1931 J.A. Pattreiouex Sports Trophies Set and Checklist
‘It’s In The Details’
Title | J.A. Pattreiouex Sports Trophies |
Year | 1931 |
Size | 1 3/8″ x 2 5/8″ |
Images | Color |
Type | Tobacco |
Number in Set |
50 |
1931 J.A. Pattreiouex Sports Trophies Set Overview
This set included 50 cards featuring prestigious sports trophies. The cards were distributed by Manchester tobacco company J.A. Pattreiouex for its cigarette brands. The Quality Cigarettes name is printed at the top of the fronts.
The cards featured color pictures of trophies from sports around the world. While all are sports issues, cards featuring baseball, golf, and tennis are highly desirable to American collectors.
Some, such as a card for the Gordon Bennett Cup given to the ‘Champion Dog’ at the Pekin Palace Dog Show, are less interesting to most. Other sports represented in the set include things such as soccer, rugby, polo, yachting, bowling, cycling, and rowing.
The baseball trophy was not the World Series trophy. Instead, it was the Baseball Cup, which was a silver cup awarded to the winner of the British Baseball Competition. The trophy, as pictured here, also had a topper of a baseball player on it.
Many of the trophies will not be familiar with American collectors as the majority were not distributed here. However, some are well-known, such as the Davis Cup.
The set is rare and not easily found, particularly in the United States. They will occasionally surface on eBay and are mostly sold by international dealers.
A Belt … not a Trophy
One of the more interesting cards is for the sport of boxing.
The card pictures a championship belt instead of a trophy. Card No. 24 pictures the belt given to Charlie Mitchell after fighting champion John Sullivan. Interestingly, Mitchell did not actually defeat Sullivan, only fighting him to a draw. The fight was said to last 39 rounds and more than three hours.
While it might seem odd to award a championship belt to a boxer that didn’t win, the draw was viewed as a tremendous achievement. Mitchell was soundly defeated by Sullivan in 1883 and Sullivan was unbeaten.
Heritage auctioned the actual belt off in 2015 with it selling for more than $50,000.
1931 J.A. Pattreiouex Sports Trophies Set Checklist
To date, I have not been able to identify every trophy in the checklist. However, the ones I have verified are provided below.
- TBD
- R.A.F. Inland Area Golf Championship
- Rugby Challenge Cup
- Rowing Metropolitan Challenge Cup
- Daily Telegraph Challenge Cup
- Rowing Grand Challenge Cup
- Olympic Games Marathon Racing Trophy
- The King’s Shield
- Grand Military Cup
- International Horse Show Gold Cup
- Polytechnic Marathon Trophy
- Grand National Steeplechase Trophy
- The Waterloo Cup
- Richmond Royal Horse Show Cup
- Royal Aero Club Cup
- American Yachting Cup
- TBD
- TBD
- TBD
- Cycling Challenge Cup
- TBD
- The Barbican Cup
- Baseball Cup
- Mitchell-Sullivan Championship Belt (Boxing)
- TBD
- TBD
- Football Association Cup (Soccer)
- TBD
- The Davis Cup (Tennis)
- The Ashburton Shield
- Ashes Urn
- TBD
- TBD
- Henley Regatta Trophy
- TBD
- TBD
- Professional Lawn Tennis Championship (Tennis)
- NRA Shooting Trophy
- TBD
- TBD
- King’s Coronation Cup
- TBD
- Lawn Tennis Championship Cup (Tennis)
- TBD
- Gordon Bennett Cup
- Talbot Cup
- Calcutta Cup
- Muratti Cup
- TBD
- Ashton Gold Golf Trophy
Follow Pre-War Cards on Twitter and also be sure to like our page on Facebook.