1929 Churchman / Imperial Set

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	Sports and Games in Many Lands
Year	1929
Size	1 3/8″ x 2 5/8″
Images	Color
Type	Tobacco
Number in Set	25

1929 Churchman/Imperial/British American Tobacco Sports and Games in Many Lands Overview

A little known issue from the UK has one of the most affordable Babe Ruth cards around.

The 1929 Imperial Sports and Games in Many Lands set was a 25-card issue for a few cigarette manufacturers and features a variety of games and sports being played around the country. While Churchman is the most common brand you’ll find associated with this set, Edwards Ringer and Bigg also distributed these cards in 1935 as did British American Tobacco (often acronymed as BAT) in 1930. They are all the same card just with a different back advertisement name.

By far and away, the most popular card in the set is the American Baseball card. While it doesn’t specifically name Babe Ruth, most collectors have accepted that it is his picture on the front and it trades/sells as a Ruth card for numerous reasons.

First, Ruth was the biggest star in baseball at the time so using his likeness made sense. An even bigger selling point is that the picture depicts Ruth’s swing and it just looks like him. The uniform worn by the batter, too, looks like the New York Yankees’ classic outfit. Actually, when you put it all together, it’s very difficult to make the case that it’s not Ruth out there.

While much of the set is made up of games and sports that most U.S. collectors won’t be interested in, there are a couple of other key cards for Americans. First, there’s an American football card – one of the earliest tobacco issues for the sport. Also there is a popular Canadian ice hockey card.

1929 Churchman/Imperial/British American Tobacco Sports and Games in Many Lands Checklist

Below is a full checklist of the cards:

1. Mock Combat (Africa)
2. Primitive Hunting (Alaska)
3. Ice Hockey (Canada)
4. Ski-Joring (Canada)
5. After the Hunt (Africa)
6. Fox Hunting (England)
7. Pelota (France)
8. Trotting (Germany)
9. Shooting Wild Boar (Germany)
10. Hurling (Ireland)
11. Pig-Sticking (India)
12. Polo (India)
13. Tiger Hunting (India)
14. Dancing (Java)
15. Archery (Korea)
16. Go-Bang (Korea)
17. Skiing (Norway)
18. River Craft (Rhodesia)
19. Cossack Sword Dancing (Russia)
20. Curling (Scotland)
21. Bull Fighting (Spain)
22. Bobsledding (Switzerland)
23. Skating (Switzerland)
24. American Football (US)
25. Baseball (US)

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