Although Fokestone's original Victorian roller coaster ride has long since gone, it's image has been immortalised on this beautiful 1900's postcard.
If you would like to find out more about the Kent postcard featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!
I have a fantastic piece of boxing history; an 18th century boxing medal/token, depicting a pioneering boxer and I’ll be discussing it later in this blog.
Who was the first boxing super star? I bet a whole host of great boxers from the past sweep through your mind: Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, Jack Johnson or John Lawrence Sullivan. Actually, this great sport dates back thousands of years, with the earliest depictions of fist fighting appearing on relief carvings from the Bronze Age. The first English bare knuckle boxing champion was James Figg in 1719 and this was about the same time the word “boxing” was initially used. Early fights had no written rules and there were no weight divisions, round limits or referees. The first boxing rules, called the Broughton's rules, were introduced by heavyweight champion Jack Broughton in 1743 to protect fighters in the ring.
One of greatest boxing matches in living history, between Thomas Johnson and Isaac Perrins , was held in 1789. It was such a momentous event that two medals, one representing each participant, were struck to commemorate it. I own the medal featuring the winner of the fight, Thomas Johnson. The obverse of the medal shows the bust of Johnson. The reverse is inscribed with the words “Science and Intrepidity”, because Johnson was well known for using his brain to outwit bigger and more muscular opponents, which was unusual for that time. He was thought to have earned more money during his reign as champion than any other fighter until John L. Sullivan almost a century later. Jack Anderson, a modern historian of the sport, has summarised the early boxing writers as agreeing the period of Johnson's reign as champion "rescued the declining sport and heralded the beginning of a golden age".
Click Here To See More
If you would like to find out more about the boxing memorabilia and tobacco cards featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!
Click Here To See More
Trading cards and cigarette cards were issued on a huge array of subjects, including that which has fascinated mankind since the beginning of time, magic. As with many card collecting subjects, there are certain cards that fetch colossal amounts of money. With baseball cards it’s Honus Wagner, one of which was the first card to exceed $1M, on eBay. With magic cards, the most sought after celebrity is Harry Houdini. His magic is still working after all these years as his cards conjure up nearly $2000.00 for a 1902 Ogden’s Guinea Gold card depicting him and almost £100.00 for a rare 1922 Boy’s Cinema (periodical) Famous Heroes card featuring this legendary man.
Although I, unfortunately, don’t have any Houdini cards in my collection, I do have a very rare Fry’s Tricks and Puzzles (Black Back), issued in 1924, just two years before Houdini’s death. This set includes fifty tricks/puzzles: disappearing coins, playing cards that produce smoke rings, dancing paper fairies, impossible handcuffs, bringing paper snakes to life and many more. One card also includes the politically incorrect act of creating silhouettes of different ethnic groups out of a candle and screwed up newspaper, not recommended these days. The backs of the cards in this set, as well as describing each trick and puzzle in detail , also advertise Fry’s “Cube Block Chocolate”, priced at just six pence each.
Click Here To See More
If you would like to find out more about the magic and Harry Houdini cigarette cards featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!
As with many inventions, deciding who invented the first motorcycle depends on how you define it. If a two-wheeled vehicle with steam propulsion is considered a motorcycle, then the first was the French Michaux-Perreaux steam velocipede of 1868. Many authorities who exclude steam powered, electric or diesel two-wheelers from the definition of a motorcycle, credit the Daimler Reitwagen as the world's first motorcycle. This petroleum fuelled bike was developed by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Germany, 1885.
Only a handful of cigarette card and trading card sets were issued just on motorcycles and most of those are post 1920. In order to find the earliest motorbike cards you really have to do some searching, scanning through thousands and thousands of cards. Luckily, I’ve done some of the work for. I’ve tracked down seven cards from the thousands of photographic general interest cards issued by Ogden under their Guinea Gold and Tab brands at the beginning of the 1900s. They hardly ever turn up and when they do they go for way above the catalogue value because it’s such a popular subject. 6 of the cards are all from Ogden’s Guinea Gold New Series 1 B. Below is a list of the card titles:
Guinea Gold New Series 1 B, 1902
B281 “Carl Muller Competitor in the International Cup”
B284 “Toman Winner of International Cup For Motor Bicycles”
B287 “Adolf Marz Competitor In The International Cup”
B271 “Lonfronchi On A Pengeot Motor Bicycle. World’s Record, 1 Mile in 57 4-5 Seconds”
B394 “Detachable Motor”
B395 “T. Silver on the Quadrant Motor” (Tom Silver on a Quadrant motorcycle)
I did also find a tricycle card from Ogden’s Tab General Interest D Series, 1902:
Card #90 “Kenneth Skinner rounding a curve on his prize-winning tricycle, in great American Races”
If you would like to find out more about the early motorcycle tobacco cards featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!
The Battle Picture Weekly presented several series of WW2 weapons trading cards with their popular comic in the mid 1970s, each one focusing on a different country. This particular set in this blog features sixteen weapons that the USA used to slay the German army during World War II.
Mobility was a big problem in WW1 but the perfection of the military tank put an end to that in WW2. Germany took full advantage of these war machines when they used them to rapidly invade France, applying a strategy known as the blitzkrieg. This set features the Sherman Tank, the USA’s answer to the German Panzer tanks. This set also includes the famous Browning .50 caliber machine gun, which was so successful that it is still used today. Card #6 shows the Bazooka Anti-Tank Rocket, which inspired America’s allies and enemies to replicate it. Military mines were problematic during WW2 but some ingenious contraptions, such as that illustrated on card #10, were used to clear the way for advancing military vehicles and infantry. One weapon that wasn’t so successful in WW2 was the Tommy-Gun. Although made famous by the 1930’s gangsters of America, WW2 military personnel complained that they were too noisy and jammed at crucial moments. The last card in this series features the interestingly shaped P-38 Lightning Fighter. This aircraft instilled fear in the Germans, who named it the “Two-tailed Devil”.
If you would like to find out more about the WW2 trading cards featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!
