1920s Bunsen Confectionery Famous Figures Set and Checklist

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	Bunsen Confectionery Famous Figures
Year	1920s
Size
Images	Black and White
Type	Candy/Caramel
Number in Set	800 (?)

1920s Bunsen Confectionery Famous Figures Set Overview

1920s Bunsen Confectionery These cards are exceedingly rare and it is difficult to find even minor subjects. They were issued by Bunsen Confectionery, a candy company in London. As the backs of the cards state, they were presented by that company, though it is unclear how they were distributed or how many were printed.

The cards feature black and white images of various athletes. For such a difficult set, it might be expected that there would be a small amount in the set. That is not even remotely true, however. More than 700 cards in the set and I have tentatively stated a total of 800. That is because the cards were seemingly issued in subsets of 100. As a result, there would seem to be at least 800 in this massive issue.

Numerous sports were represented in the set, including tennis and boxing. As stated, cards were issued in series’ of 100 and these are the sports/series’ that are believed to be correct:

First Series (1-99) – Royalty
100 Series (100-199) – Cricket
200 Series (200-299) – Unknown
300 Series (300-399) – Athletics/Tennis
400 Series (400-499) – Boxing
500 Series (500-599) – Jockeys
600 Series (600-699) – Soccer
700 Series (700-799) – Soccer

Key known cards are tennis stars Bill Tilden and Suzanne Lenglen as well as boxers George Carpentier, Kid Lewis, and Joe Beckett. Many others are likely but I have not confirmed their existence yet.