[PB, Jan 2014: The original article included an image of the cigarette card referred to - "Charge of the Light Brigade hero Lieutenant Alexander Dunn - as portrayed in Taddy & Co's Victoria Cross series". However, by the time I noticed the item, the image had been removed, but I ave substituted our own. Source: http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/VC-hero-cards-collector-s-dream/story-16838112-detail/story.html (accessed 17.1.2016)]
VC hero cards are a collector's dream
Scunthorpe Telegraph, September 06, 2012
Heroes do not get much more impressive than Lieutenant Alexander Dunn of the 11th Hussars: He was in the second wave of the Charge of the Light Brigade, one of just three of the regiment's officers to survive the initial charge on the Russian guns at Balaclava - and that was just the start.
As the 11th fought their way back out, under attack from a squadron of Russian Lancers, Dunn reined in his horse to go to the aid of Troop Sergeant Bentley who had been brought down by three enemy horsemen. He emptied his revolver at the Russians, and then attacked with his sword, before pulling Bentley on to his horse and riding clear.
He was not done even then: Moments later he saved the life of Private Levitt, cutting down the enemy hussar who was attacking him.
Dunn was the first Canadian-born recipient of the Victoria Cross and was amongst those invested with the newly created gallantry award in Hyde Park in June 1857. He was presented with the medal by Queen Victoria personally.
So Lieutenant Dunn was something of a "must" when the tobacco company James Taddy & Co produced its Victoria Cross Heroes series of cigarette cards in 1901-1904. The series extended to 125 cards, in six sets, sequentially numbered. The first two sets were entitled Victoria Cross Heroes, as was the last set. The middle three were VC Heroes - Boer War.
Lieutenant A R Dunn VC was number 21 in the series. Today the entire series is rare and card number 21 is particularly prized by collectors.
Cigarette cards were issued in countless millions over the years, so cards and sets issued by the largest tobacco companies ... Gallahers, Players and the like ... are plentiful and, for the most part, can be bought for very modest sums. Individual cards will rarely make more than pence.
That said, sets produced in small numbers in the late Victorian or Edwardian periods, by now long forgotten tobacco companies, can be worth hundreds of pounds and, in some cases, thousands of pounds.
Some of the most valuable sets were produced by ... James Taddy & Co. Founded in 1740, the company was one of the most important tobacco companies in the country by the end of the 19th century. It disappeared in the most extraordinary circumstances: In 1920 workers joined an industry-wide strike for better pay. They were warned by the owner that if they did not return to work he would close the factory down. They did not return - and he closed the firm.
The first British tobacco company to issue cigarette cards was Wills, in 1888, but James Taddy was quick to adopt the new idea and they produced cards of particularly high quality. Their first set - Clowns - is probably the most valuable of all. Just 20 complete sets of the 20 cards are known to exist. Sets have sold for in excess of £10, 000.
Victoria Cross Heroes is not quite in that league but it still makes serious amounts of money: Individual sets can sell for in excess of £500.
The single card depicting Lieutenant Alexander Dunn VC retails for around £70. What it makes at auction remains to be seen next week. It is part of a very impressive collection of cards built up over many years by a private local cartophilist (cigarette card collector).
There are lots of cards and sets by long disappeared tobacco manufacturers such as Charlesworth & Austin, Salmon & Gluckstein, Cohen Weenen & Co, R&J Hill and others. There are also sought after sets by some of the more well-known firms including a part-set of Gallaher's Robinson Crusoe, issued in 1928.
The cigarette cards are amongst the star lots in next week's Antique and Modern Furnishings Homewares and Collectables Auction at the CJM Auction Centre. The full catalogue is online at www.i-bidder.com and the viewing sessions are today and Monday (1pm to 7pm). The auction is exclusively online using the I-bidder platform and is scheduled to close from 6pm onwards on Tuesday.
A note to complete the story of Lieutenant Alexander Dunn VC. After surviving the extraordinary danger and heroics of the Charge of the Light Brigade unscathed, not to mention subsequent action elsewhere around the world, he was killed in a game shooting accident in Abyssinia in 1868 when his rifle exploded. How unlucky was that?
[? A different link to same source: http://legacy.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/VC-hero-cards-collector-s-dream/story-16838112-detail/story.html#ixzz2qfPI1HWC]