In addition to the 1951 Ringside I posted the other day my COMC order included some 1938 F.C. Cartledge Famous Prizefighters cards. These were boxing cards that had a really low cost so I grabbed them up.
It is a set of 50 cards with two number 13s and two number 19s, so 52 cards total. I own seven of them now. They are tobacco sized cards and in 1938 England you got one of these cards with each Knock Out Razor Blade you bought. Cards 1-30 are all drawings and 31-50 are photos.
I don't know any of these boxers because as you can see on the back of this Isaac Perrins card he was born in 1750 and died in 1800. Since the the camera was invented in the early 1820 I assume the first thirty cards are all drawings because all of those boxers represented predate photography. It is pretty cool that if you got 50 cards even if there were doubles they would trade you a whole set in an album. They charged .03 for shipping and handling but that is a pretty good deal that no baseball card manufacturer ever would offer.
Even today I'm not a fan of sports cards where people are in their every day clothes. At least I assume that was every day clothing back in the late 1700s. He doesn't look like a boxer to me he looks like a random schlub. It reminds me of those early Bowman RCs were guys are in their high school clothes.
To me even though it isn't an in action card like the first one I pictured the fact that he looks like he is dressed to fight makes a big difference to me. I doubt I ever "chase" this set down and try to build it. I'll just keep plucking them up one by one when I see a cheap one offered.
2 comments:
These certainly are different. Even the way they were distributed was different. I'm mildly curious now to see who else is on the checklist. I recently splurged on a boxing card myself (my first in quite some time), though it'll probably be a while before I get around to posting about it.
Never heard of razor blade cards. Very cool.
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