Finding (the Original) Old Calabar Trade Cards — Mostly

There are a handful of sets that I’ve heard of and have tried unsuccessfully to even locate. I’m not talking about finding cards for my own personal collection. Here, I’m talking about cards that I’ve actively been looking for and have not even seen any real evidence of.

One of those sets is an obscure series known only as the Old Calabar trade cards.

First things first — there are Old Calabar trade cards out there. But what I’ve been looking for is a rare 16-card set of sports cards bearing the Old Calabar name at the top. And until recently, I’d never been able to even see one of the original cards.

About Old Calabar

Before we even get into the cards, what is Old Calabar? Well for geography buffs, Old Calabar was the former name of a city-state in Nigeria, now known as simply Calabar. But in the context of these cards, the Old Calabar name refers to a dog and animal food company in England.

Finding much information on the company isn’t easy. They’re believed to exist in the late 19th century to the early part of the 20th century. If you look for trade cards and other collectibles for the company, you’ll see some with specific dates. But a great many are simply listed as c1900. It seems many sellers are simply copying that common date found on other collectibles.

The Old Calabar Sports Cards

As mentioned, these cards have been quite literally impossible for me to find. The good news is, unlike other cards that are virtually unseen, we’ve actually had good images of these cards for quite a while. That’s because, while the originals are rarely seen, reprint sets are readily available online. The London Cigarette Card Company in the UK, for example, offers them through their website. Their particular series was reprinted in 2001.

The cards are a standard trade card size, measuring about 3″ wide by 4 1/4″ tall and there are 16 in the complete set. A typical UK offering, predictably, you won’t find the major American sports in it. There’s no baseball, basketball, hockey, or football. The standout in the set would be the golf card, as those from other UK sets usually are among the more valuable ones. But the cards are also so utterly rare that collectors that know of them would likely be interested even in the minor cards, such as hunting, ice skating, and mountain climbing. Here’s a full checklist of the set.

The cards have fairly good imagery for the time. Color depictions of the sports look realistic and the colors are muted enough that they have the old time feel that most collectors of all cards enjoy. The Old Calabar name is printed at the tops in large lettering as well as smaller font that states that they offer dog, poultry, and game foods.

And like the other cards produced by the company that you might see, these are also considered to be c1900 cards.

The Find

I’ve been looking to get my hands on some of these Old Calabar sports cards for quite a while. But like many other sought after cards, I found some when I least expected it.

The cards I found did not have the Old Calabar name yet printed on them. That was certainly a reason they went under the radar as they do not have any sort of advertiser name on them. However, they are the same images as the Old Calabar cards in the set.

Now, we certainly know that many trade card sets were used by different advertisers. And that could be the case here with these intended for whomever. But the fact that this set was reprinted with the Old Calabar name also makes it a little more likely that these cards were exclusive to the company. Reprinting only the cards with the Old Calabar name does not seem like it makes much sense if they were offered by others as well. I have also never seen any of these cards with different advertisers (if you have, please reach out and let me know).

So how did I recognize these as the Old Calabar cards with the name printed across the top? The wrestling card, in particular, was one that I remembered from the set. And when I initially saw the image, even without the Old Calabar name, I knew that I’d seen it before. It didn’t take me long to remember it as an Old Calabar image.

The unfortunate thing is that I only got half of the set. The other eight cards were not in the lot.

Among the more desirable cards in my lot is the wrestling card, the rowing card, and others depicting track and field events. But as the cards are just so difficult to find, even the others (rifle shooting, horseback riding, jai alai, and ice skating) are welcome additions.

As stated, to get any of these rare cards at all was still one of the nicer finds I’ve had this year.