We started our celebrations with this card, and the clue word was the player`s surname, Lucas - which is where it all started, for Lucasfilm was not just a company, it was a person, George Lucas, (no relation to Tom, showing here, though). And he actually only made Star Wars because he was unable to buy the rights to remake Flash Gordon. In hindsight this was a good thing, because it forced him to do something totally original and bring in other genres, a touch of the cowboy especially in some of the costumes, and of the samurai, but with a light sabre instead of a sword.
Boys Friend was a magazine, first published in 1895, by Amalgamated Press. Strange, then, that it never appeared under the listings for Amalgamated Press in our original British Trade Index, or our updated volume, being listed only under B for Boys Friend.
This card sent me on a wonderful journey, during which I learned an awful lot about the magazine, and, thrillingly, found this very card, shown on the actual issue of a 1923 Boys Friend Magazine. But more about that later !
Our original British Trade Index tells us that they first issued cards in December 1911 - twelve of them, three each of "Famous Boxers Series", "Famous Flags Series", "Famous Footballers Series" and Famous Regiments Series". They were issued in strips of four cards, one from each of the sets, so at the end of the three weeks (December 2nd - 16th) you had all four sets complete in strips and ready to cut down to singles.
However after these volumes were published we discovered there were three larger "Football Supplements" which were issued in 1908 and 1909. These measure 275 x 205 m/m and are in brown, all of which suggests they were plates rather than cards, and could possibly have been printed in the magazine, these being extracted as pin-ups. The three known are Aston Villa, Newcastle United, and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Then cards seem to have been forgotten, and did not restart until May 1922, with the first of what would become a weekly black and white glossy photographic card from a series called "Rising Boxing Stars" Series. It was teased on the top line of the magazine for the 29th of April 1922, as "Real Boxing Photo of George Cook FREE in Next Monday`s Issue". The card arrived the following week and was also shown on the front cover, that being for the 6th of May 1922. This was quite a long running series, right until the 12th of August 1922, and the card for that week was shown on all the covers. You can see them by working down the list at Friardale.co.uk/BoysFriend - clicking on the magazine enlarges it and clicking again once there makes it still bigger.
That was the last card for a while, and it was not until the 18th of November 1922 that a new set was issued, of footballers. This was again teased the week before and then when there was a card in the magazine there was also a picture of the footballers on the front cover, as you can see by revisiting the Friardale/BoysFriend link above. However this is where it gets a bit confusing, as there were two sets of footballers and both hand-coloured.
These November 1922 ones were head and shoulder portraits, and there were two players per card, which is slightly different to the magazine cover which shows them separated.
Our set was not teased the week prior, it just started up on the 3rd of March 1923, with the very card we show here of Tom Lucas on the cover. This is still hand coloured, but a different style, and the card shows just one footballer, half length. However some collectors feel that the two sets were meant to be together, or even series one and series two, and they are indeed catalogued together in our original British Trade Index, as :
FOOTBALLERS (A). Sm. 70 x 44. Black hand-coloured photos. Unnd. ... BPJ-2
1. Half length studies. Series of 4, dated 3.3.23 to 24.3.23.
2. Head and shoulder studies, two players on each card. Series of 5, dated 18.11.22 to 16.12.22
They are, however, separated in our updated British Trade Index, into BOY-300 - the doubles - and BOY-310 - our half lengths, the entry for which reads :
FOOTBALLERS (A). 70 x 44. Black, hand-coloured photos. Unnd. (4). Half length studies. Dated 3.3.23 to 24.3.23.
There were no more cards issued, though our original British Trade Index part IV tells of seven booklets that were included with magazines dated the 13th of December 1924 to the 24th January 1925. These are not mentioned in the updated British Trade Index, where non cards were often absent, for space reasons. Some, but not all of these, are on the covers of the magazines scanned in at Friardale, the booklets shown being "Book of Boxing" (3rd January 1925), "Book of Stamps of the British Empire" (17th January 1925), and "Detective Book" (24th January 1925).
The final edition of Boys Friend was on December 31st 1927, after which it was merged with "The Triumph".