Michele
This booklet, "Cartophilic Reference Book - No.6 : The Cigarette Card Issues of Ardath Tobacco Co. Ltd. - An Official Checklist Compiled by A Committee of the Cartophilic Society of Great Britain Limited" (or RB.6), was edited by Eric Gurd, and signed off in November 1943.
It was then printed, by Parker Brothers, of St. Albans, in Hertfordshire, as a booklet of twenty-eight pages, but with no illustrations - and published as a limited edition of four hundred copies, in 1943, to be retailed, to Society members, at three shillings, post free.
Like all our individual reference booklets, it was superseded by The World Tobacco Issues Index (RB.21), which was issued in 1956.
We know, however, that in 1964, when the Cameric Club merged with the Cartophilic Society, this was not amongst the books listed as part of a half price offer, so that former Camericans, and new members, could buy one. And that means that this particular volume was already out of stock. In fact, further research has discovered that this work was out of print fourteen years before the merger, at least by 1950.
For our sixth Reference Book we returned to a single issuer, Ardath. Most collectors agree that the reasoning behind this was that Ardath was the next major issuer in alpabetical order from Anstie, which had been the final section of the previous book.
The first mention of a work on Ardath was in "The Bulletin" of December 1941 (Vol.2 No. XXIX) - on the front page, under the heading of Research, where it states that the Research Committee "announce they are now investigating the issues of Abdulla, Adkin, Anstie, Archer and Ardath Tobacco Co. Information relating to any sets not catalogued in recognised catalogues or other data will be appreciated. The findings of the Committee will be published, probably in pamphlet form, after work has been completed." The work on Abdulla, Adkin and Anstie was used to produce RB.5 and Ardath became RB.6, both in 1943. The work on Archer never materialised.
This booklet was written by Eric Gurd, who was also an author, and editor of our magazine, and it was published in 1943 as a limited edition of 400 copies, printed by Parker Brothers.
By the time that our John Player Reference Book, RB.17, was published, in 1950, Ardath had joined the ranks of those no longer available, and it merely stated "covered copies out of print. A few un-covered copies are still available"
Many years passed until a new reprint was produced; at that time the decision was made to redo the original red cover, as shown, and make it into a plainer green format, but all the interior text remains the same.
[LIBRARY CODE A.52]