PLAISTOWE CARDS
MORE GEMS FROM THE WEST

Card collectors have been well served with interesting and highly collectable issues from Western Australia, with, perhaps, the Plaistowe confectioners issuing the most number of trade card sets, which, if including "sub-sets", could number nine. The Plaistowe cards came in the confectionery produced by Plaistowe & Co. Ltd, who began their business in a factory in Marquis Street, West Perth in 1895. Hugh Plaistowe was born in London in 1870 and, after working in his father's confectionery business there, came to Australia in the early 1890s and in 1895 went into the confectionery industry in partnership with a Mr J Hobbs. This partnership was dissolved in 1903 and in August 1910 the company was incorporated and registered and remained a prominent Western Australian family business until it was acquired by the giant Swiss Nestle multinational conglomerate in the 1990s. Plaistowe's founder, Hugh Plaistowe, died in 1935 in Perth, aged 65 and the running of the business was taken over by his sons.The Perth "Sunday Times"(7th September 1930) reported that the company manufactured over 400 different confections and they were early manufacturers of "Nonpareils" (aka "hundreds-and-thousands" of the Aussie kids' favourite, "fairy-bread" fame); their most well-known and popular lolly being the "Choo Choo Bar", which is still famously chugging along; now under the Williamstown-based, Lagoon Confectionery banner. It was introduced to the Plaistowe range in 1954 and is now considered part of Aussie folklore, along with the likes of Vegemite, Minties and Jaffas. I can personally vouch for one of their yummy products, as my Fremantle based, Auntie Rose always sent me a block of Plaistowe's coconut-rough chocolate for my birthdays during the late 1940s. RB30 (Grey Book - Page 148) and RB33 (Blue Book - Page 134) have listed the Plaistowe issues that were known at the times of publication (1983 and 1993), but further research has turned up possibly two more sets and additions to the known issues. Although the company was in operation for almost a century, it appears all but one of their sets were issued during the 1930s, with the "Pinocchio" set being a 1940 issue.

THE PLAISTOWE ISSUES

• COMET TOFFEE - This is a one-off card, featuring the D.H.Comet Monoplane, piloted by Scott and Black, that won the London to Melbourne "MacRobertson Centenary Air Race" in 1934.
• FILM STARS (A) - These rather large, black and white cards measure 132mm x 61mm and although the back of the card indicates there are 21 cards in the series, only 12 have been seen and I feel the "21" is a printing error and should read "12". (Jack Buchanan-Maurice Chevalier-Claudette Colbert -Juliette Compton - Gary Cooper - Marlene Dietrich - Wynne Gibson - Anne Grey - Jean Harlow - Edmund Love - Lilyan Tashman - Lupe Velez)
• PROMINENT FOOTBALLERS (Football Toffee) - There are a total of 80 numbered Western Australian Prominent Footballers featured; separated into two groups - Nos 1 -40 (with no names on the front) and Nos 41 - 80 (with names on the front and a different frame). The reverse of the card records player details and the number of cards (40 or 80) in the set. The known subjects are listed on Damien Green's excellent football website (Aussie Rules Collectables).
• PINOCCHIO (A) - A coloured, "subject-listed" and "fold-over" set of 12 cards that was issued with "Pinocchio Chocolate Tablets". These cards are unnumbered, measure 116mm x 63mm and the back and half the front of each card tell a Pinocchio-related story. Each card carries the wording: "(C'right Walt Disney)" indicating the cards are of a 1940 vintage, as that was the year Disney's "PINOCCHIO" movie was released. This set has previously been unrecorded but one of our Tradecard buffs has the full set, which he obtained from one of our old W.A. members. (Pinocchio - Geppetto - Jiminy Cricket - Blue Fairy - Honest John - Gideon - Stromboli - Cleo - Figaro - Lampwick - Coachman)
• R.A.F. AEROPLANES (A) - There are three known of these oddly-shaped (115mm x 38mm), coloured, blank-backed, unnumbered cards. ("Armstrong Whitworth Whitley" - "Handley Page Hampden" - "Supermarine Spitfire")
• ROYAL NAVY SHIPS (A) - There are two known of this set and they are in the exact same format as the above R.A.F. series, which leads me to believe these two "sets" are really one and, perhaps, could be given the title "BRITAIN'S FRONTLINE DEFENDERS" (A). ("Cruiser of Southampton Class" - "HMS Ark Royal")
• TRAVEL TOFFEE - A numbered set of 24 mauve-brown cards featuring a wide variety of planes, ships, trains, buses and cars. There are two series - (a) backs in black and (b) backs in brown. This is the most common of the Plaistowe issues with the "brown backs" being noticeably more difficult to source.

Notes in the Grey Book would indicate that some cards from the Travel Toffee set have been overprinted with "Cancelled" in red and all the text obliterated by a brown rectangle. This would tie in with the offer of an "Attache Case free", for collecting the full set of 24 cards, as noted at the base of the reverse of the cards. The Grey Book also makes mention of a "coupon" at the base of the Film Star cards, again suggesting a premium reward scheme, however the images of the Film Star cards I have seen do not show any indication of a "coupon". Another trade card mystery.

As usual, I call on anyone with any further information on these, or any other Plaistowe issues, to let the Editors know, to enable us to record any new details and Hugh Plaistowe's Great Grandson, Peter Green, (0417 905 295) would love to hear from anyone who has any Plaistowe-related material.

ERIC PANTHER
January 2021.

Acknowledgements:
Peter Green, Ian Bennett. David Elliott.
References:
RB30. RB33. Trove. Wikipedia. Aussie Rules Collectables.

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