Before we "shoot" on, we asked if you could spot the mistake in the text on the back of this card? The solution is in the section that starts "Ground", and if you move along and down a line it says "Record Attendance : 31,651 v Woverhampton Wanderers" (not WoLverhampton Wanderers).
Do any of you know if a corrected card was issued? If so, do let us know.
Now according to the Trading Card Database/GrimsbyTown, the first card to feature the club. was issued in 1907, but in India, not Great Britain. This was part of W.D. & H.O. Wills` "Scissors" branded "Football Club Colours", and it also shows a costume more like a choirboy, with a shirt that has the collar and shoulders in red, and the rest white.
However it was not artistic license, for both Cohen Weenen`s Football Captains" (1908) and Ogden`s "Famous Footballers" (1908) show the same strip. It is not until Cope`s "Noted Footballers" (Clips) card of Jimmy Gordon that the characteristic black and white stripes are glimpsed. I have been advised that the red and white was only used between 1906 and 1908, with the black and white stripes coming in for the 1910 season.
You can see all the strips at a really fascinating website called HistoricalKits - that reveals they were founded in 1878 as Grimsby Pelham, and wore a black and white hooped top with white shorts and black socks, a kit which continued when they changed their name to Grimsby Town in 1879.
So maybe there are earlier cards of them, after all?
This set is first catalogued in our original British Trade Index part II under the maker`s name of "CLEVEDON Confectionery (Blackpool) Ltd" and the heading reads : "Cards issued 1956-63. Albums issued". The set is described as :
FAMOUS FOOTBALL CLUBS. Sm. 58 x 33. Nd. (50) ... CLZ-9
In our updated British Trade Index the text is identical, save the "Sm" has been replaced bv "1960-61" and there is a new code of CLE-160.