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1905-06 Collectables

AMALGAMATED PRESS
Book of Football
The Book of Football was printed by Amalgamated Press and published as 12 fortnightly part-works, costing sixpence (2.5 new pence)
between October 1905 and March 1906. Each issue contained detailed articles and profiles of the big clubs of the period.
The publications were later re-printed in book form.

Within the pages Syd King calls, albeit, the clubs brief ten-year existence and how the Ironworks had taken over the tenancy of the Hermit Road ‘cinder heap’ in the summer of 1895 from Old Castle Swifts F.C. before moving a year later to the wilderness at ‘Browning Road’.

 

King touches on how the players training was undertaken in a school room on the Barking Road and their occasional moonlight spins on the turnpike road prior to moving to the purpose built Memorial Grounds at Canning Town.

 

This vast athletic and cycling enclosure was commissioned by Thames Iron Works director Arnold Hills and opened on Jubilee Day 1897. The book also gives us the first glimpse of the Boleyn Castle Ground which the Hammers moved to in 1904, the ground they will reside in for the next 112 years.

CAXTON Publishing Co.
Association Football & the Men Who Made It
Association Football and The Men Who Made It (1905-1906) was published in four volumes by the Caxton Publishing Co.
Each volume was lavishly illustrated with photographic plates and often it is these pictures, instead of the whole book, which are very valuable.
The authors, Alfred Gibson and William Pickford, wrote it as “A monument for the men who made it” and dedicated it “To all who loved the game”.
James Jackson

Many of the photographic pages were full-page plates, which meant that many of the individual players featured were removed including both the 1905-06 team group and the James Jackson full-length profile.

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West Ham United manager Syd King had persuaded the highly experienced Jackson to move across the capital from Woolwich Arsenal to east London on 9 November 1905. The player had built up a good reputation as a tough-tackling full-back while playing for Glasgow Rangers, Newcastle United and Arsenal and is still depicted wearing his Gunners attire.

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"Jemmy" made his Hammers debut two-days later against Brighton & Hove Albion at the Boleyn Castle Ground in a 2-0 win; he kept his place in the side for the concluding 24 fixtures of the 1905-06 campaign before returning to Scotland to re-join Glasgow Rangers at the end of the season.

OGDEN'S Ltd
Football Club Colours
Numbered series of 50 cards. Although not stated as such, West Ham goalkeeper George Kitchen is depicted on this card.
47. West Ham United
OXO
Footballers in Training

Postcards carried a lower postal rate than letters and by the early 1900s picture postcards had become very popular and companies seized the opportunity to use them to advertise. OXO first put their name to a postcard illustrating our 1904 Southern League team. Entitled “OXO for Stamina”.

A season later goalkeeper George Kitchen stands centre stage  on this postcard, with extreme left watching over proceedings is training Tom Robinson.

J. REEVES (Photographers)
Postcard
Hand-tinted postcard
West Ham United 1905-06

West Ham United Publications

HANDBOOK
Unfortunately this Handbook has lost it's outer cover
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