An extreme sports rarity. This early ambrotype taken c.1859/1860 of a young English public or boarding school "football" player posed in his striped football jersey. The jersey is marked on the front “B.W.”, which almost certainly identifies a house, side, or team designation within the school, a known practice at the time. This photo was taken at a time when schools played the game within their own boundaries and with their own rules. Associations were formed starting in 1863 to settle on a single sets of rules, or "laws of the game".
The earliest photo, by about a decade, that we have come across of a "football" player.
Ninth plate ambrotype in its original hanging (rather than cased) frame.
Initials on the jersey (photo reversed to view correctly)
