I missed posting a Vintage Card of the Month for April so I will be making a two-part posting to catch up, one for April and one for May. Because I am posting a double dose of vintage I decided to make a connection with the cards as well. I am going overseas for this duo bringing to the blog a couple of 1920 Godfrey Phillips BDV silk cards from England.
First up is the BDV Cigarettes Yorkshire County Colours silk card. These cards were created not to depict a player but instead to represent a team’s colors. Yorkshire County was actually one of the largest rugby unions at the time so I believe the marking on this card is just denoting the league and not a specific team. I have had difficulty finding any information about WWI-era rugby teams in England and was not able to get a definitive answer as to which team this player represents but this player’s uniform does bear a striking resemblance to the English Northern Rugby Union Football Team uniform minus the crest.
The card is in pretty good condition considering that it is 90 years old. The stitching has remained in place outside of a single thread along the bottom right corner. There is some staining which appear to be fingerprints across the center of the card and if you were wondering, it smells like old linen. There is some amazing detail on this card, something I would not expect from a card of this age. The player has defined eyebrow, finger nails on his right hand and even individual shoelaces.
I've just bought the same card from ebay. It's either the Yorkshire Rugby Union or Yorkshire Rugby League county side being denoted, not an individual club or player.
ReplyDeleteI know the Yorkshire Rugby Union side of that era would have played in white shirts but usually with the White Rose on the chest.