Vintage Card of the Month: Middlesbrough FC

Part II of my 1920 Godfrey Philips BDV silk cards posting is a card that I can actually trace to a specific team, the Middlesbrough Football Club. The Boro (or Smoggies) were founded in 1876 and at the time of this card were just an average team before being relegated to Division Two following 1924 season.

Interestingly even those these cards are 90 years old they can often be found up for auction for a couple of bucks though I only found them being offered by English sellers. I think the problem being that since the cards are not of any single player only team collectors are buying the cards so bidding does not usually become a problem.

While looking up the history of these cards I came across other cards from the set and I found that some of the footballers were all in the same exact pose. I guess it would be easier to use a couple of poses only and just change out the ink used in the coloring of the player’s kit. I am including an image from the Huddersfield Town FC card for comparison.

 This card is in much worse shape than the rugby player. The thread is pulling on all sides of the card, the upper right hand corner is unwound completely and there is significant staining through the entire card, it actually looks like someone used it as a coaster and I say that only half joking. Also I am not sure if the card was cut at an angle or if time caused the warping but the card is not rectangle but actually more of a parallelogram in shape.

Vintage Card of the Month: Yorkshire County

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.