Thursday, November 14, 2013

Portraits of Sportsmen - Spot The Winner

One of the beautiful things I love about pre-war cigarette cards is the artwork that went into many of them. Celebrities and Sportmen were depicted in a majestic portraits that were recognizable to the public.
 
The 1935 Godfrey Phillips Sportsmen tobacco series was one of the finest examples. A few weeks ago I picked up this DIXIE DEAN  card for my PC.
 
There were 2 variations in this set. Regular backs with a "Spot The Winner" contest. And then there were the up-side-down version ...

 
The error backs are more common as the corrections were printed in fewer quantitiy.
 There are a variety of contemporary star athletes in the series. Along with the footballers are boxers, jockeys, tennis players and cricketers. Each is featured in a full color pastelbackground portrait.
Adding this Dixie Dean increased my personal collection of the great goal scorer. Amazingly, this card can still be obtained for under $10 if you can find it.

No comments: