Card of the Day - 2024-01-13

Thomson World Cup Footballers
D.C. Thomson [trade : magazines : UK] "World Cup Footballers" (1958) 13/64 - THO-800 : THO-217.4

Our first clue this week was the magazine that issued this card, that being "Wizard", though for the most part it is the witches which brew the brew. However the proper name of a maker of any sort of potion is a Potioneer, which is ungendered. They are also known as a potion-brewer or potion-maker.

The surprising thing about anyone with this name is that it was actually an occupation, and that potion making formed their main, if not their entire, source of income. 

Bill Harris, showing here, was actually William Charles Harris, and he was born in Swansea, Mid Glamorgan, Wales in October 1928. He played for Bradford City, Hull City and Middlesborough between 1949 and 1965, and he also won six caps for Wales. He died in 1989. Sadly this appears to be the only time he appeared on a card in his lifetime, though he has been on two later ones, both in his Middlesborough strip. These are :

the JF Sporting Collectables set of "Popular Footballers 1950s" series three (1998), in which he is shown in his Middlesborough strip - these being are coloured head and shoulder portraits with reverse descriptions, and do note that they are available as matt or gloss finish, plus as postcards, and also in a slightly larger format still. Not sure if they are numbered though, so let us know if you know, and what the number of his card is.

the David Rowland issue of "Association Footballers" series three (1999) which is a set of twenty-five cards, art-drawn, and again with descriptions on the reverse. Here he is card 9. 

Our set is listed in our British Trade Index part II, as : 

WORLD CUP FOOTBALLERS. Sm. 68 x 37. Issued in horizontal pairs. Black portraits. Four series each Nd.1/16. (64)
1. Inscribed "Adventure" (16)
2. Inscribed "Hotspur" (16)
3. Inscribed "Rover" (16)
4. Inscribed "Wizard" (16)

The "horizontal pairs" means that there was another card joined to it on one side. Our card was originally paired with card 14, that being a full length action shot of Alex Parker - or Alexander Hershaw Parker who played for Scotland and Falkirk - but some cards were split into two smaller squares one above the other, each containing a head and shoulders portrait of a different footballer, so on those you actually got three men not two. 

For the most part you will now see these sold as separate cards, having been torn asunder. Sometimes you will also see a portion of the dotted line that originally separated them, but some collectors carefully cut on either side of the line and removed it entirely, though this did make the card slightly narrower.

The set is slightly differently described in our updated version, as :

WORLD CUP FOOTBALLERS. (AD)(H)(R)(W). 1958. 68 x 37. Issued in pairs, dotted line in between. Black photos. Nd. (64), numbered 1/16 for four series.