1888 Allen & Ginter (N28)

Background - Those who participate in the modern collecting hobby have trouble envisioning a civilization without baseball cards. It must be remembered that "tobacco cards" sprang up more than 20 years after the Civil War, and packs of confection containing "gum cards" are within the grand scheme of the collectibles world a very recent development.

During the hobby's prehistory, the American Flag bore fewer stars than it does today. The Wild West was still rugged frontier country, and mass media consisted of little more than big cities' daily newspapers. It was in this environment - in the late 1880s - that the Allen & Ginter Co. of Richmond, Virginia, decided to add a bit of visual spice to the manner in which its product was presented.

The manufacturer elected to modify and substantially enhance the appearance of the 1 ½" by 2 ¾" cardboard" rectangles it had been using to stiffen its 10-packs of hand-rolled cigarettes. The stiffener was a utilitarian object - acting to ensure the integrity of a pack's smokes during packing, shipping and distribution - and it was also the ideal mechanism for placing advertising directly into customers' hands. Allen & Ginter wasn't the first to employ a cardboard device to accomplish these purposes, but the nature of its particular efforts are such that one of them lands squarely in "all-time" territory.

A&G concocted an especially appealing series of 50 cards carrying pictures of the greatest, most legendary sporting icons of the time - including ten of baseball's most prominent stars - and gave the group an imposing title: "The World's Champions." Instead of drab, thick-paper stock, or even the sepia-toned photographs displayed by some competing tobacco firms, the Champions featured beautifully lithographed color images of individual athletes from a variety of disciplines. These charming and sublime illustrations acted as tiny but distinguished portrayals, and undoubtedly served to acquaint smokers with superstars whose achievements were known, but whose faces were wholly unfamiliar. The cards' fronts also proclaimed the company's identity (in blue-inked printing, just below each subject's name) and the backs - in a gesture that may have contributed substantially to the brand-new notion of "collecting a set" - revealed all 50 of the release's topics in the form of a categorized checklist.

Later termed N28 in The American Card Catalog, Allen & Ginter's Champions production came to be a foundation piece for several hobby specialties and, in the process, delivers a significant glimpse of period Americana.

Composition - Although 50 cards comprise the entire N28 release, many enthusiasts consider its 10-player baseball component to be a fully legitimate set in its own right. A&G chose a power-packed lineup to represent the National Pastime in the N28 set: six of the players featured in the group have been enshrined in the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown. These include the time's foremost stars: Mike "King" Kelly, Tim Keefe and the great pitcher John Clarkson, as well as future owners/executives Cap Anson, John Montgomery Ward and Charles Comiskey. The quartet who rounded out the gallery - Charles Bennett, R.L. Caruthers, Capt. John Glasscock and John Mulvey - were other "name" players of the day who merited inclusion.

Although baseball was appropriately emphasized in the N28 set on the basis of popularity, the series was decidedly eclectic in character. Ten pugilists, (including John L. Sullivan), were depicted, as well as seven billiard players, two pool players, ten oarsmen and seven wrestlers. Finally, two key personalities who hold enduring fame, Buffalo Bill Cody and Annie Oakley, are present among the series' quartet of Rifle Shooters. It's easy to see how a consumer of A&G's products could have been easily captivated by the little inserts' stellar content!

Key Features - The N28 set contains no numerically derived rarities as such, because the issue's 50 subjects were presumably printed in equal quantities. The cards' availability in the hobby marketplace, however, acts to defy this logic-based supposition. The baseball subjects are the focus of such keen interest that they certainly seem to be more rare than the boxers or the billiardists, and the ballplayers values, not surprisingly, also imply premium status.

The baseball figures remain in constant, intense demand, and the other athletes have their devotees, too. But what's common to all N28s is the difficulty in obtaining them in a top-quality state of preservation. The set's composition encouraged "collecting," in principle, but a sense for "condition" was still many years away from even the most conscientious set-builder's mindset. "The World's Champions" collectibles, in prime, uncirculated shape are truly gorgeous paper antiques, and those are the most sought-after elements of the exquisite production.

Bottom Line - The N28 set awakened the world to a different means of contact with its idols' images. Its basic premise - lovely characterizations of famous, worthy individuals - set a pace that was quickly followed by contemporary issues of the same type... and led to expansion into other topics. Allen & Ginter issued its own encore presentation adhering to the multi-sport theme (N29, the Champions "2nd Series") and the company's competitors, notably Goodwin and Kimball, quickly followed suit. The era's contemporary imitators of the N28 set validated the premise behind sports-themed trading cards, and the perpetuation of many of its features -not the least of which was the very idea of collecting cards in a systematic matter - underscored its importance.