Take a card... by Iain McCartney Part 1
For many, there is much more to being a Manchester United supporter than simply attending games home and away, or if you are a far‑flung Red, following the progress of the team on television and via the internet. That interest lasts much more than the ninety minute match‑day game time and can stretch into areas that are unknown to many, but then again, collecting United memorabilia is not to everyone’s taste. Those who do collect tend to concentrate on programmes, but if you move towards pre‑war cigarette and trade cards you can build up an excellent pictorial history of those players from yesterday.
that is not exactly ‘United related’, all I will say is that blank cards were originally used in the paper cigarette packets as stiffeners, but were soon to carry advertisements, before turning to photographs of actors and actresses. in the late Victorian years. Various other themes were used with much success on the cards before sets of footballers first appeared with Cohen Weenan and Ogden amongst the first to do so. Their popularity soon prompted other companies to follow suit, with many of those early cards fetching large amounts today.
Their first cards were issued with the ‘Champion’ in 1922, in a set entitled ‑ “Famous Football Captains & Famous Footballers”, with goalkeeper Jack Mew being included, looking rather refined in an England shirt and cap.
Through the following articles I intend to go through the world of United cards in an A‑Z format which I hope you will find of interest. I should actually start with a brief history of the cigarette card, but to save space on something
38 VOL 47 - ISSUE 3 - MARCH 2020
Instead of jumping in at the start of the cigarette card period, I will begin, as with the post‑ war Trade Card article with ‘A’ and work through the alphabet, so we will begin this series with the Amalgamated Press, who were founded in 1901 and issued a number of Boy’s publication over the course of the following years.
1922 also saw football cards issued with the ‘Lot‑O’‑Fun’ publication, under the heading ‘Sports Champions’ with Billy Meredith featured.
