October Legends Closing November 1
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/2/2014
The large New York tobacco firm Goodwin & Company began to utilize baseball player cards to promote their Old Judge and Gypsy Queen Cigarette brands. Actual player sepia toned photos were pasted on stiff cardboard, not only as a sales incentive, but to protect the cigarettes via the stiff cardboard stock that was used. Beginning in 1888, Goodwin & Company elevated their game by providing tobacco users the option of sending in 25 boxes or Old Judge coupons included in the cigarette packs to receive an oversized sepia toned photograph (the first card premium!) affixed to a 4 ¼” x 6 ½” mount. These ultra-popular cabinet cards are categorized as N173’s and are very desirable to advanced collectors. Since the tobacco smoking community had their choice of cabinet cards to choose, they usually selected the greatest players of the day such as “King” Kelly, Buck Ewing, Tim Keefe, and Cap Anson as opposed to the less popular players. This makes the less popular cards much scarcer than their HOF counterparts, but these legendary Hall of Famers still generate the highest values due to their collector interest. While the HOFers are more abundant among the N173 cabinet community, the total amounts of surviving examples are not nearly sufficient to satisfy the demand. Arguably, the most popular N173 cabinet subject is the iconic 19th century Cooperstown inductee Adrian “Cap” Anson. This extremely tough and desirable example presents nicer than its technical SGC 40 VG 3 grade. A small chip in the upper right “corner” and light stains do not detract from the crystal clear image of “Capt. Anson”, dapper looking in his Sunday best, the same image used for his N172 Old Judge offering. The reverse also has light staining, but is free of the usual handwritten commentary usually seen on these large cabinet cards. Only 15 Anson N173 examples have been graded by SGC or PSA, with only two (both SGC 60) grading higher. N173 cabinets do not come up for auction very often, as most are positioned in long term advanced collections, so when one comes available (especially a superstar example like Anson), the collector might want to jump on the opportunity to acquire one of the most desirable 19th century cards ever produced. Graded by SGC 40 VG 3.