Cigarette Card Origin
In the early 1880’s U.S. cigarette companies created the original cigarette cards. The early versions were simply pieces of cardboard placed in cigarette packets to keep the cigarettes from being broken or crushed.
Soon after their inception, the cigarette companies saw the advertising potential of these little cards and started printing cigarette ads on them.
Then they began to replace the ads with pictures that would appeal to what was then a predominantly male market. The subjects of these series of pictures included sporting champions and glamorous actresses.
The British & Australian Versions
The concept spread to first Britain, then Australia and then around most of the rest of the world. Thousands of sets of cigarette cards were produced from 1880 to 1940 with the height of the cigarette card age between the years of 1900 and 1917.
During the 1900s, Australian tobacco companies realized they could appeal to their customers by issuing ‘collectable’ sets of beautifully illustrated and informative cards. Based on the popularity of horse racing, they produced sets showcasing well-known jockeys and race horses.
Horses on Australian Cigarette Cards
The horses chosen for the Australian cigarette cards were popular race horses, including famous winners of the Melbourne Cup and Caulfield Cup.
The video clip below shows some of the horses from a series of cigarette cards which featured winners of the Melbourne Cup from its beginnings in 1861 until 1905. These images were drawn by artist Godfrey Phillips in 1906.
Smokers began to collect and trade cigarette cards and they are still highly collectable even today. Depending on their condition, these cards sell at auction for anywhere from $100 to $180 Australian.
I love these horse cigarette cards. I wonder if I’ll be able to buy one at auction…
A tale written by Laura E. Richards circa 1885 ~
There was once a rocking-horse, but he did not want to be a rocking horse.
He wanted to be a trotter.
He went to a jockey and asked him if he would like to buy a trotter.
“Where is your trotter?” asked the jockey.
“Me ’s him!” said the rocking-horse. That was all the grammar he knew.
“Oh!” said the jockey. ”You are the trotter, eh?”
“Yes,” said the rocking-horse. What will you give me for myself?”
“A bushel of shavings,” said the jockey.
The rocking horse thought that was better than nothing, so he sold himself.
Then the jockey took him to another jockey who was blind, and told him (the blind jockey) that this was the Sky-born Snorter of the Sarsaparillas, and that he could trot two miles in a minute. So the blind jockey bought him, and paid ten thousand dollars for him.
There was a race the next day, and the blind jockey took the Sky-born Snorter to the race-course, and started him with the other horses. The other horses trotted away round the course, but the Sky-born Snorter stayed just where he was, and rocked. And when the other horses came round the turn, there he was waiting for them at the judge’s stand.
So he won the race, and the judge gave the prize, which was a white buffalo, to the blind jockey.
The jockey put the Sky-born Snorter in the stable, and then went to get his white buffalo. And while he was gone, the other jockeys came into the stable to see the new horse.
“Why, he’s a rocking-horse!” said one of them.
“Hush!” said the Sky-born Snorter.
“Yes, I am a rocking-horse, but don’t tell my master. He doesn’t know it, and he paid ten thousand dollars for me.”
“Whom did he pay it to?” asked the jockeys.
“To the other jockey, who bought me from myself,” replied the Snorter.
“Oh! and what did he give for you?”
“A bushel of shavings,” said the Snorter.
“Ah !” said one of the jockeys.
“A bushel of shavings, eh ? Now, how would you like to have those shavings turned into gold ?”
“Very much indeed!” cried the Sky-born.
“Well,” said the jockey, “bring them here, and we will change them for you.”
So the rocking-horse went and fetched the shavings, and the jockeys set fire to them.
The flames shot up, bright and yellow.
“See!” cried the jockeys. “The shavings are all turned into gold. Now we will
see what we can do for you.”
And they took the Sky-born Snorter and put him in the fire, and he turned into gold too, and was all burned up. And the blind jockey drove the white buffalo all the rest of his life, and never knew the difference.
Moral: Don’t be ambitious!
It is said that the first rocking horse dates back to 400 BC ancient Greece. These were probably used much like the wheeled wooden horses during the Middle Ages when knights practiced their jousting and swordsmanship while sitting astride these early versions of wooden rocking horses. And wooden wheeled toy horses were found in the Egyptian pyramids.
Rocking horse toys did not appear until the 1600’s. These simple toys were made of wooden boards, unadorned yet still beloved by children as much then as they are now. Early versions of the wooden horses were carved by carpenters and amateur and professional woodcarvers.
It is believed that they were used to develop children’s balance for riding real horses.
It wasn’t until the Victorian era that the rocking horse became a work of art. The horses at that time were crafted by hand with attention to detail and color.
During the 1800’s many family run businesses arose in England devoted to creating children’s rocking horses.
One of the earliest established manufacturers was J. Collinson and Sons who began crafting their horses in 1836. The popularity of their rocking horses was given a huge boost in 1851 when Queen Victoria visited their workshop.
The Collinson horses were painted in a very bold style of dappling, with distinctive painting around the eyes. For the eyes, they used “pin” eyes instead of glass ones. The stand pillars were rectangular with a diamond shaped piece of hardboard pinned over the nail heads on the top rail.
Queen Victoria chose a dappled grey horse sealing its popularity with the children in Victorian England.
Sadly, J. Collinson and Sons closed its doors in December 1993 after creating rocking horses for five generations of Collinson’s.
Many of the original horses have survived and can be bought from numerous antique dealers throughout the UK.
Modern rocking horses still flourish and are a favorite of children everywhere. And choosing wisely, the rocking horse you buy today will be a collectable tomorrow.
This Antique Style Wooden ”Coat of Arms” Decorative Rocking Horse 30″ is hand-carved with striking detail. The saddle and the coat of arms appear “draped” over the side of the horse through fine carving and hand-painted colors that almost give them the look of real leather, a testament to the skill of the artisan who created it. Red and green hand-painted highlights add a splash of color making it a beautifully balanced work of art.
It is amazing to think of photographs being taken over 100 years ago, such as these two vintage horse photos from the Civil War.
In the midst of all that chaos and violence, a skilled photography had the tenaciousness and bravery to capture these striking images. These may be some of the earliest horse photos taken and preserved.
“STAND TO HORSE!” AN AMERICAN VOLUNTEER CAVALRYMAN, OCTOBER, 1862
“He’s not a regular but he’s smart.”
This tribute to the soldierly bearing of the trooper above was bestowed, forty-nine years after the taking of the picture, by an officer of the U. S. cavalry, himself a Civil War veteran. The recipient of such high praise is seen as he “stood to horse”, a month after the battle of Antietam. Read the rest of this entry »
After the Czar’s overthrow in 1917, a visitor to Soviet Russia was struck by the multitudes of posters—in factories and barracks, on walls and railway-cars, on telephone-poles— everywhere. Whatever the Soviet does, it strives to make the people understand the reason for it.
If there is a new call to arms, if rations must be cut down, if new schools or courses of instruction are opened, a poster promptly appears telling why, and how the people can co-operate. Some of these posters are crude and hurried, others are works of art.
Such is the case with this Bolshevik Poster written in both Russian and Arabic Characters.
This horse poster was created during the Bolshevik Revolution as a call to the working-class of Russia to usher in the new social order of Communism. Read the rest of this entry »
In the past, horse harness was heavily loaded with brass bands, buckles, chains, and “trappings,” much of the latter appearing to be quite superfluous and unnecessary.
It would seem that these fanciful bits of perforated brass were created for purely artistic motives. That, however, is not quite correct. They were chiefly replicas of more ancient trappings, and although their forms may have deviated somewhat, the ancient idea is quite recognizable.
Such horse harness brass has meanings. The earlier examples of the designs are true to well-understood symbols which may or may not have had a beneficial influence. To the superstitious they were not merely trappings; they were charms of real purpose. Read the rest of this entry »
