Card of the Day - 2021-10-21

This set may be called "Football" but it includes rugby as well, and here is W.J. "Billy" Bancroft, of Swansea. Billy must mean that the "W" was William. You can see a larger photo of him in The People`s Collection Wales/33698 - and, rather thrillingly, his Cadle card is used on his Wikipedia entry.

However the Trading Card Database/BBancroft has him on just three cards, the other one being by J.F. Bell, and that uses exactly the same portrait as on our card. 

He was a shoemender and cobbler, with a natural talent for sport, playing both rugby and cricket and, like his father, being one of the best players on the Glamorganshire squad. In fact the two were often seen in the same match. 

Our man`s cricketing debut came aged just eighteen, in 1889, and in 1895 he was actually the first of their players to turn "professional". His younger brother would also play for the same team, later, starting in 1908.

These cards use different photographers, and this one credits "Thiele London", who was actually a very famous photographer Karl Anton Reinhold Thiele, born in 1856 in Hamelin, in Germany and relocated to England in 1878 after an offer of work from William Henry Prestwich. He was also employed by the London Stereoscopic Company, at first as one of the painters who hand coloured the photos, but then it became known that he was actually a photographer and he started taking the pictures instead. He seems to have specialised in sports photography, and some people consider him the first true sports photographer of all.

This is not his only claim to cartophilic fame, for he also worked on the Ogden`s Guinea Gold series, including the portrait of Ranjitsinhji which is held at the National Portrait Gallery. 

The set first appears in our Wills Reference Book part II, as W/22. There is quite a lengthy description too, of : 

22. 66 FOOTBALL SERIES
Fronts printed in black, with white border. Series title inset at top with number, player`s name inset at base with photographer`s credit below. Backs in bronze blue : two different advertisements :-

"Wills`s Cinderella" Cigarettes (Nos. ending in 1. 4 and 7 from 1-50 and Nos. 51, 53, 57, 60 and 63)

"Wills`s Wild Woodbine" Cigarettes (All other numbers) 

There are at least three different kinds of card : 
(a) Pure white (coated) both sides
(b) Pure white on fronts, cream buff backs
(c) Pure white on fronts, dull grey backs.

There also appears to be a series printed on a card which has a pronounced dirty pink tint. The back colouring varies considerably from bronze blue to a chalky blue shade. Fronts vary in shade from grey-black to black. 

Two varieties of card No.18 - "W.J. Foulkes" - exist: (a) head and shoulders portrait (b) three-quarter portrait. Probably two distinct printings could be made up of each which would include one of the above cards. Cards are known with the subject title in (a) small and (b) larger lettering. Although this set is similar to Clarke`s "Footballers" it is not identical. In all cases the club or team is quoted on the Wills but omitted on Clarke`s cards, and there are other minor differences. Issue date : 1902. Printed by E. S. & A. Robinson, Ltd. 

We used the "Cinderellas" version as the Card of the Day for the 19th of August, 2023.

So this sets up a few questions for you to answer.

Firstly, the curious nature of the advertisement numbering, as to especially the final run. This rather suggests that it was planned to be a set of fifty cards, or perhaps fifty two - in which case the uniformity of the numbering would have been preserved - but for some reason they added these extra sixteen and let the advertisements fall where-ever.

Finally, whilst we have a year date of 1902, there is no month of issue, unless any Wills specialists know of it? 

Now when it comes to the World Tobacco Issues Indexes, as you might imagine, most of the above is missing. All the original volume says for the set is :

"FOOTBALL SERIES. Sm. Black and White. Nd. (66) Vari-backed, two advertisements. See W/22" -

and this is further curtailed in the updated volume, by exchanging "Black and White for "B&W".

However the later version does give us another lead to follow, because instead of W/22 as the spur off we have H.81. Unfortunately, that confuses things still more, because if you remember the quote from above, which stated that  "Although this set is similar to Clarke`s "Footballers" it is not identical. In all cases the club or team is quoted on the Wills but omitted on Clarke`s cards, and there are other minor differences.". But  now H.81 says :

H.81 FOOTBALL SERIES (titled series). Fronts in black and white. Numbered series of 66. 
Pre 1919 Clarke
                 Wills. 

This suggests that the sets must be more than similar, or why link them together? And even more strangely, both were issued in the same year, 1902. Now my trusty 1950 London Cigarette Card Catalogue adds that the retail price of the Clarke`s version was 10/- to 25/- a card, or £75 a set, with the Wills one coming in a lot cheaper, just 2/6 to 7/6 a card, or £25 a set. This could simply reflect that Wills was based in England, so the distribution area was pretty widespread, as opposed to Clarke, who was based across the water in Dublin. 

But if we have a Clarke`s researcher somewhere, maybe you can tell us of your thoughts ?