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.
  1. Aberdeen
  2. Accrington
  3. Airdrieonians
  4. Albion Rovers
  5. Aldershot
  6. Alloa
  7. Arbroath
  8. Ards (Ireland)
  9. Arsenal
  10. Aston Villa
  11. Ayr United
  12. Ballymena
  13. Bari A.S. (Italy)
  14. Barnsley
  15. Birmingham City
  16. Blackburn Rovers
  17. Blackpool
  18. Bohemians
  19. Bologna F.C. (Italy)
  20. Bolton Wanderers
  21. Bournemouth & Boscombe
  22. Bradford City
  23. Bradford PA
  24. Brechin City
  25. Brentford
  26. Brighton & Hove Albion
  27. Bristol City
  28. Bristol Rovers
  29. Burnley
  30. Bury
  31. Cardiff City
  32. Charlton Athletic
  33. Chelsea
  34. Cliftonville
  35. Clyde
  36. Colchester United
  37. Coleraine
  38. Cork Athletic
  39. Coventry City
  40. Cowdenbeath
  41. Crewe Alexandra
  42. Crystal Palace
  43. Darlington
  44. Derby County
  45. Derry City
  46. Distillery
  47. Doncaster Rovers
  48. Dumbarton
  49. Dundalk (Ireland)
  50. Dundee
  51. Dundee United
  52. Dunfermline Athletic
  53. East Fife
  54. England
  55. Exeter City
  56. Falkirk
  57. Fulham
  58. Gateshead
  59. Genoa C.F.C. (Italy)
  60. Gillingham
  61. Glasgow Celtic
  62. Glenavon
  63. Greenock Morton
  64. Hamilton Academicals
  65. Hearts of Midlothian
  66. Hibernian
  67. Huddersfield Town
  68. Hull City
  69. Hungary
  70. Inter F.C. (Italy)
  71. Ireland
  72. Juventus F.C. (Italy)
  73. Kilmarnock
  74. Leeds United
  75. Leicester City
  76. Leith Athletic
  77. Leyton Orient
  78. Limerick
  79. Lincoln City
  80. Linfield
  81. Liverpool
  82. Luton Town
  83. Manchester City
  84. Manchester United
  85. Mansfield Town
  86. Middlesbrough
  87. Milan A.C. (Italy)
  88. Millwall
  89. Montrose
  90. Moscow Dynamo (U.S.S.R.)
  91. Motherwell
  92. Napoli A.C. (Italy)
  93. Newcastle United
  94. Newport County
  95. Northampton Town
  96. Norwich City
  97. Nottingham Forest
  98. Notts County
  99. Odessa (U.S.S.R.)
  100. Oldham Athletic
  101. Palermo U.S. (Italy)
  102. Partick Thistle
  103. Plymouth Argyle
  104. Port Vale
  105. Portadown
  106. Portsmouth
  107. Preston North End
  108. Queen of the South
  109. Queens Park
  110. Queens Park Rangers
  111. Raith Rovers
  112. Rangers                  ***** card added *****
  113. St. Johnstone
  114. St. Mirren
  115. St. Patrick's Athletic (Ireland)
  116. Sampdoria U.C. (Italy)
  117. Scotland
  118. Sevastopol (U.S.S.R.)
  119. Shamrock Rovers
  120. Sheffield United
  121. Sheffield Wednesday
  122. Shelbourne (Ireland)
  123. Sligo Rovers (Ireland)
  124. Smolensk (U.S.S.R.)
  125. Southampton
  126. Southport
  127. Stirling Albion
  128. Stockport County
  129. Stoke City
  130. Sunderland
  131. Sweden
  132. Swindon Town
  133. Third Lanark
  134. Torino A.C. (Italy)
  135. Torquay United
  136. Tottenham Hotspur
  137. Tranmere Rovers
  138. Wales
  139. Walsall
  140. Waterford (Ireland)
  141. West Bromwich Albion
  142. West Ham United
  143. Wolverhampton
  144. York City


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