1933 Jacques Les Sports Illustres Set and Checklist
‘It’s In The Details’
| Title | Jacques Les Sports Illustres |
| Year | 1933 |
| Size | 1 3/8″ x 2 3/4″ |
| Images | Color |
| Type | Candy/Gum |
| Number in Set |
240 |
1933 Jacques Les Sports Illustres Overview
This massive set was a multi-sports issue offered in 1933 by Jacques Chocolates, a French candy company. The name of the set, ‘Les Sports Illustres’ is translated to ‘Illustrated Sports.’
The set includes a total of 24 cards from ten different sports. However, the sports series is part of an even larger set. The sports series cards encompass ten subsets – Series K through Series T. However, other series’ include non-sports subjects. This series is a continuation of Series A through Series J.
Sports covered in these series’ include basketball, boxing, tennis, wrestling, soccer, cycling, swimming, racing (foot race), rowing, and diving. The cards have the name of the sport in handwritten style on the front with the series identification and card number at the top.
The cards picture generic subjects and other illustrations of the sport, such as playing surface diagrams or equipment.
A special album was created for the cards, allowing collectors to affix them to page. The album featured various pictures of the cards on it and neither the card nor the albums are all that easy to find in the U.S.
The album part is notable because if you ever encounter these cards, you will notice one thing – they are printed on very thin, paper-like stock. That makes sense knowing that they were intended to go into albums.
A final note is that Jacques created other sports cards. For example, I have seen a basketball card from a similar looking but different set that has different fonts and has series’ arranged by number instead of letter. Collectors should avoid confusing these two issues and it is possible that others exist.
1933 Jacques Les Sports Illustres Checklist
Each series has a total of 24 cards. Here are the series’ that make up the entire sports set.
Note that the card numbers that appear on each card are numbers for a particular sports’ subject and not the overall card number for the full set. Thus, each series has cards No. 1-24 and no numbers beyond No. 24 exist.
- Series K – Football (Soccer)
- Series L – Lutte (Wrestling)
- Series M – Tennis
- Series N – Natation (Swimming)
- Series O – Course a pied (Foot Race)
- Series P – Plongeons (Diving)
- Series Q – Boxe (Boxing)
- Series R – Aviron (Rowing)
- Series S – Basket-Ball (Basketball)
- Series T – Cyclisme (Cycling)
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