Brooke Bond Picture Cards

[EricW]

I remember those gory civil war cards, they'd never have sold any of that bubble gum without them. It was disgusting and tasted of soap.
The fish cards were wonderful, but it was some with birds on that take me back, especially the Scarlet Cock of the Rock one. That is burned into my memory.

[GregF]

This thread has brought back a flood of memories. I’ve got the Brooke Bond set in a book which I collected when I was a very small child. Unfortunately it’s missing the gudgeon card - I don’t know why I didn’t get that one. I also collected the butterflies and the prehistoric animals although these sets went missing a long time ago. I particularly remember the prehistoric animals because the last one in the set was a stone-age man (might have been called cro-magnon man or I could be confusing it with something else). Anyway, my friends and I had duplicates of this one and had tremendous fun sitting on the pavement burning the naked caveman’s bottom with a magnifying glass!

I also have the John Player Freshwater Fishes set in a book and the sea fish ones which are just loose. I was given these when I was 11 or 12 by our next-door neighbour at the time. She was a lovely old lady by the name of Mrs. Cray whose late husband had been a keen fisherman. When she saw me walking past her house with my fishing gear (on the way to the local pond) she decided I should have what was left of his bits and pieces. These included the JP cards/book and two little books by A.R. Matthews, ‘How to catch coarse fish’ and How to catch pike’. Sadly for me, Mr. Cray’s rods and other tackle had been given away or sold some years before to raise funds for the church, which Mrs. Cray was an active member of. The ‘How to catch’ books still live on my bookshelf, very tatty and falling apart but they were like that when I got them, so not down to being careless. One of the things I like about my little collection is the short poem at the beginning of the John Player book. It’s something that has stuck with me all these years and I often recite it in my head when I’m fishing at dusk, making my last casts. This thread has inspired me to look at these again and it was nice to remember the person who so kindly gave them to me.

[Barbelbonce]

Here is the poem.

Mike

[Silfield]

As already mentioned, this thread has stirred some long forgotten memories from childhood. I can remember picking up an incomplete set at the local village hall jumble sale and studying the illustrations for hours.

If anyone is interested, this is at Abe Books:
https://www.abebooks.co.uk/signed-first ... 9800225/bd
It is the book that the BB tea cards were taken from.

[NorfolkTinca]

My father found me a full set of Wills's butterflies, mounted and framed, for £5 on a car boot sale. This inspired me to dig out the Brooke Bond partial set that my grandmother left me, back in 1978. I managed to buy the missing ones, and decided to have the set framed to match the Wills's one.

The story has a strange twist. In the picture-framing shop, I explained that the set had huge sentimental value, and I wanted to count them out so that there would be no arguments if any of the cards got lost while framing. There were 50 when I left home, but only 46 when I counted them out in the shop. I searched my pockets, the car, the car park, my house, even the shop itself, and to this day - three years later - I've no idea where those other four cards went. I bought replacements and had the set made up and framed, but it still baffles me.

[GregF]

Here is the poem.

Mike

That’s the one Did the fisherman really catch the fish or just ‘cook the story’? Only he and the ‘recording angels’ know the truth. Great little poem.

[SussexMan]

Another popular series (bubblegum based, I think) was Flags of the World. The Brooke Bond collectibles were the best; still remember eagerly begging mum for the packet and smelling the fresh tea-leaf scent.