teams entered, one from the Stockholm police, who took the gold, and the other a combined team made up from the City of London police and the Metroolitan police "K" division, who took the silver. 

The 1916 games were cancelled due to the First World War, but in 1920 the Olympics were held in Antwerp, and the tug of war returned, for the final time, with five teams. The winners there were the City of London police, who therefore remain the undefeated Olympic champions - and still have the medal in their museum. The team from the Netherlands took the silver, and Belgium the bronze, with Italy and the United States of America going home empty handed

We don`t know why tug of war was not included in the 1928 Olympics, held in Amsterdam, though Olympic history tells that it was to manage the number of sports that needed to fit in the time frame. This seems odd as the tug of war by its nature is not a lengthy contest, and there were never that many teams taking part, in fact if they had said it was due to lack of support nobody could have complained. And tug of war never returned to the Olympics after that.  

Our card is curious, because it was issued twice. That is hinted at in our original Godfrey Phillips reference book, RB.13, published in 1949, where the entry is for two sets, and reads as follows : 

• 130. 25. SPORTING SERIES AND SPORTS. Small cards, size 62 x 37 m/m. Fronts printed by letterpress in colour
  
  A. SPORTING SERIES. Backs in blue, no descriptive text. 1908-1918 issue. 
  
  B. SPORTS. Backs in black, with descriptive text. Issued 1923. Two grades of board (a) white (b) grey. Subjects renumbered. 

Then the fun begins because in our original World Tobacco Issues Index they are parted, owing to the fact that this sorts sets into date groups. So our set is in section three of the Phillips listing and the reprinted set is in section five. Our entry reads : 

• SPORTING SERIES. Sm. 62 x 36. Nd. (25) See RB.13/130.A ... P50-22

whilst the reprinted entry reads : 

• SPORTS. Sm. 62 x 38. Nd. (25) See RB.13/130.B ... P50-84

This is repeated in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, where the two listings. respectively are : 

• SPORTING SERIES. Sm. 62 x 36. Nd. (25)  No descriptive text. See RB.113/130.A ... P521-180

whilst the reprinted entry reads : 

• SPORTS. Sm. 62 x 38. Nd. (25) Backs with descriptive text. See RB.113/130.B ... P521-374

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Aux Galeries POISSONNIERE [trade : clothing : O/S - Paris, France] 

To close, a curious tale that started off as one thing and revealed quite another. For it is said that today, in 1673, the first recorded wine auction was held in London, at Garraway`s Coffee House, in Exchange Alley. Now this was named after the original proprietor, Thomas Garway, who was the first person to sell tea in England, presumably from the street or his residence, as he was also the first person to sell tea from a tea house, this house, in 1657. In another first, the tea house was the site of the first ever fur auction, in 1671, the furs being sold by the Hudson`s Bay Company 

The wine auction took place today in 1673, and reports tell us something very interesting, for it was a sale conducted by the candle - in other words as the lot was presented a candle, one inch high, was also lit, and the last bid received before the candle expired of its illumination was the winner. 

However a little spot of research proves that this predates all the auction houses in England, Sothebys not being founded until 1744, Christies not until 1766. and Bonhams not until 1793. So our wine and fur sales technically make Garraway`s Coffee House the site of the first auction house in London - and also, possibly, the first auction house in the world, because the Stockholm Auction House in Sweden, generally cited as the holder of that honour, was not set up until 1674. 

As for our card, and issuer, we know that today this sremboursementnouveautuestreet has a slightly different name, Rue du Faubourg-Poissonniere, and it is between the ninth and tenth districts of Paris, in other words slightly outside the main town, at least at one time before it all became one big city. And for all the grandeur of this card, the name translates to Fishmongers Way, because right from the middle ages, if not  earlier, fishermen would set sail into the English Channel and bring their catches to this area of Paris.

Our shop was opened in 1846, at number eleven, in a house originally built about a hundred years before, and it was listed as a novelty shop, but from the card we learn that it was mostly clothing - "Fantaisies, Lainages, Soieries, noires et fantaisie, Chaies, Confections, Toiles, Blancs de coton, Draperie, Bonneterie, Ganterie, etc" - which translates to :Fancy fabrics, woollens, silks, black and fancy, [no idea on "chaies" or "confections"],  Fabrics, Cotton fabrics, Drapery, Hosiery, Gloves. Another interesting section is where it says "Rembourse ou Echange", which means refunds or exchanges.