During the latter part of the 19th Century, advertising trade cards became an effective way for companies to promote their products and services.  "Metamorphic" trade cards were an interesting device, essentially cards that changed form by altering part of the card - in this case, folding the umbrella down over the image covered the man and child with an umbrella, then revealing the two images when the umbrella was folded back upward.  The umbrella was designed with a tab that could be tucked into a die cut at the bottom of the card.

The Old Judge metamorphic cards provide us with a host of interesting information about how collectors could redeem coupons in exchange for what we know to day as N173 cabinets, as well as how they were advertised.  While the card fronts remained consistent, the reverse printing evolved over time, providing Old Judge scholars with valuable information not only about how the cabinets could be obtained, but about how the offer changed over time. The advertising trade cards, then, become a key to our knowledge of the cards, their distribution, and even how the checklists were changed over time.

Presented here is the only known complete set of 13 metamorphic trade cards, containing each of the different back varieties.  This is precisely the set that was used for the scholarly discussion of the cards in the landmark book The Photographic Baseball Cards of Goodwin & Company, each of these cards served as the plate specimens reproduced in the pages of the book. Each posting strong visual appeal, the cards do exhibit a variety of surface wear with some mild creasing here and there, an occasional bit of paper loss, or tears at the die cut tabs.  None of the wear is significant enough to detract from the eye appeal of each card, but the key here is not eye appeal but completeness; building a full set of all the known back variations is quite an undertaking, and to our knowledge has only been done once. An outstanding piece of scholarly research, and a remarkable set of Old Judge-related collectibles.  13 pieces total.