Lambert and Butler is probably one of the best known cigarette companies in the UK. Formed by two friends (Charles Lambert & Charles Butler) in 1834 they produced their first cigarette card set in 1898.
Like many other cigarette makers of the time they didn’t release a football related set until much later, in fact it was 1930 before Lambert & Butler issued their first football cigarette cards !!
Titled “Footballers 1930/31” it consisted of a very nicely done set of 50 cards featuring hand painted portraits of the top players of the era.
Although these were a very popular cigarette card the company unfortunately didn’t release any more football related cards.
The footballers featured were;
1 Adcock – Leicester City
2 Archibald – Stoke City
3 Bambrick – Linfield
4 Beresford – Aston Villa
5 Bishop – Chelsea
6 Black – Plymouth
7 Brook – Manchester City
8 Burton – Nottingham Forest
9 Crooks – Derby County
10 Davies – Cardiff City
11 Dunne – Sheffield United
12 England – Hull City
13 Ferrier – Motherwell
14 Gunn – Swansea
15 Harkness – Hearts
16 Hart – Leeds United
17 Harthill – Wolves
18 Hibbs – Birmingham City
19 Hill – Newcastle United
20 Kearney – Portsmouth
21 Lucas – Liverpool
22 Mahood – Belfast Celtic
23 McAlpine – Queens Park
24 McIlwaine – Southampton
25 McLaren – Aberdeen
26 McLean – Huddersfield Town
27 Morton – Glasgow Rangers
28 Parker – The Arsenal
29 Puddefoot – Blackburn Rovers
30 Rimmer – Sheffield Weds
31 Robson – Huddersfield
32 Seddon – Bolton Wanderers
33 Silcock – Manchester United
34 Sloan – Linfield
35 Thomson – Celtic
36 Trenelling – Blackpool
37 Watson – West Ham Utd
38 Webster – Middlesbrough
39 Williams – Bristol City
40 Wilson – Huddersfield Town
41 – 50 Rugby players.
Although fairly rare they don’t fetch too high a high price when they do come on the market with an average of £2 to £3 being the usual price range paid per card.