This rare card is one in a series of  24 cards issued in Canada by  the Cowan Confectionery Company of Canada.  One was inserted into each package of their Cowan’s  Chocolates and Bars.  They are listed as series V16 in Burdick’s American Card Catalogue, and are entitled “Lean To Swim”.  The front of each card features a scene of instruction about learning to swim (done in an almost Art Deco style) .  The back gives a brief description of the lesson written in both the English and French Languages.  This card number 13  in the series and is entitled “WORLDS FASTEST SWIMMER”.  IT features HERBERT VOLLMER. Here is some information I found about him on the internet: Herbert "Herb" Eberhard Jordan Vollmer (February 15, 1895–November 8, 1961) was an American water polo player who competed in the 1920 Summer Olympics and in the 1924 Summer Olympics. He was born and died in New York City, and graduated from Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan.  In 1920 he was a member of the American team in the Olympic water polo tournament. He played three matches. Four years later he won the bronze medal with the American water polo team. He played all five matches and scored three goals.  In 1976, he was inducted into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame.  A 1990 inductee to the International  Swimming Hall of Fame as a Pioneer Swimmer and a 1976 charter member of the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame, Herbert “Hal” Eberhard Jordan Vollmer made his mark as a swimmer and a water polo during the first half of the 20th century.  A native of New York, Vollmer (February 15, 1895–November 8, 1961), similar to the majority of other water polo players during his time period, he graduated Stuyvesant High School and served in the Navy as a lieutenant during World War I.  Following his service, he started out as a swimmer and was the IC4A champion in 1915 and 1916 while a student at Columbia University. His biggest day came on February 17, 1916 when he set three world indoor records in the 150 yard, 200 yard and 500m freestyle en route to capturing the metropolitan 220 yard championship.A football player and track athlete at Columbia as well when not swimming or competing in water polo, Vollmer was known to his teammates as “the Prince of Wales”, due to his fastidious dress and physical resemblance, and was called the “human motor boat” by New York sports writers and his colleagues at the New York Athletic Club due to his speed in the water.He swam for Ed Kennedy at Columbia and Otto Wahle at the New York Athletic Club. Kennedy called him “the greatest intercollegiate swimmer and American softball water polo player of the teens, twenty’s and thirty’s.” He won six straight National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) intercollegiate titles in the 100 and 200 yard freestyles. In 1915, as a freshman, Vollmer held every freestyle intercollegiate record from the 100 to 440 yards. In 1916, perhaps his best year, he set outdoor world marks at 150 yards, 220 yards and 500 meters and also beat the great Duke Kahanamoku at 200 yards. His world records were 1:29.8 for 150 yards, 2:10.8 for 200 yards, 2:24.6 for 220 yards and 200 meters, 3:55.4 for 300 meters and 6:15.6 for 500 meters. His records were all indoors and short course.He missed out on the 1916 Olympics due to the game’s cancellation caused by World War I and never appeared in the Olympics as a swimmer – although he held the world record in some events at the time the Olympics would have been held in Berlin. Upon graduating Columbia in 1918, he sought to find another path to the games and appeared in three games for the 1920 United States Olympic team which placed Fourth in Antwerp, Belgium, under the guidance of Wahle. The trip over to the Olympics was noteworthy as the United States Olympic Committee booked last minute arrangements for the entire group of U.S. representatives on the ship Princess Matoika.  Traveling on a ship that was “dirty, vermin-ridden, especially with rats, with poor service, poor quarters, and insufficient sanitary arrangements and incompetent crew,” per accounts of the time, Wahle built a 12′ by 9′ swimming specially constructed on the deck to allow the Americans to practice as a group for the first time.After helping the New York Athletic Club to the 1920 AAU Junior National Championship, he returned to the Olympics four years later in Paris as team captain and scored three goals over five matches as the United States claimed the Bronze Medal.  Once again, Wahle served as head coach for the games as head coach Harry Hebner – who was Vollmer’s teammate on the 1920 squad – did not attend.A member of the AAU Senior Metropolitan Championship teams of 1924 and 1927, Vollmer was a stalwart of the New York Athletic Club. He was a member of the team that won the AAU Senior outdoor title in 1929 and 1930 and he played on the AAU Senior indoor championship teams in 1922, 1929, 1931, 1935 and 1936.  His last time in 1936 came at the age of 41.  It marked his last appearance in international competition as well as he missed out on making the 1936 squad that finished Ninth in Berlin and served as an alternate for the team.His playing days of American “Tarzan” softball water polo came to an end in 1936 by force as the game was abandoned for being too dangerous and violent. The game was designed to suit the small pools that were common then in the United States. There were few rules and any player within four yards of the goal could be tackled whether he had the ball or not. Goals were scored by touching goal boards four feet long by one foot high, at each end of the pool.Outside of the water, Vollmer became a real estate broker in New York until his death in 1961 at the age of 66.

The Card measures 3 1/4 inches by 1 1/8 inches approximately.  The card has very light creases to one end of the card.  They are not overly noticeable with the naked eye or by touch, but can be seen under magnification, I mention them for accuracies sake.   I have scanned the front and back of the card fairly large so you can determine the condition for  yourself.  Other than the Cowan V21 Color Cards (featuring Boy Scouts ect.)  I have always found this one of the harder series of the smaller sized Cowans cards to find. THESE CARDS WERE NEVER ISSUED IN THE  U.S.  or UK Due to the lower population in Canada than in the USA and UK,  print runs in Canada were much smaller compared with American and British Cards. (Because of this the majority of all Canadian non sports cards are far scarcer than cards issued in the USA.

I  will be trying to list several  EARLY TRADE & TYPE CARDS over the next few days (spread across different categories), including one or two that are unrecorded in any guide, that were put given away with Tobacco, Cigarettes , Caramel, Candy, Gum, Chocolate, Bread Coffee Tea Cereal and other products, covering such diverse subjects as Native American Indians , Baseball , Football, Boy Scouts, Ice Hockey, Golf, Presidents of the United States, NCAA and IVY League Colleges and Universities, Dog Breeds,  Circus themes and many more.  To view the other cards I have up on ebay please click  on the “View Sellers other Items” Icon located on this page. It will take you directly to them.

 

Due to my work schedule and distance to the post office I am only able to ship  Monday Mornings.  If I haven’t received payment for an item by Sunday evening,   the item will have to wait until the next Monday  to go out. Its unfortunate but unavoidable.   If this doesn’t work for you I respectfully ask that you do not bid or buy. Thanks again. 

This will be mailed from the USA. 

Unfortunately Ebay’s Global Seller Program does not allow for combined shipments on international order