Taddy Prominent Footballers

In 1907 Taddy issued a set of Prominent Footballers which included 15 Reading players. The following year another set featured ten Biscuitmen and the final series appeared in 1913 but unfortunately Reading did not feature. The three sets add up to nearly 1300 cards and provide a fantastic snapshot of pre-Great War football. The 25 Reading cards in my collection can be seen in 'card scans 2'

   

 

Pinnace Cards

Between 1920 and 1923 Godfrey Phillips issued 2,462 photo cards of just about every football and rugby player of the day. If you saved 25 minature cards (given away in packets of ten cigarettes) you could send off for a cabinet (postcard) sized card, though these are extremely rare. By sending in 100 cards you could obtain a team photo, but not suprisingly these are virtually unheard of, only two being recorded. Large sized cards (the size of a modern trade card) were given away with boxes of fifty cigarettes. Several printers were employed resulting in a few different back designs. Reading fared very well on Pinnace cards, featuring on 26 and all of them can be seen in 'card scans 2'