All Barratts / Bassetts Spurs Cards 1925 - 1994

Barratt & Co was a confectionery company originally established in 1848 which, by the time its was taken over by Geo. Bassett & Co Ltd in the late 1960s, was the largest sugar confectionery manufacturer in the UK.

Barratts produced their first sports cards in 1925 (260 'Cricketers, Footballers and Football Teams') of which there were two Spurs players, McDonald & Skitt, both of which I have yet to acquire. Within a few years the company was producing dedicated football card sets right up until the start of WW2, all of which are now significantly expensive cards.

Barratts were one of the first companies to resume football card production after the war and, from 1947 through to 1967, produced an unbroken line of annual football sets.

Having been taken over, there was a four-year hiatus before Bassetts resumed football card production again, and in much the same mould as before even, to their credit, allowing the new cards to continue using the old 'Barratt & Co' name. In 1974 the parent company started producing cards under it's own brand name although continuing the old link by issuing the cards through its 'Barratt Division'.

In 1989 Geo. Bassett & Co was, itself, taken over by Cadbury Schweppes but, once again, football card production continued although they were now issued under the name of 'Trebor Bassett Ltd'.

Alas all good things come to an end and the company finally stopped producing top Division football cards a few years after the inception of the Premier League.

Barratts / Bassetts therefore proved to be the most enduring of all football card manufacturers maintaining production for nigh on 70 years. A truly remarkable effort.