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Originally Posted by ValKehl
Bob, thanks for all the interesting info. I collect colored S74s of WaJo, as many different that I can find and afford. I have long believed that colored silks were also issued by Red Sun and Helmar, based on what I read in the Standard Catalog and on the Old Cardboard website, although I have never seen examples of these. I encourage you to contact OC and ask them to revise their S74 info, and perhaps also volunteer to write an article for the OC Magazine.
Val
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Hi Val,
Certainly appreciate the consideration but, I don't know if I would be the appropriate one to write such an article. I'm sure there are others who know more about the S74 silks than I do. As far as there being Red Sun and Helmar brand colored S74-2 silks like there are for the white S74-1 silks, I've never seen or heard of any colored silks for either of those brands in all my years of collecting them. If anyone out there has an example they can share a scan of, I would love to see one. My advice is to not hold your breath waiting to see one though as I don't believe they exist.
Now as to why not, well, it is pretty clear that the white ad-backed S74-1 silks were produced initially, and I'm then speculating that the tobacco companies probably switched to the colored silks after getting complaints from wives, mothers and daughters that the all white silks were just bland and dull when being used for making pillows and such, like they were originally intended for. I would also expect the cost for the multi-colored satin materials then used for the S74-2 colored version silks was more than for just the white material used for the S74-1 silks, so they probably came up with the idea pf doing away with the advertising on the paper backing as a way to offset and reduce the cost of producing these multi-colored silks. Besides, when people got the white version silks they were told to remove the advertising on the back before using them in pillows and such, and most people would probably just throw those removed backs away so now the advertising for that tobacco brand was gone. With the S74-2 colored version silks the brand name was printed on the front and didn't just get discarded when the silks were used for their intended purposes. Just my speculations but, from an advertising and cost standpoint, it makes a lot of sense.
Now, the Red Sun and Helmar ad-backed S74-1 silks are both extremely tough to come across examples of, with Helmar being virtually impossible to find. My guess would be that those brands were more regionally distributed than were Old Mill or Turkey Red, and the S74-1 white version silks included with them probably didn't fair well in popularity with consumers they were being sold to in their regional sales areas. Thus, when the switch occurred to go to the multi-colored version of the silks, they likely didn't bother to include the Red Sun and Helmar brands in the new advertising product. You would think that if Red Sun or Helmar colored S74-2 silks were ever produced that at least one of them would have been used in the making of a pillow, or quilt or something else that would have survived till today but, to my knowledge, not one example of either brand exists in the colored version silks. Another possibility is that they did intend to eventually start producing colored version silks for the Red Sun and Helmar brands also but, that the breakup of the American Tobacco Company monopoly occurred and ended that, just like it did for the production of T206 cards and other tobacco advertising of the day.
By the way Val, those are really nice WaJo silks. Good luck on picking them up. With the multitude of silk colors/shades, the three different colors of ink and the different tobacco brands, I couldn't begin to guess how many different versions you could actually find in a run of his silks. it would likely make an impressive display, to say the least. Good luck.
BobC