Thursday 30 April 2015

Consolidated Cigarette Co. - (N352) Fine Colored Relief Cards (01) - Football


1888
N352 Fine Colored Relief Cards
Consolidated Cigarette Co. / Paxi Cigarettes
USA
100 cards (4 Football)

The Cartophilic Society of Great Britain held it's annual convention in Worcester this past weekend. I had promised myself the new reference book that was published recently. C19th U.S.A. Tobacco Issues Index & Handbook (Cartophilic Reference Book No. 151) has been compiled by Martin Murray. I didn't expect to come across anything relating to my own collecting sphere, but I do find the subject fascinating.
After going through the book thoroughly over the last few days I did find one football item that I had never come across before.
The cards are printed with almost nothing on the front other than a decorative border and the backs printed in blue giving details of the company, the brand and the subject matter of the cards. The cards measure 2" x 3¼". The cigarette company seems to have acquired sheets of Raphael Tuck illustrations - what are known as 'scraps' - cut the individual characters from the sheets and pasted them onto the front of the cards.
Also shown are a couple of the baseball cards, along with an uncut sheet of the baseball players as printed by Raphael Tuck & Sons, along with all 10 baseball players arranged in alphabetical order, as listed below. The baseball cards have an estimated value of $750 each.
One of the cards discovered is of a cricketer, the subject matter is not mentioned on the back of the cards, so there may be more of them too.
I have previously shown a complete sheet of 8 footballers issued by Raphael Tuck & Sons and I've included that also. The original article can be found here - Raphael Tuck & Sons - Die-Cut Scraps ~ Footballers/Cricketers - Giant Relief No. 204/203. The two cricketers shown here are not front the same sheet as the ones shown in this link.
I haven't been able to find any other Raphael Tuck sheets relating to the various subject in this collection.
UPDATE (10-05-2023 12:17):  Larger, clearer versions of the four footballers added. This post was originally the only one relating to this card set, but I've added separate posts for all the other sports, so this one concentrates on the football cards.
Here are links to all the other posts relating to this collection.

Don't swallow it old man! (Football)   -   not seen
Are you ready? (Football)   -   not seen
A Full Stop (Football - Player chesting ball)
Ready for anything (Football)   -   not seen
The Captain (Rugby)   -   not seen
A Drop (Rugby)   -   not seen
Going for a try (Rugby)   -    illustration 01, 02
Lifting a Goal (Rugby)   -   not seen

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