V.C.C. - Sportsmen and Other Notabilities (4)

1922
VAA-030 Sportsmen and Other Notabilities
V.C.C., 71 Roman Road, London, E3
72 cards

I had an e-mail from Roger Pashby...
Now here’s a little conundrum!
I have recently been wondering about some 'Anonymous' blank-backed Huddersfield Town cards that I have from around the mid-1920s. They are exactly the same as the Barratts set of 'Footballers and Cricketers' but do not have the Barratts backs printed on them.
John Fitzhugh has kindly sent me neatly printed copies of the two Huddersfield Town players in the VCC cards from his recent auctions.
I’ve attached a few scans for you to look at, three from the 'Anonymous' set and the two VCC cards (which are numbered at bottom right). You will see that the images are exactly the same (give or take a bit of quality), even down to the bordering.
And – and this is the killer! – one of the two Wilson 'blanks' that I have even has the same spelling error in the team name.
Which leads me to suspect that the 'Anonymous' prints might be reprints of the VCC set with the numbers removed and the backs left blank.
What do you think?
AND … would these have been produced AFTER the Barratts set? I would guess that they would have to be, using as they do the Barratts images.
All a bit confusing, don’t you think?
Rgds, Roger

Guide to the illustrations (which are not to scale)
Row 1.  Barratt cards - BAR-170  Cricketers, Footballers & Teams
Row 2.  Anonymous cards - ZJC-110-2 / ZJ5-39-2b  Footballers
Row 3.  V.C.C. cards - VAA-030  Sportsmen and Other Notabilities

To me, the Barratt cards and the Anonymous cards are from different issuers, even though they use the same photos. It seems that the Anonymous cards are VCC cards without any reference to the company on the back. I am wondering if the VCC cards are similar to the Webcosa Football Bingo wrappers from the late 1950s, where you had to collect the different teams as listed on the wrappers. The trouble was, most wrappers didn't have the team name printed on them!!! I wonder if it's the same with the VCC cards - the only cards you could use for exchanging for presents were those that were numbered and had VCC printed on the back. As the cards said, "No other cards accpeted unless printed with the name of V.C.C." This seems to imply that there are cards without VCC printed on them.
I've got a list of 26 of the Anonymous cards and all the known VCC cards appear in this list. The only little blip is the 26 cards, when the VCC numbers of the footballers only seem to run from 1 to 25 - 26 in the VCC checklist is a cricketer. As you can see from the illustrations above, all the Barratt cards had the team name printed in capital letters.

1.
2.  A. Thain (Chelsea)
3.  W.H. Smith (Huddersfield Town)
4.
5.
6.
7.  R. Butler (Bury)
8.
9.  T. Wilson (Huddesfield Town) (sic)
10.  R. McDonald (Tottenham Hotspur)
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.  J. Kerr (Brentford)
16.  H.A. White (Arsenal)   -   Thanks to Mark Hughesdon
17.  H. Bagge (Fulham)
18.
19.  E.R. Robson (Portsmouth)
20.
21.  W. Jennings (Luton Town)
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.  E.R. Wilson (Yorkshire - Cricket)
27.  Macauley (Yorkshire - Cricket)
28.  Skelding (Leicester - Cricket)
29.  Whysall (Notts - Cricket)
30.  F. Creig (Worcester - Cricket)  -  actually  G.G.F. Greig
31.  Oates (Notts - Cricket)
35.  W. Cook (Lancashire - Cricket)
36.  G. Buckston (Derbyshire - Cricket)
42.  Preece (Worcester - Cricket)
44.  M. Jewell (Worcester - Cricket)
45.  Hendren (Middlesex - Cricket)

Anonymous cards - ZJC-110-2 / ZJ5-39-2b  Footballers

J.T. Atkin (Derby County)
H. Bagge (Fulham)  -  included in V.C.C. list
E. Beeson (Wycombe Wanderers)
J. Birch (Queens Park Rangers)
R. Butler (Bury)  -  included in V.C.C. list
F. Gough (Sheffield)
F. Graham (Millwall)
J.H. Hill (Burnley)
P. Hopkins (Hartlepool)
W. Jennings (Luton Town)  -  included in V.C.C. list
J. Kerr (Brentford)  -  included in V.C.C. list
A. Layton (Stockport County)
J. Lythgoe (Norwich City)
R. McDonald (Tottenham Hotspur)  -  included in V.C.C. list
F. Penn (Fulham)
E. Pilkington (Oldham Athletic)
D. Raitt (Dundee)
E.R. Robson (Portsmouth)  -  included in V.C.C. list
E. Sims (Stockport)
W.H. Smith (Huddersfield Town)  -  included in V.C.C. list
A. Thain (Chelsea)  -  included in V.C.C. list
D. Tremelling (Birmingham)
F. Walden (Tottenham Hotspur)
H.A. White (Arsenal)  -  included in V.C.C. list
T. Wilson (Huddersfield Town)  -  included in V.C.C. list
F. Womack (Birmingham)