J. Baines - Football Cards (01) - Baines's Prize Jersey Competition

1890s
Baines's Prize Jersey Competition
J. Baines
12 cards

Thousands of cards were issued by John Baines and his contemporaries, like W.N. Sharpe and J. Briggs, from the late 1880's to the early 1920's. They were the Panini and Topps of their day. Very few can be tied down to specific sets as the cards were so diverse in design. There are some from around 1887 that were printed for actual cup-ties, but very little is known about those early rugby competitions.
The cards shown here though, do make up a set. In total there are 12 cards, each with the same information on the back. I have included the back design plus 11 of the cards (2 footballers and 9 rugby players), which means there is one missing.

UPDATE (04-02-2026 13:33):  The missing card has been added to the list.

UPDATE (01-03-2026 12:41):  Baines expert Gary Curtis has been in contact:

I have checked my archives and found many others to match these, hence I am pretty sure you are actually showing cards from 8 different subsets of 12. For example Birkenhead Park & Castleford are from the same set as is Celtic & Queens Park but design wise from a different set. The other pair from a set is Hunslet & Stanningley, the other 5 are just from seperate sets. The amount issued was so very vast, but these sets should all have exactly the same design with just player and name changes. Gary

Birkenhead Park - A.E. Fenton
               He appears in the Cheshire team photo of 1895
Castleford - G. Howell
Celtic - Doyle
               Dan Doyle won 8 caps for Scotland between 1892 and 1898
Hunslet - A.H.R. Albert (Goldthorpe)
               He made his debut in October 1888 and retired in 1910.
Queens Park - Sillars
               Probably a mis-spelling, William Sellar played for Queens Park in the 1895 F.A. Cup Final v Blackburn Rovers.
Rockcliffe - E.W. Taylor   -   added 04-02-2026

               Ernest William Taylor played 14 times for England from 1892 to 1899.

Runcorn - ?
Stanningley - ?
Tyledsley - John Berry
               Played for Tyldesley before and after 1895, winning three caps in 1891.
Ulverston - J.R. Robinson
Wigan - Wm. Halliwell
               Joined Wigan rugby club some time prior to 1895.
Wilson

J. Baines - Football Cards (02)

1880s/1890s
Football Cards
J. Baines
4500+

Although I've headed this post as J. Baines, this card was produced by a forerunner of John Baines, a company called J. Briggs. It's the first time I've seen a card die cut in the shape of a footballer (even if this one is a rugby player). Although Baines' name has become synonymous with these cards he was one of the later publishers of football cards in the Victorian era, Baines' first cards were printed by J. Briggs and the back overstamped by Baines in his shop. Of course, he survived much longer in the business than his contemporaries as he was still going, well in the 1920s, though the quality of the cards produced were much poorer then than in the early days.
Coming soon - a new blog, with which I intend to display all the illustrations I currently have in my database - 4,500 and counting. All cards will be shown with the back design used, where known.

UPDATE (06-10-2023 10:55):  My Briggs-Baines timeline is a little off. Please read Carl Wilkes' comment below for a more detailed explanation.