Rugby-Pioneers

"Nuts On T'Umpire"

This is a Baines card - c.1900 - and myth is falling into pieces...! I've always been said that rugby in Home Countries was a gentlemen's game... How could this shouting crowd run after an umpire in such a trivial way... ? Possibly because it's Northern Union (*) rugby ... ;-)

By the way, let's precise that originally the team captains would consult with each other in order to resolve any dispute on the pitch. Enventually, this role was delagated to an umpire. Each time would bring their own partisan umpire allowing the team captains to concentrate on the game. Later, the referee, a thrid "neutral" official was added, this referee would be "referred to" if the umpires could not resolve a dispute. In Football Association, the referee did not take his place on the pitch until 1891, when the umpires became linesmen (now assistant referee) (source : Wikipedia). I am searching for the actual date in Football Rugby...

(*) says Wikipedia (again !): Rugby league takes its name from what was initially a breakaway faction of England's Rugby Football Union (RFU) known as the Northern Union when established in 1895. Both unions played rugby football under the same rules at first, until similar breakaway factions occurred from RFU-affiliated rugby unions in Australia and New Zealand in 1907 and 1908, and formed associations known as rugby football leagues, introducing modified Northern Union rules to create a new form of rugby football. The Northern Union later changed its name to the Rugby Football League in 1922 and thus, over time the sport itself became known as "rugby league"

Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, baines card, umpire

I've got all rugby cigarette cards...

   
... featuring French rugby... as "Power-Collector" Paul (aka "rugbyfootballcards") told me that there were only two of them...

I don't know why, but cigarette cards have never been a French business... as far as I know, no French cigarette card have ever been produced... not to mention rugby ones... So, here are the only two "French" cigarette cards available worldwide...

Left is a W.A & A.C.Churchman cigarette card, printed in 1931, where cartoonist MEL portrays wing-forward Eugène Ribère, then captain of the Equipe de France. I will surely have to dedicate a note to give a full bio of this great player... a strong forward and a true leader who played at Perpignan first (Champion in 1925, runner up in 1924 and 1926), then at Quillan (Champion in 1929, runner up in 1928 and 1930) while gaining 34 caps with Equipe de France between 1924 and 1933 (a short bio printed on the back of the card is available here).

Right is a Pattreiouex cigarette card, issued in 1923, showing a disputed thrown-in between Blackeath and Racing Club de France (RCF) touring in England... and I must admit that I don't know the details of this match... I should research a wee bit...

And that's all... only two cards... ready to print the full and detailed catalogue of French rugby cigarette cards !

(larger pictures here or there @ Fickr)

Edit April 3 : Ooops... I didn't know that there was some German cards with French rugby... could I have the name and date of these series, please ?

French rugby die-cut "Chocolat Révillon"

A series of ten "die-cut" pictures (six being displayed here) published in the 30s (my guess...) by French chocolate-maker Revillon.

Boys were invited to cut up these little ruggers and display them on a board to get all the action of a rugby match...

Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, die-cut, révillon

Australian Rules - Fitzroy FC - Capstan Cigarette Card

I sometimes collect pictures to illustrate other related football codes such as rugby league, football association, American football or Australian footy... such as this early XXth century Capstan cigarette card featuring Fitzroy FC colours and flags. Fitzroy is a suburb of Melbourne, "home" of Australian Rules, engaged in Victorian Football League (VFL)

The origins and history of Austalian Footy are a little difficult to grasp for a newbie like me... many regional variations , many local leagues, leagues breaking away from each others... VFA, SAFA, TFA, NTFA, SAFA, NSWAFA, WAFA, STFA then VFL, NSWAFL, TFL, QFL, WAFL, AFL... stop ! the whole chronology is here, starting back in 1858... I'll study it later...

Let's also mention this article by rugby league historian Sean Fagan "THE 150 YEAR OLD HOAX: AFL'S FIRST GAME WAS RUGBY"... kindly putting some controvery in a very Australian debate about the origins of the game...

Having said that, it's a nice card....



Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, fitzroy, AFL, VFL, RL1908

American trade card c1890

American trade card c1890 advertising for... a "baking powder" brand in Wichita, Kansas

From a time when rugby and American football had a lot in common...


Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, sollidays

Football Club Colours, 1906 Ogden's cigarette cards

Here are some great Rugby Clubs from England and Wales in early 1900s: Northampton, Blackheath, Gloucester, Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea, Penrath, Richmond, Newport...

These cards are part of a 50 cards set featuring major British clubs,  both Rugby and Association... thus suggesting that it remains 41 other cards to be displayed another time (mostly football indeed... )

I can only regret that I don't know the names of the players portrayed here...

I usually don't collect cigarette cards... except when they look as good as full-size illustrations...

Hi-res pictures are available on my Flickr account (BY-SA 2.0 Creative Commons licence, like this website)



Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, ogden

"Le Football" : French rugby trade card

Early XXth century French trade card, by Marcel Capy, advertising (on the back) for Ricqles (French mint alcohol)

You could get a larger pic here @ Flickr


Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, trade card, ricqles

Mapping rugby Baines Cards...

Arggh... this blog is getting nowhere... this is only my second post since the beginning of November as I have tons of things to do... both business and personnal... and little time left to collect and display rugby memorabilia...

For instance, I recently came across some 20 of these wonderful Baines cards... that could be a nice opportunity to tell some stories about the Northern Union or Rugby League...

Instead, I started a useless (who knows...?) project : localize on a map all the rugby clubs featured on Baines Cards !

I have placed "pins" on a Google Map from my own collection... I have sometimes added a thumbnail picture of the card as well...
"My" Baines Cards can make you travel down to New Zealand... but, without any surprise, there is a high concentration of rugby places in the heart of industrial England - between Liverpool and Leeds -, especially around Manningham, Bradford where Mr Baines establihed his trade card business.

View Larger Map

This is an "open project" : you're invited to add your own Baines Cards onto the map (if you find it difficult to manage, just post the name of the locations in the "comments" of this post)

Add your own cards !

Technorati Tags : rugby, Baines cards, Google map

"Play up Hunslet"... a tribute to Jason Robinson and Albert Goldthorpe !

Disclaimer : I also like Rugby League !

Jason Robinson, England fullback and possibly one of the most talented player of the last RWC, started his Rugby League career in Hunslet (South Leeds)

Hunslet, founded 1883, was one of the founding members of the Northern Union in 1895, then one of the sport's strongest clubs in its early years, becoming the first to win All Four Cups in 1907-1908.

The gentlemen on my trade card could very well be Albert Goldthorpe, aka "Arh Albert" aka "the gentleman of Yorkshire football". Albert Goldthorpe made his debut as a 16 years old in October 1888. He is believed to have kicked nearly 1000 goals, including 14 from 15 attempts against Dudley Hill at Parkside. He is remembered by an older generation as a drop kick specialist and is credited with having dropped over 200 goals in his great career, 5 in one match.

In his last full season in the game, the “All Four Cups” season, Albert then aged 36 played in 42 games, scored 5 tries and kicked a new Northern Union record of 101 goals.

(credit to Hunslet website for this short bio - credit to Wikipedia for the picture)

PS : can somebody help me to identify this trade card... it looks like a Baines card... but it's oval... and there is nothing written on the back... or could it have been cut out from a larger print ?

Technorati Tags : rugby, baines card, jason robinson, albert goldthorpe

The mother of all rugby trade cards...

I am regularly displaying some of these wonderful so-called Baines Cards (pls check these other ones...)... I should have approx. 70 of them now (but some being better than others, say...)

Everything you should know about these collector cards produced by Mr John Baines of Manningham, Bradford between 1887 and 1920 is explained at LDauctions.com, where you'll also have to opportunity to browse a fantastic on-line collection consisting of more than 300 cards !

This morning, I have received a new Baines card that tells nothing about rugby history, but interesting however... Let the people at LDauctions explain "...the cards are regularly in very poor order, i.e. rough edges
and very tatty. How on earth can this happen to cards in almost every
collection ?

According to this card the children of the era played a game called "who's nearest", with... yes, you've guessed it... Baines Cards. The picture clearly shows the children throwing Baines's against a wall and then bouncing back onto the pavement"...

Poor boys who don't care about XXIth century collectors searching for cards in good condition...

Technorati Tags: rugby, baines cards, trade cards

Capstan cigarette card "fullback"

Well, I am not really collecting rugby cigarette cards (a nice way to save some money indeed...)... but these cards surely are a great source of rugby memorabilia...

This "fullback" comes from Australia, c.1900 ... a sportsman ready for action...

(full size picture here)


Technorati Tags: rugby, cigarette card, capstan

Chocolat Poulain advertising trade card

A fine French rugby trade card ... from John's collection again.

Strange rugby kit indeed... It looks very much like the 1880s... I don't know any French club with such colours... or is it just the imagination of the artist...

Edited 21 Feb : John is sharing with us the back of this card... If you understand French, I encourage you to read this fancy description of rugby rules (full size pic here) that brings evidence that the people who made the card had never heard whatsoever about rugby... even as it was at the end of the XIXth century...

Technorati Tags: rugby, chocolat poulain

Prince Alexander Obolensky, 1937

Here is Wills Cigarette card ("British Sporting Personalities" series), featuring Russian born Alexander Obolensky in action.

Back of the card reads : "of Russian birth, Prince A.Obolensky made his mark as a Rugby football player in 1935 for Oxford University, where he was a student at Brasenose. And exceptionally speedy and hard-tackling wing-threequarter, he gave an outstanding exhibition in the match against Cambridge University at Twickenham in December 1935. International honours quickly followed and early in the following year he was chosen to play for England against Wales, Ireland, Scotland and New Zealand. He has since adopted British nationality. He was selected to assist Oxford in the inter-Varsity match of 1936-37, but, unluckily, an injury prevented him from taking his place in the side."

Great destiny for this White Russian aristocrat... who will remain famous for having scored the two winning tries of England against the All Blacks in their 1936 tour ( 13 - 0 ) ...   Obolensky later joined the R.A.F. and died in 1940, aged 24, in a plane crash...

I have found this wonderful footage of the 1936 test at Twickenham (70,000 people attending...)... low res, but great memorabilia !

(c) and warm thanks to British Pathe... I hope that they won't mind this free advertising... Ladies & Gentlemen from Pathe, would you agree to display some hi-res rugby clips at "rugby-pioneers" as I just cannot afford to purchase them...

His rugby stats at scrum.com

His bio at wikipedia

Technorati Tags: rugby, obolensky

Captains Courageous, rugby print, 1928

"Captain Courageous : some international and other rugby leaders", a colourful rugby print published in 1928 in The Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News".

Actually, its the first time that I find an English print portraying a French rugger, i.e. superstar winger Adolphe Jaureguy (from Toulouse, then RCF and Stade Français at the end of his career).

From left to right, the gentlemen pictured here are :

A.C. Wallace (Warratahs)

A. Jaurreguy (France) (but why this red jersey ??)

G.V. Stephenson (Ireland)

R. Cive-Smith (England)

D.Drysdale (Scotland)

C.D.Aarvold (Cambridge)

E.G.Taylor (Oxford)

Rowe Harding (Wales)

There is king size pic of this print available on Flickr here.

Artist MEL is known for several sets of sports cigarette cards. Here are some characters from "WILLS, rugby international", 1929.






Technorati Tags: rugby, print, jaureguy, mel, wills cigarette cards

Jean Sebedio "The Sultan"

Here is a tough guy !

Jean Sebedio, born in the Pays Basque in 1890, enjoyed 9 caps between 1913 and 1923 (one of the few French international players to be selected both before and after WW1...) as prop or n°8... full stats here at scrum.com

His nickname was "The Sultan" ... there are plenty of colorful stories about how this gentleman was terrifying everybody on the pitch... especially referees...

This picture is actually a trade card from French retailer Felix Potin... same series as Henri Amand, portrayed a couple of years before...

Technorati Tags: rugby, sebedio

Stade Français v Rosslyn Park, 1892

This French rugby trade card was one of my very first eBay pruchase (actually, the second one... thank you Paul...) back in December 2002. This card comes with no details whatsoever, but I recently found out that the original black and white etching of this rugby scene was first published in French magazine L'Illustration to illustrate a famous match between Stade Français (of Paris) and Rosslyn Park (of London) held in Paris on April 18th, 1892.



Indeed, I should have recognized the colors (dark blue for Stade Français, Red and White stripes for Rosslyn Park). Even the French player who is about to tackle his opponent really looks like Louis Dedet - see below - , captain of the team and one one my favorite pioneers from that time (more about Louis Dedet here , here and there...)

This match is recorded to be the first international rugby match played in Europe (continental Europe, I mean...) ! It was set up thanks to the efforts of two English brothers (the Urwick bros.) : one was playing with Rosslyn Park while the other was a secretary of Stade Français.

The event gained a strong press coverage... a lot of "beautiful people" was there (Lord Dufferin, the English Ambassador in Paris, Pierre de Coubertin...). Stade Français lost 4 converted tries to nil, but this match really was a milestone in the rise of French rugby. As Dedet later explained "that day, we discovered how rugby must be played"... and the guys learned quickly, as two years later, in March 1894, near Paris again, Stade Français took a 9-8 revenge upon Rosslyn Park (thanks to a last minute try by Henri Amand) and became the first French team to defeat an English one... whatever sports is considered...

PS : some (partial) press coverage here (in French)

Technorati Tags: rugby, stade français, rosslyn park

Collector stuff.. : J.Baines cards

New additions to my (small) collection of J.Baines cards...

If you like these cards, please pay a visit to this website; the owner has started to create a catalog of these wonderfull trade cards and is displaying almost 600 of them...

BTW, I you have some of them to sell... just drop a mail... ;-)

Technorati Tags: rugby, Baines

French trade card, by Marcel Arnac

This is a large rugby trade card advertising for Galeries Lafayette (one the main retail stores in Paris), probably dated 1924 because of the reference to the Olympic Games.

It is illustrated by Marcel Arnac, a pioneer in French comics and cartoons (full bio - in English - here..)

The caption is just stupid... "Doudou (français) se trompe deux fois de ballons et gagne le match par 24.695 buts à zero", i.e. "Doudou (French) takes twice the wrong ball and wins the game by 24.695 goals to nil"... ok, not my fault...




Technorati Tags: rugby, trade card, marcel arnac

Cpt. R. Johnston VC, Taddy cigarette card, by Paul Warden

Great ! this is the first contribution that I have received. Thank you Paul !

Paul is an "Englishman in Paris" . That was his previous nickname on eBay... (now "rugbyfootballcards"). Actually, we don't know each "in real life" but I "met" Paul for the first time back in December 2002 when I bought this nice rugby trade card from him on eBay... and it was the very very start of my collection (my second eBay purchase out of 470 today... but a nice card which is framed at home...)

Paul, the floor is yours... :

I'm a tobacco card collector.  One hundred years ago, cigarette packets were made of paper and so a piece of card was inserted to stiffen the packet and protect the cigarettes.  From the early 1880's, it became the fashion to produce a picture on the card and in fact, a series of pictures to encourage smokers to buy the same brand of cigarettes so as to collect the set of 25 or 50 cards.  Some say that the idea for this early form of marketing has its roots in the decorative cards issued in the nineteenth century by Au Bon Marché in Paris.  Certainly, millions of cigarette cards were produced throughout the English-speaking World but surprisingly and to my knowledge, not a single cigarette card was produced in France.

Between 1885 and 1954 around 2,600 cards were produced on a theme related to rugby.  Many of these show the pioneers of rugby and I have so far collected around 2,100 of them.  The most rare can reach as much as €500 each at auction although many are available for just a few euro.  I have several favourites amongst my collection and will share these with you over the coming months.

The first is related not only to rugby.  Let me explain.  Britain's highest award for bravery is the Victoria Cross.  First given in 1854, only 1,354 have ever been awarded.

Four of these were awarded to International rugby footballers:

• Captain Robert Johnston VC (2 caps for Ireland, 1893) of the Imperial Light Horse in Elandslaagte, South Africa on 21 October 1899
• Surgeon Captain Tom Crean VC (9 caps for Ireland, 1894-96), 1st Imperial Light Horse, Tygerkloof Spruit, South Africa on 18 December 1901
• Lieutenant Frederick Harvey VC (2 caps for Ireland, 1907-11), Lord Strathcona's Horse, Canadian Expeditionary Force, Guyencourt, France on 27 March 1917
• Lieutenant Commander Arthur Harrison VC (2 caps for England, 1914), the Royal Navy, Zeebrugge, Belgium 22&23 April 1918

Interestingly, three of these players all played their club rugby for The Wanderers Club in Dublin; there must be something in the water!

The scans shown below are of both the front and the back of a card commemorating the Victoria Cross awarded to Robert Johnston.  Part of a sub-set of 20 cards and of a larger set of 125 card Victoria Cross Winners issued in the UK by Bristol-based cigarette company James Taddy, it indicates that Johnston "is famous in the world of football".

To my knowledge, although the French rugby team appear on several tobacco cards from Germany, only two British cigarette cards depict a French rugby theme.  One shows a lineout during a match between Blackheath and Racing Club de France in 1923 but who is the famous French player shown on the other?  A clue?  The card was produced in 1931.  Answer (and a picture) in the next instalment.  A+.  Paul   

Technorati Tags: rugby, cigarette card, taddy

"Phosphatine Falières" : French trade card...

Early XXth century French rugby trade card advertising for "Phosphatine Falières" (ready-made baby food...)

Caption reads : "Les vrais joueurs de football préfèrent de beaucoup la boite de Phosphatine Falières à la balle en cuir traditionnelle" ("Real football players prefer by far the Phosphatine Falières box, rather than the traditionnal leather ball")

Smart, isn't it ?

At least, another sign of the prominence of rugby among sports in those days...

Technorati Tags: rugby, phosphatine