“nearly 500 pictures”

The third and final release/issue of these cards was a complete reprint starting with card 1 and taking the series up to 471, whilst the back of the card proudly announced it as a set “consisting of nearly 500 pictures”. Players 1 to 273 have already been covered (should have been 282, but Derby weren’t issued for set 2 when they should have been) and there were a few changes/variations of those cards printed in the previous two issues.

It’s also worth noting that by the time of the 1911 third issue reprinted series it would seem that the printers had trimmed the series without ever announcing it. Collectors will have noted that cards 100, 110 and 120 are impossible to find in this “nearly 500 pictures” back series – why? Well, in the original “120 pictures” issue these were the final cards in the three teams to have ten cards in them – Llanelly, Neath and Ton Pentre – rather than what seems to have been the standard nine cards. So this brought those anomalies into line although it was never made known officially. In other words, don’t bother looking for them in this issue.

In addition, there is an alteration to the Blackburn Rovers team of the “120 pictures” issue as Simpson – of “Wee Jock” fame – replaces Garbutt on card 21. Another one to watch out for…

The series itself was printed in 1911 – we know this because of the presence of card 409. Henry Hamilton as a Southampton player but in Huddersfield Town colours. Hamilton was still a Huddersfield player in early 1911 and didn’t move to the Dell until the summer of that year. There will almost certainly be other examples to back up this theory but that is the only one that I know of off the top of my head.

So here are the cards from this set, beginning with Simpson of Blackburn Rovers and then the new Merthyr Town soccer team (which replaced Merthyr N.U. team from issue 1), the previously unissued Derby (273 onwards) and one or two other variations. Interestingly, 275. Barbour is the only card in the set where the surname has been written using lower case letters; very strange…