An Era Match
The Victorian Game · 1870–1900
An era match — the pieces that speak from this stretch of the game.
These are the works in the house that answer to this era of the game — the grounds, the dates, and the crowds as the ink of the day recorded them. A piece chosen this way is not a decoration but a portrait of a loyalty’s beginnings: the game as it looked when a club, or a family’s allegiance to it, was made. Offered, as everything here is, faithful to the source scan.
The pieces
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.
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
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.
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.