Football Cartophilic Info Exchange: A. & J. Donaldson - DON-040/ZJ9-72 Gold Cup Football Team Cards

Tuesday 28 April 2015

A. & J. Donaldson - DON-040/ZJ9-72 Gold Cup Football Team Cards

1950s
DON-040/ZJ9-72 Gold Cup Football Team Cards
A. & J. Donaldson
144 cards

Robert T. Muat has provided some excellent research on the A. & J. Donaldson Gold Cup cards issued in the early 1950's.
The illustrations have come from a number of sources and it seems that different scanners create a different colours when scanning gold colours, but the gold on the actual cards all looks the same. I'd like to thank Stan Turner for providing many of the illustrations that I didn't already have.
There are two listings, the first lists the cards as they appear above, the second is an alphabetical listing of all the cards.
Robert has done a superb job in cataloguing all the cards, and here are some of his notes....
The cups were relatively expensive to produce in the early 1950's. A die-cutter had to be made, the line artwork had to be drawn, the mirror imaging, colour illustration changes and name printing.
I thought at first that the team name was a separate printing process, but the names were done when the illustrations were printed, e.g. when the red jersey colour is pale, so is the team name and when the jersey is a strong red, likewise the team name.
Stan Turner has an original pack of 6 cards.
The numbers and letters - A, B, C, D - are purely there for linking the groups. I made Cardiff City the first name on the list and the names are listed as they are printed on the cards, though the names are sometimes over two lines on the cards.
There was no reason to choose any one club over any other to start each row (Column A). For the first 28 rows the second card on each row (Column B) is a mirror image of the first card. The third card (Column C) is similar to the first card but the colours of the kits has changed and the fourth card (Column D) is a mirror image of the third card.
For the final 8 rows the first two cards have the same design, while the second two cards are mirror images of the first two cards.
On all the cups, without exception, the player on the left as you look at the card, is in the colours of the team printed in red.
There are a lot of Irish clubs and it seems Abe Donaldson was looking to expand into the Irish market.
140 different cards are illustrated here, another three - Birmingham City, Bristol Rovers and Hamilton Academicals have been seen but it wasn't possible to secure illustrations for this article so dummy cards have been created for them. If anyone can supply scans of these cards please get in touch and the illustrations will be updated.
That leaves one card unaccounted for. A dummy card has been created for this one too.
My own feeling is that the last club is Glasgow Rangers, which would see them in the same group as Glasgow Celtic - and can you imagine a Glasgow publisher printing cups of Glasgow Celtic, Partick Thistle, Third Lanark, Clyde and Queens Park and NOT Rangers!!!
There are a great many teams not included, but it seems that the set does include just these 144 cards. If any other teams are ever found that may force a re-think on some of the process used to create the cards.
Robert T. Muat
UPDATE (03-05-2015): The Rangers card has now been added to the last image above and included in the two lists below, which completes the checklist for this collection.
UPDATE (09-06-2015): Birmingham City has been added to the third row above. Just two more cards to find - Bristol Rovers and Hamilton Academicals.

1. Cardiff City
Doncaster Rovers
Huddersfield Town
Middlesbrough
2. Brechin City
Inter F.C. (Italy)
Cowdenbeath
Newcastle United
3. Bolton Wanderers
Birmingham City
Smolensk (U.S.S.R.)
St. Patrick's Athletic (Ireland)
4. Coventry City
Northampton Town
Napoli A.C. (Italy)
Hungary
5. Dundalk (Ireland)
Odessa (U.S.S.R.)
Airdrieonians
Dundee
6. Sweden
West Ham United
Aston Villa
Queen of the South
7. Milan A.C. (Italy)
Oldham Athletic
St. Mirren
Partick Thistle
8. Ards (Ireland)
East Fife
Aldershot
Colchester United
9. Bari A.S. (Italy)
Port Vale
Queens Park Rangers
Walsall
10. Bradford City
Southampton
Arsenal
Clyde

11. Moscow Dynamo (U.S.S.R.)
Palermo U.S. (Italy)
Lincoln City
Torquay United

12. Blackburn Rovers
Liverpool
Bristol Rovers
Aberdeen

13. Bologna F.C. (Italy)
Waterford (Ireland)
Charlton Athletic
Mansfield Town
14. Albion Rovers
Sunderland
York City
Tranmere Rovers
15. Bradford P.A.
Southport
Hamilton Academicals
Dunfermline Athletic
16. Brighton & Hove Albion
Bohemians (Ireland)
Portsmouth
Preston North End
17. Bury
Nottingham Forest
Gateshead
West Bromwich Albion
18. Crewe Alexandra
Ayr United
Gillingham
Norwich City
19. Darlington
Genoa C.F.C. (Italy)
Tottenham Hotspur
Chelsea
20. Distillery (Ireland)
Bournemouth & Boscombe
Luton Town
Leeds United

21. Dundee United
Leicester City
Sligo Rovers (Ireland)
Juventus F.C. (Italy)
22. England
Wales
Sheffield United
Plymouth Argyle
23. Exeter City
Newport County
Scotland
Ireland
24. Leyton Orient
Sevastopol (U.S.S.R.)
Alloa Athletic
Swindon Town
25. Notts County
Blackpool
Shelbourne (Ireland)
Sheffield Wednesday
26. Millwall
Torino A.C. (Italy)
Dumbarton
Bristol City
27. Stockport county
Falkirk
Third Lanark
Motherwell
28. Queens Park
Stoke City
Leith Athletic
Sampdoria U.C. (Italy)
29. Coleraine
Kilmarnock
Manchester United
Cliftonville
30. Burnley
Crystal Palace
Hull City
Wolverhampton

31. Cork Athletic
Hibernian
Limerick
Raith Rovers

32. Brentford
Derry City
Derby County
Fulham

33. Glenavon
St. Johnstone
Stirling Albion
Accrington
34. Portadwon
Barnsley
Montrose
Greenock Morton
35. Arbroath
Heart of Midlothian
Ballymena
Manchester City
36. Shamrock Rovers
Glasgow Celtic
Linfield
Rangers ***** card added *****

Alphabetical checklist
The cards are not numbered and are numbered here for reference purposes only.