1941-1942 Britain’s Fighting Planes and Warships of the British Navy (FC13)
The Canada Starch Co. Limited, Montréal, Toronto, Canada

Series Title: Britain’s Fighting Planes and Warships of the British Navy
Cartophilic Reference number: FC13
Issued by: The Canada Starch Co. Limited
Issued via: Redemption of Canada Starch Company Product Labels
Country: Montréal, Toronto, Canada
Number of Cards: 30
Card Numbering: 213 to 241 plus one unnumbered card
Type of Card: Mail Order
Overall Card Dimensions: 10.00 × 8.48 inches (254 × 215.48 mm)
Photo Card Dimensions: 7.38 × 5.77 inches (187.54 × 146.47 mm)
Circa: 1941-1942
Checklist: Checklist

A Little History About The Canada Starch Company ^[1]

Canada’s first corn starch manufacturing industry, the Canada Starch Works, was founded in 1858 at Edwardsburg, Ontario, which was renamed Cardinal in 1880. In 1865, the firm was incorporated as the Edwardsburg Starch Company. Then in January, 1906, the Edwardsburg Starch Company was reorganized and renamed, the Canada Starch Company, Limited.

Beginning in the mid-1930’s, the Canada Starch Company and its chief rival, the St. Lawrence Starch Company of Port Credit, Ontario had established full-fledged Advertising Departments to promote the sale of their respective corn starch and corn syrup products. In addition to newspaper and magazine advertisements, both companies featured their products through samples, recipe booklets, store display materials, cooking schools, exhibitions and network radio programs. Both companies were very aware of the advertising methods being employed by their rival and the advertising campaigns were blatantly similar.

In 1934, the St. Lawrence Starch Company introduced its hockey player pictures promotion and the following hockey season (1935-36), the Canada Starch Company countered with its own set of Crown Brand hockey pictures. In typical one-upmanship fashion, in addition to pictures of individual players, the Crown Brand pictures offered exclusive team photos as part of their collection. (St. Lawrence Starch was, however, clearly the victor in this hockey picture battle as its Bee Hive hockey picture promotion ran for more than three decades until 1967, while the Canada Starch promotion lasted a mere five years and concluded with the 1939-40 hockey season.)

The National Hockey League (NHL) defiantly carried on throughout World War II, but the war did cause an interruption in the Bee Hive hockey picture promotion. As a substitute for up-dated hockey player pictures, the St. Lawrence Starch Company issued its series of V156 Warplanes pictures for three years, beginning in 1941.

Not surprisingly, the Canada Starch Company followed suit and in March 1941 introduced its Crown Brand pictures of Britain’s Fighting Planes. The collection began with six pictures: Spitfire, Hurricane, Defiant, Sunderland Flying Boat, Wellington Bomber and Blenheim Bomber. Once again, in typical one-upmanship fashion, the Canada Starch Company pictures were in color as opposed to the black and white pictures of the St. Lawrence Starch Company.

In May 1941, the one-upmanship continued as the Canada Starch Company collection of British Fighting Planes was dramatically augmented with the addition of eight pictures of British Warships: H.M.S. Rodney, H.M.S. Repulse, H.M.S. Hood, H.M.S. Warspite, H.M.S. Ark Royal, H.M. Destroyer, H.M. Submarine and Motor Torpedo Boat.

By 1942, the Canada Starch Company set of Britain’s Fighting Planes and Warships of the British Navy had more than doubled in size to twenty-nine pictures.

The inclusion of a picture of a Bren Gun Carrier (#241) suggests that perhaps more pictures of military land vehicles would be forthcoming, but as it turned out, none were issued and the set concluded with twenty-nine pictures. There was, however, one final surprise addition to the set. An unadvertised and unnumbered B/W picture of Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain was added to the set, increasing the total number of cards to thirty! As late as 2007 ^[2], the Winston Spencer Churchill card had yet to be documented as part of the set.

With regards to the battle between the two Canadian starch companies, the FC13 Britain’s Fighting Planes and Warships of the British Navy and the V156 Warplanes picture promotions, there was no obvious winner. By sheer numbers, the 30-card set from The Canada Starch Co. Limited pales in comparison to the 223 picture-cards issued by the St. Lawrence Starch Company via their Bee Hive picture-cards issued in four series. However, the beauty, colors and variety of the Crown Brand picture-cards makes the FC13 set very special.

The following reference card shows the front and back of a typical 1941-42 Britain’s Fighting Planes and Warships of the British Navy (FC13) card. Click on the card images to reveal full-size computer enhanced 600-dpi images ^[3] of the card. However, please keep in mind that the size of these images are in the 22 to 25 MB plus category and will take some time to download.

Britain’s Fighting Planes and Warships of the British Navy (FC13) Picture-Cards

As noted above, The Canada Starch Co. Limited FC13 Britain’s Fighting Planes and Warships of the British Navy 30 picture-card set was issued during the 1941-42 time frame. These colorful picture-cards were composed of two basic elements: (1) a large pre-printed cream colored matte paper stock sheet for mounting of the smaller picture cards; and (2) a smaller matte-finished colored artwork page which was glued to the larger pre-printed cream colored matte stock. The larger pre-printed cream colored matte stock formed the foundation for the card. The pre-printed information included: (1) A rectangular box in which to center and glue the picture card; (2) Advertising information within the rectangular box on how to obtain the cards. (Note, these data were not visible when the picture card was mounted); (3) The card title appeared centered and directly beneath the rectangular frame; (4) Directly beneath the card title were several lines of descriptive/specifications text; (5) Directly beneath the descriptive text was a centering bullet; and (6) The card number appeared in the lower right-hand corner. All of the pre-printed text was in the medium dark gray color. The backside of the cream-colored mounting stock was blank. For the unnumbered Winston Spencer Churchill picture-card, the information contained within the rectangle box also included a brief biography of the famous Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The overall dimensions of the mounting stock are 10.00 × 8.48 inches (254 × 215.48 mm).

The smaller color photo-cards (7.38 × 5.77 inches (187.54 × 146.47 mm)) contained 28 landscape (horizontal) and 2 portrait (vertical) images. The only image that was not in color was a black and white photo of Winston Spencer Churchill. All of the other pictures were actually nicely done colorful artwork rather than actual photos. The set includes 18 aircraft images, 10 ship images, one tracked vehicle image, and one black-and-white portrait of Winston Spencer Churchill. The backs of the image cards are blank white. The American Card Catalog reference number for the set is FC13.

Image-Guide ^[1,3]

The following 1941-1942 Britain’s Fighting Planes and Warships of the British Navy (FC13) 30-card set by The Canada Starch Co. Limited, Canada, Image-Guide shows computer enhanced images of the fronts and backs of the 30 cards in the FC13 set. Behind each thumbnail image is a 600-dpi computer enhanced card image that you may access. In addition, directly beneath the Image Guide, in tabular form, are links to the Original Scansha used for this series. However, please keep in mind that the size of these images are in the 24 to 26 MB plus category and will take some time to download.

1940s Britain’s Fighting Planes and Warships of the British Navy Canada Starch Company Ltd. Original Scans
W.S.C.	213	214	215	216	217	218	219	220	221
222	223	224	225	226	227	228	229	230	231
232	233	234	235	236	237	238	239	240	241

FC13 Photos ^[1,3]

The crowning feature of this FC13 set is undeniably its artwork. There are actually 29 artworks and one B/W photo (Winston Spencer Churchill) in the FC13 set instead of the 29 as previously reported in the NSB ^[2]. The Winston Spencer Churchill B/W photo was the undocumented image that increased the set total from 29 to 30. The FC13 set contains two portrait (vertical) and 28 landscape (horizontal) images. The backs of the artwork, are blank white. The artwork contained in the FC13 set is superior to and is true eye candy when compared to its contemporary St. Lawrence Starch Company V156 Warplanes series. We have, therefore, broken out the FC13 artwork into this separate section, so you may properly appreciate the artwork images. Behind each one of the set’s thumbnail images is a 600-dpi computer enhanced image that you may access. Simply click on the thumbnail images to expand the image to its full-size. Please note that these images are quite large, and average around 16+ mb per image. Therefore, your downloads will take extra time.

Canada Starch Company’s FC13 Advertising and Instructions on How to Obtain Cards ^[1,3]

As noted above, in the Overview section the Canada Starch Company’s 1940s Britain’s Fighting Planes and Warships of the British Navy (FC13) set of 30 cards were obtained only by mail-order. We’re very fortunate to present some of the early advertisements that the Canadian Starch Company used to promote this set. We have provided the following advertisements in sequential order so that one can see how the FC13 set expanded over time. The earliest advertisement (March 1941) shows that the set was comprised of only six aircraft cards. It’s also interesting to note that the unnumbered Winston Spencer Churchill card was never mentioned in any of the advertisements or Checklists. This of course led to the perception that the FC13 set only contained 29 cards. All of the following advertisements were provided by Don Pillar. As with the previous images, each thumbnail image has a full size 600-dpi image behind it. Once again, these are rather large images and may take extra time to download. Enjoy a little bit of 1941-42 history!

1940s Britain’s Fighting Planes and Warships of the British Navy (FC13) Shipping Envelope ^[1]

Now that we’ve outlined the cards themselves, the artwork, and the advertising, let’s take a look at how the cards arrived at your home.

It was a simple process. Upon receiving a request for pictures along with the required redemption pieces (i.e. a label from an Edwardsburg Corn Syrup tin or two box-tops from any of the Canada Starch Corn Starch products for each picture) the Canada Starch Co. Limited mailed the selected cards directly to the home of the person submitting the request.

As can be seen in the upper right hand corner of the envelope pictured below, a typewritten figure indicated the number of pictures that were contained in an envelope. In this particular case, the envelope held 18 pictures. Postage was paid by the Canada Starch Company and was determined by the weight and number of pictures in an envelope.

Checklist ^[1,3]

A Special Thanks

We would like to extend a very special thank you to Don Pillar of Port McNicoll, Ontario, Canada. This is the second set in which Don has been the primary contributor. (Don’s first contribution was to the V156 Warplanes sets of 223 photo-cards by the St. Lawrence Starch Company.) For this 1941-1942 FC13 Britain’s Fighting Planes and Warships of the British Navy 30-card set, Don contributed all of the original artwork for the photo-cards, the advertisements, and even the shipping envelope. Without Don’s contributions, this FC13 set could never have been properly documented.

References

1. Don Pillar: Card, etc. images via the Pillar Non-Sports Trade Card Collection.
2. James C. Watson, M.D.: Britain’s Fighting Planes and Warships of the British Navy. Non-Sports Bible (NSB). Vol. I. Chelsea, MI: Sheridan, 2007. 139. Print.
3. John A. Shupek: Card images via the Skytamer Archive Digital Image Database.

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