Michele Have you ever wondered why our World Tobacco Index is numbered RB.22 (or Reference Book 22) ? Well the truth is that before this there were indeed twenty-one others, small booklets devoted, for the most part, to a single issuer. And in this blog we will have a chat about those twenty-one, as well as the ones that were proudly promised, but never got off the ground, for one reason or another.
Lets start with the ones that were published :
Reference book one (or RB.1) had twelve pages, and was given over to the issues of W. & F. Faulkner - and you can read more about it by clicking the bold link which shows its name. Briefly, it was edited by Eric Gurd, based on a listing of Faulkner issues that had appeared in The London Cigarette Card Company's magazine "Cigarette Card News in 1933, plus a biography of the firm which had previously appeared in our magazine, "The Bulletin", in 1941. It was signed off in March 1942, and printed that same year as a limited edition of 400 copies, the first 50 having a blank page for notes in between the printed pages, and the final 350 being standard booklets without the blank pages.
Reference book 2 covered the issues of R. & J. Hill Ltd, and it was over twice the size at twenty-eight pages. Again there were 400 copies but all were standard booklets, there were no interleaved copies this time - or ever again. The reason given for this was the wartime paper shortage. It was completed in April 1942, advertised in our May magazine as coming soon, and published shortly after
For in the reverse of the Lambert & Butler Reference Book, RB.9, published in 1948, there was a whole plethora of reference books that never made it to the printing stage. And some that did but with different RB numbers.
It starts by listing those already issued (RB.1 to RB.7), and those in the press (RB.8 to RB.10) The last three were stated to be earmarked to be issued in 1948, and the Lambert & Butler (RB.9) and Churchman (RB.10) ones were. I will check the Glossary of Cartophilic Terms (RB.8) date in a minute.
Then there was a "Suggested grouping to complete Part 1 of Programme - British Issuers", numbered 1-23. These were
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1. Archer, Baker, Bell, Bradford, Cadle, Charlesworth & Austin, Clarke
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2. Carreras, Boguslavsky - Now this was an obvious pairing, because though Alexander Boguslavsky Ltd. of London were founded in 1896, they became a branch of Carreras in 1913.
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3. Cohen Weenen, Cope, Richard Lloyd
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4. Cavander, C.W.S., Drapkin, Duncan, Millhoff, Scottish C.W.S.
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5. Edwards Ringer & Bigg, Jas Bigg, W.O. Bigg, Franklyn Davey, Hignett
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6. Drapkin & Millhoff, Fraenkel, Glass, Gloag, Goodbody, Hudden, Kennedy
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7. Illingworth, Peter Jackson, Lea, Moustafa, Murray, Morris
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8. Mitchell, Smith - These two Glasgow companies did not only share a location, but in 1927 F. & J. Smith were consolidated with Stephen Mitchell & Son.
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9. H.C. Lloyd, Macdonald, Pritchard & Burton, Redford, Richmond Cavendish, E. Roberts, Robinson & Barnsdale, E. Robinson
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10. *Ogden
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11. Ogden`s Guinea Gold
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12. Ogden`s Tabs
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13. Pattreiouex
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14. * Phillips
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15. Player
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16. Rutter, Salmon & Gluckstein, John Sinclair, Singleton & Cole, Societe Job, Williams, Woods
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17. Rothman, Sandorides, Sarony, Teofani, Westminster, Wix
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18. * Taddy
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19. * Wills II
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20. Small Firms A - D (44)
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21. Small Firms E - M (49)
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22. Small Firms N - Z (53)
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23. Index of Brand Names.
However in 1948 Eric Gurd decided that it was time to hand over the research to another man. His replacement was Edward Wharton-Tigar, who looked at this list and decided that to do all these reference books, in the same expansive style of Eric Gurd had done, would occupy too much time, and also lead to the collector being quite overwhelmed with booklets to store and to hunt through for what was, for the most part, just to answer a simple question. His solution was to cancel most of these, and to work instead on one volume, which would contain basic information and allow the collector to find which set they were seeking, but also to contain cross references back to the reference booklets so far printed, which were for the larger issuers, those most popularly collected and the most easily acquired. Having one volume would also be easier to handle.
This one volume, of seven hundred pages, and named The World Tobacco Issues Index was published in 1957. It was billed as being "An Authentic Catalogue, Without Prices, of Cigarette Cards Issued Anywhere in the World Up to the End of 1956" and it was RB.22. Its aim was to list all cigarette and tobacco cards, ever issued, from across the globe, in the years from the first ever card up to 1956. This was a total of over 1,200 tobacco firms and over 8,740 sets. In addition almost 2,000 cards, fronts and/or backs, were illustrated. And there was also a separate handbook in which were listed cards from un-numbered series and sets which were issued by more than one manufacturer.
The belief was that this one volume and handbook would fulfill all needs for the foreseeable future, but it did not, and four other volumes had to be added, parts II, III, IV and V.