Here’s another “family” from the set that was issued as a promotional gimmick by the Four Square store chain. I previously wrote about this item here:
https://longwhitekid.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/bite-size-game-on/
and noted I am working my way through digitally restoring them (they are in pretty bad shape, which seems to be a common problem that the earlier sets of cards haven’t suffered – the type of materials used later, I suspect ).
Someone has since noted that they believe this card set was issued between 1979-1981. That tees up with what I remember about the products pictured. I would have said the same since this is what packaging of these items looked like around 1980 and I recall all of them very clearly. Many of these items have not yet tuned up at auction – I guess that there’s not a level of interest in that era there yet, certainly not the interest that there is in anything that’s pre mid-1970s. But it is creeping up slowly. Like all collectables, it’s all a matter of how much time has lapsed – even over and above “rarity” issues. It’s pretty obvious most of it is still going to the tip instead of up for sale.
This set features Bell Tea, which is very much a New Zealand institution going back to 1898 when the trademark was registered (Although the beginnings of R Wilson and Company, before they formed a partnership with Norman Harper Bell, dates to the early 1860s). It’s one logo which actually hasn’t changed remarkably in all that time. Generally the boxes (first introduced in 1937) were red – with a yellow, blue and white print in the 1970s, which I don’t have any pictures of yet. The larger boxes of bulk bags in the late 70s to early 80s looked like this.
Bell is of course still going today, and along the way they acquired a few other brands such as Edglets, Tiger and Amber Tips . I will do a proper post on Bell in the future when opportunity presents its self.
Addendum: The people at Bell Tea have given longwhitekid a nice little plug over at their Facebook page by featuring this post.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.342892852437408.78036.169793223080706&type=1
longwhitekid 