1927 British American Tobacco / Lambert & Butler / Machado (N32 World of Sport Set and Checklist

Posted on September 6, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	British American Tobacco / Lambert and Butler World of Sport
Year	1927
Size	1 3/8″ x 2 5/8″
Images	Black and White
Type	Tobacco
Number in Set	50

1927 British American Tobacco / Lambert & Butler / Machado (N325) World of Sport Set Overview

1927 World of Sport Boxing 1927 World of Sport Golf

In 1927, Lambert and Butler Cigarettes distributed a UK set called the World of Sport. Like other similar sets of the era, the set detailed a variety of different sports around the globe. A parallel set was also created by British American Tobacco. Those cards are the same as the Lambert & Butler issues, but merely have no sponsor name on the back. Additionally, a third sponsor of the set named Machado is known. The Machado cards are listed in the American Card Catalog as N325 (not 19th century, rather, in the Central and South American N-Card subset).

The cards feature athletes in a variety of sports, similar to the other numerous UK tobacco sets of the 1920s and 1930s. The fronts include a black and white image of an athlete but instead of their name printed with it, the name of the sport is merely added at the bottom, along with a hand-written card number.

Backs of the cards feature a decorative border with silhouetted images of the various sports that are presumably in the set. The card number is repeated there and also presented is a biography of the athlete on the front as well as their name.

Lambert and Butler produced several trading card sets. A 1926 multi-sport issue called Who’s Who in Sports actually included a rookie card of golfer Bobby Jones. The 1926 set, however, did not have any of the four major American sports in it.

Similarly, these sets are multi-sport sets. While many of the sports are outside of the big four known to American collectors, one of them did make it as Canada’s Montreal Victorias hockey team is included. And while many of the other sports in the set may not be all that popular with U.S. collectors, several other key sports are represented, including golf, tennis, and boxing.

The hockey card is No. 9 in the set. Other notable cards include tennis stars Bill Tilden and Helen Wills, as well as swimmer Johnny Weismuller. Both Tilden and Wills have more than one card in the set. Aviation is also a key sport and Charles Lindbergh is pictured on more than one card as well.

While many of the late 1920s and 1930s UK tobacco cards have little value, this set is actually a little more desirable.