Card of the Day - 2022-12-24

Gallaher "Famous Footballers " brown
Gallaher [tobacco : UK] "Famous Footballers" brown back (1926) 47/50 - G075=390 : G12-51

This one was fairly easy, because it showed "Sylvester" Bierne, of Linfield, who I now read was also a policeman. That will teach me to read the text before I pick the card in future. 

Now do note that this title also appears on a set of a hundred cards with green backs. There is another difference as well though, because the footballers on our set are dressed in their team colours. 

The cards were printed by Tillotsons, of Bolton, a very prolific printer of cards. 

There is one "error" card known, it is number 27 - though it is not really an error as such, it is just that the player transferred to another team, and so he can be found on two cards, each with two different strips, and with a slightly different name. The first is as William Ashurst of Notts County (green background) and the second is Wm Ashurst of West Bromwich Albion (brown background). The backs are also different, though his hobby of poultry keeping appears on both!  Mind you it appears that he liked to be called BIll.  

Now a bit of research has found out that he was at Notts County from 1920 to 1926 and West Bromwich Albion from 1926 to 1928. That fits in really well with the date of this set. It also fits in with a bit of knowledge that only seems to appear in our original Gallaher Reference Book, which states that the cards are found with either  1. the background in green - or 2. the background in brown. Now this does not necessarily prove that the green ones came first, but that fact is definitely supported by the fact that he was at the green backgrounded Notts County first, and then moved to the brown backgrounded West Bromwich Albion. 

So are there any other differences between the green and the brown cards, as far as team or text ? Over to you...

By the way he can be found on a Godfrey Phillips Pinnace "Footballers" card, it is number 1726, and it dates from his time at Notts County. And if you look, you will also discover his younger brother, Eli, on card 1474, playing for Birmingham