Card Identification Forum

Hi, 

First time posting here, and I'm a rookie and an idiot, so bare with me  :)

I found this old boxing card which I am having trouble identifying.  From what I can see, and from what little I can find on the internet, this card was made sometime in the 1920's by the Indo (or Jndo) Egyption Cigarette Company, in Cheribon, Dutch East Indies.  From what I noticed, this company made some Egyptian film star trading cards, that were pretty easily identified with the name and number of a particular person and were inserted into cigarette packs. 

I'm assuming this card was also a cigarette trading card, but it has no identification of the boxer's identity on either the front or the back.  The only distinguishing thing about the card is that is it has the number "12" printed right above the company name.  No names of the boxers on the card, and the back of the card is blank except for some handwritting.

Any clues about this card?  Front and back scans attached.

Any help is appreciated, and I thank you in advance.

Here's a little information (and I mean very little) about the company and some of its history.

http://www.card-world.co.uk/south-africa/

http://indahnesia.com/indonesia/REBFIR/firms.php

These links probably won't you help you find the set your card belongs to but they are slightly interesting.

The Film Star set you mentioned is easy to find, but I could find nothing on the boxing/sport set.

Good luck.

This link has a very incomplete checklist and #12 is unknown http://www.moviecard.com/misc_c-k/indo-egyptian.html#RTFToC1 

Your card is the same design. Could it actually be from the set?  Is it a boxing card or a scene from a boxing movie? Jack Dempsey was in about a dozen movies in the 1920s. Good mystery.

I'm really bad at ID'ing cards, so I'm no help on that end.

But I did want to add something - don't think you're an idiot. Even when posting a card in the ID forum, it isn't stupid or dumb - I've posted a card that I was looking in the wrong year for; all I needed to do was look a little harder.

I hope that no one posting in our forums ever thinks of themself as an idiot or with a stupid question - that's how you learn! Sometimes our members can be sarcastic or even "snarky" (sandyrusty got me a while back with a comment that I didn't understand, bu laught about to this day when I think about it) but no questions are stupid or dumb if they come from a true desire to learn and know.

Good luck in your search!

@chad Thank you, you kind of found the same information that I found as well, which is what I'm running into.  Info on the movie cards, but not this one.  Very strange...  Thank you for the help!

@C2Cigars Thank you as well, it's possibly likely that it is part of that same set you referenced, I saw the same site earlier, but didn't even notice that #12 wasn't listed as is unknown...guess I just glossed over that.  Could be Dempsey as you mentioned, but I would have hoped they would have put some identifier on it with his name or movie title or something.

@jasongerman9  Thank you, maybe I should have said "novice" instead!  :) 

As to the translation on the back of the card, "kokolo".  Sometimes I surprise myself. I thought it looked (sounded?) Polynesian and it took some searching to find the exact language. That's a Tongan word.

Huggins and Scott had an auction with that exact card (#12) and ID it as "1920s Jndo Egyptian Cigarette Co. "Fight Scenes" "

http://feb18.hugginsandscott.com/cgi-bin/showitem.pl?lotno=1574

I cannot seem to locate any other intel on this set right the moment. I will see if I can find more. 

I don't think it's a real fight.  There's no top rope on the near side.  Removed to get an unobstructed shot, I say.  Which leads me to think it could be a movie scene, though it's odd the actors aren't identified. I can't imagine Dempsey would have been shot from behind.  He was the most famous athlete in the world at this time.  Battling Siki was Light-Heavyweight champ at the time. Maybe it's him.

@ C2Cigars  Fascinating!  I actually had to google the Tongan language, I had never heard of it before  :)

@ Soldan  Awesome detective work, I never saw that reference before, thank you!.  Too bad they didn't have a picture, just to confirm.  Wonder where they came up with the 1920 date, or maybe they just guessed based on the series?

@ switzr1  Very keen observations, you very well could be spot on.  Since Indo made some movie related cards, this could be from a movie for sure.  Also, could also be Battling Siki as you mentioned, kind of looks similar (although it's hard to tell) as this image of him:

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/french-boxer-battling-siki-light-heavyweight-champion-after-news-photo/1247063#date-unknown-french-boxer-battling-siki-light-heavyweight-champion-picture-id1247063

"Fight Scenes" possibly as in a "scene" from a movie?