I have taken a bit of a liberty here because although this looks like a "throw-in", of course it is a lantern. There is a reason for the card though, for the first ever women`s football was played in China, as well as several other Asian countries.
As for a date, that varies, for written records of it do not tell of when it began - but it was definitely between 475 – 221 B.C.
This game was called Cuju (which means "kick ball"), or Ts`u-Chu, and today it is reported as being a cross between several modern sports - but there is no doubt that one of those was football. Even the Football Association agree; they refer to it as the earliest game involving the skill of kicking an object, usually a ball stuffed with feathers, into a goal. The word "goal" is a bit of a stretch, because it was a hoop. However the hands could not be used, only the feet, and the ball had to be kicked through an opening into that hoop. .
Now it started as a training exercise for young soldiers and cadets, for it developed hand eye co-ordination and physical fitness, under the guise of sport rather than training, but it also developed outside of the military as a civilian entertainment, and formal rules were even drawn up. During the Tang Dynasty there were two major changes, the feather ball being dropped, and changed to one which was inflated by being filled with air, and also a new style of target, posts with a net strung between them replacing the hoop.
By this time women were regularly playing the game, though a lot of historians believe that women played the game for fun from much earlier times, and that the records from the Tang Dynasty should be taken to mean that they were playing it professionally, with proper coaching. Others believe that the way the words are written actually mean that the women were regularly playing against men. Sadly the game slowly fell into decline though, and by the fourteenth century it only remained as shadows, buried in books and papers.
This set is catalogued in our original World Tobacco Issues Index as :
CHINESE STAGE SHOWS (A). Sm. 63 x 36. Chinese caption and numeral in black, red framelines, border in (a) gilt (b) silver. Actors and actresses in costumes. Nd. (50). See X21/525-18 ... ZK3-11
The reference to X21/525-18 leads you to the handbook, where the entry reads :
X21/525-18. CHINESE SET 20 - Stage Shows. The "A" printing, Anonymous with plain back, is found with border to front (a) gilt (b) silver
This seems a bit odd, until you suddenly link the "21" to RB.21, and, though not mentioned in either of the above listings, this set is indeed also in our reference book RB.21, to British American Tobacco issues, where it is catalogued as :
525-18. CHINESE SET 20 - Stage Shows. Small cards, size 63 x 36 m/m. Front per Fig.525-18 in colour, red frameline, gilt border. Series of 50.
A. Anonymous issue, with plain back
B. B.C.C. issue, pearl bordered design back, per Fig.200-17.F in yellow.
The front index gives us the date of issue, and also a date of 1910-1915 for that British Cigarette Co. version. Both were issued in China. And if you return to the original World Tobacco Issues Index, and look at the B.C.C. version, it is catalogued under B130-44 as : "CHINESE STAGE SHOWS. (A). Sm. Nd. (50). See RB.21/525-18.B
Now curiously, this B.C.C. version is also listed in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, under B745-450, as "CHINESE STAGE SHOWS. (A). Sm. 63 x 37. Red frameline. Nd. (50). One card has been seen without numeral. See RB.21/525-18.B"
However, it was decided that Chinese Language issues would not appear in the updated version, and so there is no updated code for our issue. Also, though, this means that without access to RB.21, the collector knows not a thing of our version, showing here.