The complete catalog
The Gallery
Football in art and print, seven collections deep — from the engravers of the first internationals to the first morning of the World Cup. Each piece printed faithful to its source scan.
On walls around the world
Not a poster — the centrepiece of a room
Printed large on archival paper, gallery canvas, or framed — den, club bar, and supporters’-bar sizes first-class. Here, Thomas M. M. Hemy’s canvas of 1895 hung in four very different rooms.
The curated sets
The curated sets
The Illustrated Papers · 1870s–1880s
The First Game
The illustrated papers’ engravings of the 1870s and 80s — the early internationals and cup ties rendered as Victorian news. Before the photograph could catch a match, the engravers did.
the illustrated papers · 1870s
An International Football Match
The new game as Victorian news — top hats on the touchline, the scrimmage in wood engraving.
Every institution was once a novelty item.
period photograph · 1888–89
The Invincibles, 1888–89
Preston North End, the first champions of the first league season — unbeaten, and photographed like it.
Some seasons never need replacing.
period photograph · 1896–97
The Double Winners, 1896–97
League and Cup in one season — the Victorian double, photographed at full plumage.
Sixty-four years passed before it was done again.Newcastle Road, Sunderland · 1895
The Painted Match
Thomas M. M. Hemy’s Sunderland v. Aston Villa (1895) leads — the game’s great Victorian canvas, the sport admitted to the gallery while still in its boyhood.
Thomas M. M. Hemy · 1895
Sunderland v. Aston Villa
The great Victorian football canvas — the match in oil, mid-attack, the crowd packed to the touchline.
Somebody always sees the future first and paints it.J. Baines Ltd., Bradford · 1880s–1900s
The Card Collection
Pre-1931 footballer cards: the Baines shield cards of Bradford and the cigarette-card era. The playground currency of the first football generation — sold singly and as framed flights, because the set is the product.
J. Baines Ltd., Bradford · 1880s–1900s
Baines Shield Cards (framed flight)
The playground currency of the first football generation — shield-shaped chromolith cards, bold as banners.
Collecting is the first form of supporting.