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WOLVES IN DETAIL
Established in London in the nineteenth century by Spaniard Don José Carreras Ferrer the company produced independently until the late 1950's when it merged with Rothmans who later sponsored the Rothmans football year book. They produce cards mainly in the 1930's as an advertising medium, most series featuring footballers or sportsmen.
Turf Cigarettes, a brand name used by Carreras appeared in the mid 1920's and these also contained cards. These were produced mainly in the 1950's and ranged from sportsmen to stars of the silver screen. With paper being in short supply just after the war the cards were printed on the backs of the cigarette packets with collectors having to cut them out.
Of the sets produced by the company there were three sets of Carrera's cards that featured Wolves players and two Turf sets.
1934 - Footballers
This was a series of 75 portraits of footballers which were produced in two sizes both featuring the same footballer. The cards were 64mm x 34mm in size with only one Wolves player featured in the series, Wilf Lowton as illustrated below. As you will see there were two slightly differing versions of the card.
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1934 - Famous Footballers
The next series featured portraits of 48 footballers and this time they were only one size - 68mm x 36mm. Some of these cards, mainly the later half, featured differing images with the backdrop recoloured.
Wolves only representative was Reg Hollingworth as detailed below. There is only one image for this card.
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Turf Cigarettes
1936 - Popular Footballers
The final series featuring Wolves players issued the following season and contained 48 cards.at 67mm x 34mm each. Again featuring a player portrait it featured two Wolves players, 12 - Billy Wrigglesworth and 18 - Bryn Jones.
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To the best of my knowledge there were only two series of Turf cards and as indicated above these were strictly not cards but images on the back of the cigarette packet. There was a single image on a pack of ten cigarettes with a pair of images on a pack of 20.
Wolves players featured in both sets as detailed below.
1948 - Footballers
The initial series featured 50 portraits of footballers with Wolves single representative being 3 - Jessie Pye. On the pack of 20 he was paired with 14 - Stan Mortensen of Blackpool.
Turf Cigarettes
1951 - Famous Footballers
The second and final series was again 50 images, this time the players heads were superimposed on a 'cartoon' of the players body with ground view in the background. Wolves were represented by three players 14 - Johnny Hancocks, 28 - Bert Williams and 47 - Billy Wright. Again on the packs of 20 the players were paired up, Hancocks with 37 - Frank Bowyer (Stoke City), Williams with 13 - W McNaught (Raith Rovers) and Wright with 16 - Ted Ditchburn (Tottenham).
When cut from the packets the cards measured 65mm x 35mm and had plain backs.
Sat 5th April 1947
Wolves Res. v Preston North End Res.
details unknown
Mon 7th April 1947
Wolves Res. v Derby County Res.
details unknown
Sat 19th April 1947
Wolves Res. v Liverpool Res.
details unknown
Fri 26th March 1948
Wolves Res. v Barnsley Res.
details unknown
Sat 3rd April 1948
Wolves Res. v Preston North End Res.
details unknown
Sat 17th April 1948
Wolves Res. v Manchester United Res.
details unknown
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