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If you would like more information about my boxing card encyclopedia "America's Great Boxing Cards", please go to www.americasgreatboxingcards.com. In the years since its 1st publication my book has become the reference on boxing cards. The descriptions below are short excerpts from the book, which also provides actual prices from auctions and sales on thousands of boxing cards, hundreds of images, and checklists of sets that had never been studied methodically before. Also below are card galleries of various issues, which I am providing for everyone's easy reference.
I will try to make the gallery as close to chronological as I can.
And in answer to a question I frequently get, no, the cards here are not for sale. This is a museum page dedicated to public education; I don't even own many of them. Wish I did. If you are interested in buying boxing cards please use the menu bar at the top to go to the boxing cards for sale page.
Final Note: I moved the strip cards to the Boxing Strip Card page.
Final Final Note: Please look on the Exhibit card page for Exhibit cards of boxers.
Date(s): July 2, 2005. Album by Adam Warshaw. 1 - 537 of 537 Total. 23256 Visits.
1 Pre-1870 John C. Heenan CDV by Fredricks. This is the earliest verifiable boxing card. Until the late 1850's the photographic technology did not permit commercial scale, affordable production of photographs. Fredricks was one of the first to make albumen images, a skill he learned in France and brought to the States in 1855. By the time this card was issued as part of his commercially produced "Specialite" series of famous personages, Fredricks owned a large studio and gallery in New York City. His work is featured in a number of museum collections, including the Smithsonian.
2 N167 Jem Carney. One of four cards issued as part of N167 by Goodwin, it is the first series of boxing cards inserted into packages of cigarettes.
3 1887 N28 Allen & Ginter Jimmy Carney. N28 cards are the most common of the 19th Century tobacco boxing cards and among the easiest to collect in high grade (ex or better) because they are printed on thick, high quality cardboard. The set consists of 50 cards, ten of which depict boxers. On the card backs is a checklist of the issue.
4 The great John L. Sullivan's N28 card. I feel it is his finest representation on a 19th century lithographic card.
5 N29 Jack McGee. Following the success of the N28 series of fifty cards, Allen & Ginter issued a second series, which Burdick dubbed N29. We know it is a second series because it says so right on the card backs. N29 cards are more difficult to find than N28 cards but still readily collected.
6 N29 Allen & Ginter Patsey Kerrigan.
7 N43 Frank Murphy. Acting on the old adage that more of a good thing is better, Allen & Ginter re-used the images of the N29 set to create the set that Burdick catalogued as N43. The set features the fronts of the N29 cards within oversized cards that depict colorful boxing and decorative paraphernalia alongside. These cards are large, even bigger than modern cards, and were used in 20-packs of cigarettes, as stated on the card reverses. They are in very high demand.
8 This is an album page from the 2nd series of Allen & Ginter champions albums, ACC designation A18.
9 N162 Old Judge & Gypsy Queen Charlie Mitchell. There are five boxers in this colorful and extremely popular multisport lithograph set from Goodwin: Jack Dempsey, John L. Sullivan, Jake Kilrain, Jem Smith and Charlie Mitchell. All five are IBHOF members. The card backs contain a checklist. N162’s are moderately difficult but not rare.
10 N162 Old Judge & Gypsy Queen Jack Dempsey.
No, this is not the heavyweight champ. This is the original Jack Dempsey, a great middleweight champ nicknamed the Nonpariel. The other fellow is William Harrison Dempsey. He took the name in tribute to the Nonpariel and it stuck.
11 N174 Jack Dempsey. The second major boxing issue from Goodwin consists of albumen photographs in nine formats; the set is very complex. Cards with the rectangular bottom logo are sometimes found with a distinctly pink hue. I have no idea nor, frankly, does anyone else, whether only certain boxers have cards in certain styles, and to state otherwise is to speculate. I have a comprehensive checklist in my book but new variations do surface. N174 cards sell for high prices when they are found.
12 N174 Gypsy Queen Tug Wilson. Issued only with two formats, GQs are scarcer than OJs. The thick-skulled Wilson came to the US from England, stood in with Sullivan for long enough to win a $1,000 challenge purse for lasting, and returned to England to open a grocery business with the money.
13 N174 Peter Jackson. This format of N174 has the pink cards. Jackson was the best of the 19th century black heavyweight contenders, denied a shot by Sullivan. He and Corbett fought to a draw.
14 N174 George Godfrey. He is misidentified as "Joe" Godfrey. The most common format N174. Godfrey was another black contender. This and the Peter Jackson are the earliest known cards of black boxers, so they bring a premium from specialists. Godfrey was elected to the Bare Knuckles Boxing HOF.
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16 A John Wood cabinet card of Godfrey from the same photo session as the Old Judge card's photo. Cabinet cards were populaly issued in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They are called “cabinet” card or “premium” card because their size usually exceeds 4” x 6” and were often displayed in curio cabinets. Many were issued to promote various organizations and businesses. Some were even issued by boxers to promote themselves, or sold individually by companies capitalizing on the card collecting craze to sell mass-produced images of celebrities.
17 N174 Bob Fitzsimmons. Sorry for the lousy scan but this card is rare and was issued in Australia.
18 N174 large screen Gypsy Queen. There are 7 known cards with the large GQ legend with only 1 example of each fighter known.
19 N174 large screen Gypsy Queen Willie Clark.
20 Old Judge card with rare back advertising, likely an Australian or UK issue.
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22 1887 W.S. Kimball Champions of Games and Sports (N184)Patsy Cardiff. Not to be outdone by its competitors at Allen & Ginter and Goodwin, W. S. Kimball & Co. issued its own set of champions cards. There are five boxers. The card fronts are found with or without the company name wrapped around the portrait of the subject.
23 N184 John L. Sullivan, with logo around the head. These are the rarest of the regular tobacco sized multisport champions lithographed issues and owing to thin borders and weak cardboard are very hard to find in nice shape.
24 N150 John L. Sullivan. One of four poses found in the issue.
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27 N157 The Sunny South. Boxer is likely Paddy Duffy, an IBHOF member.
28 N692 a smaller, tougher version of N157 w/ different branding
29 1889 Kinney Hold To The Light Metamorphic (N223)John L. Sullivan. This is a unique, extremely rare issue. The cards’ images change when held to sunlight. The Sullivan, gets long hair and a beard when he changes. It is a layered set of images on thin stock and is vulnerable to damage.
30 1889 S.F. Hess & Co. (N332) Jack Havlin. S.F. Hess, a Rochester, NY company, issued a very rare series consisting of an unknown number of blank-backed photographic cards of boxers and other celebrities in a format very similar to N174. The issue is so rare that it is meaningless to speak of the 80+ known cards as a set.
31 N332 S.F. Hess Charlie Mitchell. It was not uncommon for parents to lop off the tobacco ads on cards and give the images to their kids. When the card is rare it can make identification a challenge. This one was sold as an unidentified photo of an anonymous boxer and sold for less than 1% of what a Hess would normally cost.
32 1887 Lorillard’s Mechanics Delight (N269) Jimmy Elliot. Lorillard issued this sought after set of fifty numbered boxing cards in 1887. Personally, my favorite 19th century set; I appreciate the broad scope of subjects, the numbering, and the write ups on the backs of the cards.
33 N269 Lorillard Mechanics Delight Tommy Warren. An early lightweight champion.
34 N269 Lorillard Mechanics Delight John L. Sullivan. One of two Sullivans in the set, both carrying the same card number.
35 N269 Lorillard Mechanics Delight Bill Poole. A gangster and nativist political enforcer immortalized in Herbert Asbury's "The Gangs of New York" who was drawn on to create the "Butcher Bill" character in the movie. Murdered by Irish gangsters affiliated with John Morrissey (our next card subject), his last words were "I die a true American." His funeral procession drew thousands of onlookers.
36 John "Old Smoke" Morrissey. The Tammany politico and gangster was one of the toughest bare knuckles brawlers of pre-Civil War NYC and founded the Saratoga Springs track. Served in Congress and died a very wealthy man. His crew murdered Bill Poole, though not on his orders. He and Poole had a bitter blood feud based on Poole's nativist sentiments.
37 1889 History of Poor Boys and Other Famous People (N79) Jake Kilrain: Although not really cards, the two booklets in this series that depict boxers are popularly collected by 19th century boxing card collectors. The booklets were produced by Duke and show various Duke products in addition to detailed biographies of the celebrity subjects. The elaborate cover art is what makes these items popular among collectors. The two boxer subjects are John L. Sullivan and Jake Kilrain. The set is popularly treated as an 1888 issue, but that is clearly wrong; the last paragraph of the Kilrain biography states that he and Sullivan had signed in January 1889 for a July 1889 championship bout.
38 1893 Lorillard Red Cross Long Cut Tobacco (N266)Choyinski[sic] and Goddard. The set designated N266 by Burdick consists of 25 known unnumbered cards. It is one of the easiest sets to date; 1893 is printed right on the fronts of the cards in very small, faint print below the “Red Cross” name. Each oversized “tall boy” card depicts a match between two fighters and illustrates a specific move. Some of the illustrations show blows permitted under the rules of the London Prize Ring (“L.P.R.”), but not under the modern rules for gloved prize fights. Card backs contain a short blurb about the fighters and fight depicted, and a huge Red Cross advertisement. These colorful cards are larger than average tobacco cards but smaller than postcards, trade cards or cabinet cards, which accounts for both their desirability and their difficulty in better conditions.
39 N266 Fitzsimmons v. Dempsey. One of the two keys to the set showing Jack Dempsey and Bob Fitzsimmons, who fought for the middleweight crown. Fitz held two titles at once (middle and heavy) at a time when there were only three weight divisions.
40 N266 Murphy v. Weir
41 N266 McAuliffe v. Myers
42 N266 Hall v. Pritchard
43 N266 Frazier and Daly
44 N266 De Baum and Campbell
45 N266 Dawson and Needham
46 N266 Chambers and Clark
47 1895 Mayo Cut Plug (N310)Joe Chonskia [sic]. Mayo produced a series of 35 subjects with photographic depictions of many of the biggest stars of the day. The set features two front styles: names at the top and names at the bottom of the image.
The fighter whose name was routinely mangled by the card companies, San Francisco native Joseph Bartlett Choynski [ko-yin-ski] was the first great Jewish-American fighter. Although he weighed about 170 he was a heavyweight who fought most every contender and champion, and defeated Jack Johnson early in Johnson's career.
48 Mayo Jim Corbett, name at bottom variation.
49 Mayo Jim Hall. There are extreme print variations found in the name at bottom Mayo issue. They are detailed in my book. Ones like this, missing the artistic enhancements, are the rarest.
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51 N310 Joe Walcott
52 Old Chocolate Godfrey, name at bottom variety.
53 2012 HOFer [finally] Jake Kilrain, name at bottom variation
54 Uncut partial strip of N310.
55 Another uncut N310 strip
56 All three of the N310 uncut strips shown here originally fit together as one strip but were separated over time. I know of only one other uncut N310 strip.
57 This is a carte de viste (CDV) of Jem Carney. About the size of a modern photograph it was produced in the 1890s.
58 N537 Little Rhody Jim Corbett
59 1890s Jim Corbett CDV.
60 N386 Spaulding & Merrick John L. Sullivan
61 Richard K. Fox, publisher of the Police Gazette, was a well known photographer and prize fight promoter. He was responsible for a large issue of cabinet cards under his own studio name as well as a set issued under the Police Gazette name. He also made up several CDVs of himself, like this one.
62 Richard K. Fox cabinet of Bob Fitzsimmons.
63 Richard K. Fox cabinet Tom Hyer. Hyer was one of the first American heavyweight champs, winning acclaim in a 101 round (yes, that is correct) bare knuckles title fight in the 1840s. He successfully defended against Yankee Sullivan in the 1851 and then retired to run his bar and gang in New York City.
64 Another Fox cabinet of Bob Fitzsimmons, this one on a rare white mount.
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73 This cabinet of HOFer Charlie Mitchell was issued as part of a set of boxers by The Champion and is designated in the ACC as M125.
74 M125 cabinet of Australian boxer Frank Slavin.
75 Police Gazette John L. Sullivan. Richard Fox issued a multitude of cabinet cards under his studio and also issued a series for his newspaper The Police Gazette. The latter have the ACC designation M128.
76 M128 Jake Kilrain
77 John Wood Studio cabinet card of Jack [Nonpariel] Dempsey. An image from the same sitting was used to make his S.F. Hess card.
78 Stevengraph silks of Kilrain and Smith. An English issue of four cabinet-cards that frame very finely woven silk fighter portraits about the size of a bank check.
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80 1895 Newsboy Cabinets (N566)Peter Jackson. The National Tobacco Works issued a gigantic set of several hundred cabinet (4 1/4” x 6 1/2”) cards in the early 1890’s, popularly listed as an 1895 issue. I know of 4 boxing subjects, John L. Sullivan, Jim Corbett, Peter Jackson and Bob Fitzsimmons, depicted on at least 14 different cards.
81 N566 Newsboy Bob Fitzsimmons with Campbell mount and Boston Herald advertisement back
82 N566 Corbett. One of the full body poses. Campbell mount.
83 John L. Sullivan cabinet card. One of many types of souvenir cards of the first true fistic superstar, this particular format is found with at least three different poses.
84 John L. Sullivan trade card. This cabinet sized card is usually found imprinted on front or back with a local merchant's advertisement, a common use for trade cards in the late 19th century.
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86 1890s X-Zalia Jim Corbett. A snake oil of the worst sort, Corbett plugged it for a fee.
87 What we have here is somewhat of a mystery but is generally accepted as being some kind of composite sample card associated with the N150 series.
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92 1904 Battling Nelson. Styled like a cabinet card but printed. Includes his record to 1904 on the back.
93 Jim Jeffries, the California Grizzly, in his prime in 1899.
94 1904 Jeffries-Munroe cabinet card by Sporting Life magazine. Unlike 'true' cabinet cards, this one is printed rather than photographic, and double-sided. Only one specimen is known.
95 ca.1909 James J. Jeffries self-issued cabinet card w/Sarony image. Sarony was a well-known photographer of athletes. Jeffries made several cabinets in conjunction with his 1910 comeback.
96 T218 Sam Langford. Perhaps the most widely collected T-type boxing cards are the T218 cards of Champion Athletes and Prizefighters, issued with various American Tobacco Company products. The T218 cards are beautiful examples of turn of the century lithography. The cards measure approximately 2 ½ x 2 7/8 inches, and typically contain a short write-up and fight statistics on the backs.
97 T218 Jack Johnson, side view. In my opinion the T218 set is the nicest looking of the 20th century lithographic sets.
98 T218 Stanley Ketchell
99 T218 Sam Langford Tolstoi back. Mecca is the most common brand of T218. Hassan is slightly more difficult to find than Mecca, say on a 55:45 ratio. The Tolstoi back is rare.
100 T218 Willie Lewis.
101 T219 Willie Lewis. The T219 set is a cut down version of T218 with only 50 boxers. Compare this card with the T218 Lewis image for the cropping. The basic cards in the set are the Honest Long Cut (“HLC”) brand cards. The Miners Extra brand is uncommon. The Red Cross brand is rarely seen.
102 T220 Charlie Goldman. Issued with Mecca and Tolstoi cigarettes, the 50-card set designated as T220 by Jefferson Burdick in the American Card Catalog is one of the two “basic” boxing card sets from pre-World War I era of the 20th Century.
103 T220 Silver Borders Charlie Goldman. A significant border variation exists in the T220 set. All cards are commonly found with a white border. For some reason, 26 Mecca brand cards were printed as well with a silver border.
104 T220 Mecca Silver Borders Joe Coburn. Note the man at the left.
105 T220 Coburn white border. The man’s image clearly was removed after the silver bordered printing, since the plant leaves that replaced him still form his silhouette. Why the American Tobacco Company bothered to remove this man from the picture is unknown. It proves that the silver cards were printed first. I have never seen a white bordered Coburn with the man at the left intact.
106 T220 Silver Borders Kid Lavigne.
107 T220 Silver Borders Mike Donovan. This card blew my mind when discovered early in 2006. Until then all catalogs carried the silver bordered variation of T220 as a 25-card subset of the 50-card issue including Jack Goodman, which does not exist. This card was the 26th silver border discovered and is one of 2 known specimens. The silver set consists of 25 cards.
108 T220 Silver Borders Young Erne
109 T220 Silver Borders Willie Beecher
110 T220 Freddie Welsh Tolstoi back
111 1910 Dixie Queen T223 John L. Sullivan. The same 50 cards in T220 were issued in a smaller format on coarser paper as Dixie Queen premiums. They are quite rare.
112 T224/T229 Pet/Kopec Cigarettes Monte Attell. Abe's brother Monte was a title holder. Pet and Kopec were West Coast brands with very limited distribution. Pet brand cards are rare; Kopecs are all but impossible to find.
113 T225 Jas. J. Jeffries. This series has 10 back variations. The gory details are in my book.
114 T226 Red Sun Puglistic [sic] Subjects Willie Lewis. This set of 50 cards is very tough to find and very desirable; a high grade set of 50 brought $57,605.23 at auction some years ago.
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116 T227 Abe Attell. A multisport set of 24 known (1 missing) cards with 5 boxers issued in a large format similar to modern cards with images not seen on any other T cards, the T227 Honest Long Cut or Miners Extra brand set is very desirable, especially because of its four baseball players. Abe Attell was a Jewish-American champion who was the go-between in the 1919 Black Sox scandal.
117 T227 Ad Wolgast
118 T227 Johnny Coulon. Every boxer in T227 was a champion and is in the IBHOF. The others not shown here are Frankie Klaus and Jack Johnson.
119 T227 Jack Johnson. Honest Long Cut back.
120 T227 Jack Johnson. Mechanics Extra back.
121 T227 Frank Klaus. I really like this image.
122 These T227 items were cut from an as-yet undiscovered advertising piece or album. Likely an ad piece.
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126 1909 Jeffries Championship Souvenir Playing Cards Bob Fitzsimmons. The W.P. Jeffries Co. created a really nice set of playing cards depicting boxers and boxing matches from the past. The card back shows Jeffries, fat and happy in a bowler hat.
127 This card was enclosed in the deck of Jeffries cards and is tougher to find; I suppose it was routinely discarded.
128 Jeff made himself the Joker.
129 Sullivan was the King; Johnson was the actual champion at the time. He does not merit an individual card, undoubtedly due to his race.
130 Another card from the set showing Jeffries about to fight Fitzsimmons for the title. The reference to bearhood is a play on one of his nicknames, the California Grizzly.
131 E75 has 20 line-drawn cards issued by the American Caramel Co. The cards are checklisted on the back. It is one of the most common caramel sets.
132 E75 McCoy
133 A little tougher than E75 are the American Caramel Co.'s E76 issue, also of 20 cards with checklist backs. They can be distinguished based on typeface and fonts.
134 E76 Nelson
135 E77 Al Kaufman. Issued by the American Caramel Company, the same maker of the E75 and E76 sets, this particular set has 24 cards including two wrestlers and is very tough to find.
136 E78 Frank Klaus. Cards from this set are rare. The card fronts are similar in format to the E79/80 cards, while the card backs are very similar to the E75/76 cards. There is no branding or manufacturers designation on E78 cards. A checklist of the 25 cards in the issue is provided on the card backs.
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138 E79 Marvin Hart. E79 is one of the most widely collected boxing caramel card sets. E79 card back contain a partial checklist and reference 27 "Scrappers", giving the set its nickname. Card backs are printed in black; very rarely will be seen in red.
139 E79 red back. Some call these E80 but Burdick treated them as E79. Really, the issue is academic since they should be collected together as a two or three series single issue.
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142 E79 Jack O'Brien and Partner
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147 E80 Attells. E80 is one of the more difficult 20th century boxing sets. E80 references 44 Scrappers on the card backs, which have a complete checklist of the set. There is overlap between E79 and E80; very likely the 79 red backs were some of the cards listed on the E80 backs.
148 Typical E80 back on a card not issued with E79
149 Normally, this card has a lot going for it--Jack Johnson from a very difficult pre-war E set (E80). What makes this special is the stamping on the card back. I've seen this before--in a museum, when I went to research my book at the Met's Burdick Collection. The stylized "B" and the "Jeff B." indicate that this card was once the possession of none other than the creator of the American Card Catalog, Jefferson Burdick.
150 ca. 1910 Jim Jeffries uncatalogued card. A candy issue from around the time of the Johnson fight, these cards are quite difficult to find.
151 ca. 1910 New England Gum Co. Jeffries and Johnson flip card. Another Jack v. Jeff card.
152 Flip side
153 Although this strip card set uses the E79 and E95 art it is really a hybrid E and W card. Found on a sheet with other subjects. Sheets are known with ad backs for a confectioners [making them E cards] or blank-backed [W cards].
154 Heavyweight champ Tommy Burns was also a top lacrosse player. Here is his C60 card.
155 1915 Susini Jack Johnson [Cuba]
156 1915 Susini Billy Wells [Cuba]
157 1919 photo card of the Dempsey-Willard fight from a series of cards issued as both PCs and PC-sized blank-backed cards.
158 1919 Underwood & Underwood Jack Dempsey: Underwood & Underwood was known for licensing photos. Many baseball sets from the 1920’s have the U&U copyright on their images. Apparently, U&U also tried its hand at producing postcard-sized cards of its own. Dempsey and Willard are the known subjects, indicating an issue date ca. 1919.
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160 1927 York Caramel (E211) King Tut (obviously not his real name). This rare set of cards depicts fighters of the era. Burdick catalogued it as E211.
161 1927 York Caramel (E211) Frankie Genaro. The Burdick Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has only 2 E211 cards.
162 E211 York Caramel Andy Divodi.
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164 1920s Romeo y Julieta Jack Johnson. A Cuban tobacco issue of approximately 200 cards of fighters.
165 1920s Romeo y Julieta Joe Welling
166 1920s Romeo y Julieta Jeff Smith
167 1920s Romeo y Julieta Chrley Weinert
168 1920s Romeo y Julieta Young Wallace
169 1920s Romeo y Julieta Joe Dillon
170 1920s Romeo y Julieta Juan Casala
171 1920s Romeo y Julieta Johnny Shugrus
172 1920s Romeo y Julieta Jimmy Kane
173 Romeo y. Julieta #85 Jimmy Wilde
174 Romeo y Julieta Willie Beecher
175 Romeo y Julieta Benny Leonard
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179 This and the next image are more Romeo y Julietas showing the variety of designs and image quality in the issue.
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181 1920s Romeo y Julieta white variation
182 1920s Romeo y Julieta white background with ring variety.
183 1920s Romeo y Julieta Sullivan v. Kilrain
184 1920s Romeo y Julieta La Ciencia Del Boxeo. Another tobacco issue, this one showing 'how-to' boxing poses.
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200 1930 Chocolatin Mercedes Papke and Lewis. A very rare issue from Uruguay.
201 This and the next photo show the Mercedes boxing series as it lays out on the album pages.
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203 Jeannette and MacVea from the Mercedes set. These are counterfeits; South American sellers will often make photocopies or laser prints of partial sets and glue them into the album to give the impression of a complete set.
204 Papke and Lewis as they looked glued down.
205 E. Quintana issued a large series of boxing and baseball cards in 1931. The baseball cards include Martin Dihigo cards that sell for thousands. The boxers include Sixto Escobar and Pedro Montanez.
206 1931 Quintana back. There are a couple of varieties of backs depending on series of issue.
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208 One of the people shown is Pincho Gutierrez, who trained Kid Chocolate.
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211 1920s caramel wrapper from Argentina
212 1920s caramel wrapper from Argentina
213 1920s caramel wrapper from Argentina
214 1924 Benny Leonard standup card from the Flying Fists serial. Two known examples, one with the stand part torn off.
215 1924 W511 strip card Jack Dempsey and Jack Kearns. Red variation.
216 This is a mail response card used by Pathe to respond to fans who wrote to Jack Dempsey care of the studio.
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218 1926 Weber Bakery Gene Tunney. From a movie stars set. Tunney is shown from his role in The Fighting Marine.
219 This is the header card for a series of German transfer stamps depicting the 1927 Dempsey-Tunney fight.
220 16 of the 20 stamps
221 ca. 1929 or 1930 E282 Goudey Oh Boy Gum Jack Dempsey and Tom Mix. From a series of at least 30 movie-related cards.
222 A 1920s Hollywood still of Dempsey used to make the E282 Oh Boy card.
223 1920s French PC made from the same movie studio publicity still. From a global perspective, Dempsey was the most popular athlete in the world in the 1920s, proven by the many PCs of him from around the world.
224 1933 Goudey Sport Kings Max Baer. Goudey’s sole multisport issue depicts four fighters: Baer, Dempsey, Tunney and Carnera.
225 1930s Ray-O-Print Jack Dempsey
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227 Loose-Wiles, the maker of Rippled Wheat cereal, issued a number of different items relating to Jack Dempsey in 1936 when he signed on as a national spokesman.
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229 R308 Tattoo Orbit Primo Carnera
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231 ca. 1936 H-Unc. La Salle Hats cards. A set of 8 cards given in an envelope as a promotional device for haberdasheries.
232 This would be 7 of the 8 cards in the set plus an original envelope.
233 La Salle Hats Kid Lavigne
234 1936 Indiana Sport Young Perez.
235 1936 Indiana Sport Humery-Berg, blue variation
236 1937 Kelloggs Pep Cereal Tommy Loughran
237 1937 Kelloggs Pep Cereal Jess Willard
238 1937 Kelloggs Pep Cereal Jack Sharkey
239 1937 Kelloggs Pep Cereal Jack Delaney
240 1937 Kelloggs Pep Cereal James Corbett
241 1930s Rogers & Peet Gene Tunney.
Issued by a haberdashery (clothing store) ca. 1930 in packs of 4, these blank-backed cards are quite difficult to find. Four boxers are featured: Tunney, Schmeling, Sharkey and Baer
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244 1942 Chicago Tribune Joe Louis, from a set of 70 WWII related strip cards issued in the newspaper with corresponding album.
245 Uncatalogued 1940s arcade card of Georges Carpentier. These cards were issued in Coney Island and sold only at that location. They are quite rare. I have seen a few of them offered over the years. The image was stolen from the Blue Boxers exhibit set.
246 1925 Blue Boxer Carpentier.
247 The Coney Island cards are occasionally found in pairs.
248 Coney Island Louis and Johnson. The pictures in the set were sourced from a variety of other issues and publicity photos.
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251 An uncut sheet of the Coney Island cards.
252 1948 Kellogg’s Pep Tony Zale is the sole boxer in this small, thin black and white cereal insert set.
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254 reversed image of Zale from the Pep issue. There are also cropping variations.
255 1948 Leaf Jack Dempsey. The 1948 Leaf boxing set is one of the two post-World War II boxing sets issued by a major gum manufacturer (the other is the 1951 Topps Ringside set) before 1990. It consists of 49 different cards, plus an unissued extremely rare Rocky Graziano (with fewer than ten known examples, most collectors do not even consider the Graziano to be part of the set).
256 1948 Leaf Joe Louis. Printing quality is the biggest condition concern with 1948 Leaf cards. The card stock itself is fairly thick and holds up well, but the printing can vary from atrocious to breathtakingly nice. Front image registration is the single worst problem with the set. The set was printed in three passes -- black, red and blue – and relatively few of the cards actually align perfectly for all three phases. When the printing lines up exactly, the result is a crisp, sharp image and a very nice card indeed, but if any phase misses the mark by even a millimeter, the entire image is thrown off. Many collectors of this issue will sacrifice corner sharpness or centering to get a properly printed card. The card fronts also suffer from inking irregularities.
257 This four-card strip may be a salesman sample.
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259 1951 Berk Ross Hit Parade of Champions (W532)Sugar Ray Robinson. This ugly multisport set was issued in boxed sets for sale directly to children in 1951, in four series. The cards came in two-card panels with a perforation between them.
260 1951 Ringside Abe Attell. This set was Topps’ sole full-fledged venture into the boxing market. The 1951 Ringside set was issued in two 48-card series. The second series is roughly twice as hard to find as the first series.
261 1951 Ringside Tiger Flowers. This card is very popular and sells for a considerable premium.
262 1951 Ringside Barney Ross. Card fronts show a color image of the boxer (a painted photo called a “Flexichrome” was used) with the name and division in a box. The illustration quality varies with the quality of the source materials. Champions of the past have gold laurels surrounding a plate with the title and dates of title above the name. The present-day champions have a crown on the card.
263 1951 Ringside Gene Tunney. Card #95, Tunney is very tough to find. Although not short prints, two other cards are notorious problem cards: Joe Louis (#88) frequently has terrible centering left to right, and John L. Sullivan (#69) is often off-centered towards the bottom.
264 The Ringside box.
265 A two-card panel, sold in nickel packs.
266 An 8-card salesman sample. This one shows Marciano's rookie card.
267 The back of the sample panel.
268 Kid Herman newsstand issue (1946-1970s): Issued in New York City by boxer Kid Herman, whose image appears on the back of the envelope in which they came. The set was sold originally in a packet for $0.25 at the Kid's newsstands and also peddled at Stillman's Gym, and was updated updated on different papers through the early 1970s. See my blog for more details.
269 Kid Herman Tommy Burns, original format printing
270 Over the next 20 years or so after the initial issue of the set, Herman reprinted the set and issued new cards for the new champs, in ever worsening quality. Interim reprints shifted from thin chipboard to heavier polished stock similar to Exhibit cards. The last printings were on a slick paper and weren't even sized consistently.
271 Kid Herman Jack Dempsey. Printed on thicker cardboard like an exhibit card, often mistaken for them. The earlier printings of Dempsey feature a different pose.
272 Kid Herman Schmeling
273 Kid Herman card of Jack Sharkey. The earlier printings of Sharkey feature a different pose.
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276 Joe Louis made after his retirement as the date "1946-" has been removed from the card.
277 Kid Herman card of Ezzard Charles from a later printing. Trimmed down, probably a sample.
278 Kid Herman Walcott, also a trimmed down sample
279 Here is a Marciano card from a later printing.
280 Patterson Kid Herman card, later printing
281 Here is the Sonny Liston from a later printing of the Kid Herman set.
282 The most elusive and valuable of the Kid Herman cards, printed post-Ali's 1967 loss of his belt and freedom for refusing induction into the army. Same pose as the 1960s Exhibit card.
283 1950s Joe Palooka Benny Leonard. The back panel of a candy box.
284 Joe Palooka box.
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286 1947 Homogenized Bond Bread Marcel Cerdan. A short print, with La Motta.
287 The Homogenized Bond Bread card art was sourced from a variety of publicity photos of the era. Here is the Cerdan. The "deceased" notation is something that its former owner added to the piece.
288 This Cerdan is about 7 x 10 and comes from a multisport picture pack. It is often misidentified as a Homogenized Bond premium; really it is just the same art used for another product.
289 A Graziano from the picture pack. Not known as a Homogenized Bond Bread card.
290 A Primo Carnera from the picture pack; same image as on the Homogenized Bond card.
291 1950 Bowman Wild Man Sullivan v. Kilrain
292 1951 Berk Ross Sugar Ray Robinson. One of six boxers in this two-card per panel multisport set, issued in boxed form.
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304 1930s Adam Hats premium, type 1. ACC designation H815.
305 1930s Adam Hats premium, type 2
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319 Another mens clothing issue, this one by Slidewell Bows, a tie-maker.
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321 Now this is an interesting example of how a piece made for one purpose was reused. Bob Murphy's Slidewell Bows advertising piece had a new piece of copy stripped onto it to make this fight poster, which was then blown up and printed. Note the National studio logo at the bottom right that is not in the Slidewell ad piece.
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323 Slim Jim was a brand of Slidewell Bows and several boxers were used to promote it.
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330 1951 Bread For Energy Billy Graham. I really like the proto-Pop Art designs of these labels.
331 1951 Bread For Energy Kid Gavilan
332 1954 Brasserie Motte Cordonnier Laurent Dauthille. The issuer was a French brewery that sponsored a sweepstakes for a trip to its brewery in what was then French colonial Africa.
333 1954 Brasserie Motte Cordonnier Robert Cohen. Cohen was a world champion. I am absolutely certain on the ID of Dauthille and this one but the IDs of the fights in the ensuing images are tentative.
334 1954 Brasserie Motte Cordonnier Laurent Dauthille and Charles Humez
335 1954 Brasserie Motte Cordonnier Dauthille v. Young.
336 1954 Brasserie Motte Cordonnier Gavilan v. Humez
337 1954 Brasserie Motte Cordonnier Villemain v. Nardico
338 1954 Brasserie Motte Cordonnier unknown--anyone got any ideas?
339 1955 Topps Hocus Focus Rocky Marciano small variety. One of the rarest Marciano cards.
340 1955 Topps Hocus Focus Archie Moore.
341 1962 Topps Great Americans John L. Sullivan.
342 1962 Topps Great Americans Jim Corbett
343 This is a 1927 or slightly later set of transfers issued by a German company commemorating the Dempsey-Tunney "Long Count" title fight.
344 Matchcover from Primo Carnera's liquor store in Glendale, California.
345 Tony Canzoneri died in 1959, so his autographs are not easy. This is the only signed exhibit of his I've ever seen.
346 Beau Jack signed exhibit card. Jack was "discovered" shining shoes in Miami hotels as an older man and became a fixture on the autograph circuit after that.
347 1940s snapshot of Jim Jeffries Barn in Burbank, California, site of many local bouts.
348 1950 Safe-T Manuel Ortiz. A Washington DC area regional issue, and very rare.
349 Barney Ross signed contract for 1951 Topps Ringside cards. Ross, a true American hero, was a 3-division champ and won the Silver Star for battlefield heroics on Guadalcanal.
350 OK, it isn't even remotely a card. It is, however, a cool boxing collectible. This slug is a trade stimulator for Jim Jeffries' pool hall and bar in Los Angeles.
351 OK, it isn't a boxing card, but come on, I'm only human. Julie Newmar...
352 1930s Lucky Heart Co. Joe Louis premium.
353 Advertisement for Lucky Heart Co. offering the Louis premium, from The Chicago Defender newspaper on June 5, 1937. Thanks to collector Arthur Rich for his research in finding this ad.
354 1935 Brown & Bigelow Joe Louis premium
355 A variation with a caption. Also 1935.
356 Brown & Bigelow also made fans using the Louis artwork, and sold them to various businesses for use as promotional products.
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368 An Israeli "Cassius Clay issue from the late 1960s. Blank backed and on thin paper.
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379 1965 Golazo by Crack [Argentina]. HOFer Locche shown here.
380 1965 Golazo Perez [IBHOF]
381 1967 Golazo Cassius Clay.
382 1967 Golazo
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446 1972 Ases Del Ring [Mexico] Saldivar, Napoles, Ramos and Olivares
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491 1975 Malaysian issue Ali
492 1975 Malaysian issue Ali
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494 1975 Malaysian issue Ali
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500 1975 Malaysian issue scene from Ali-Foreman
501 1975 Malaysian issue Foreman
502 1975 Malaysian issue Ken Norton
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505 1938 NX5 #11 Kid McCoy. An ultra rare set issued in the Phillipines just before the Japanese invasion. Supposed to be 250 cards; 40 are known.
