Lot # 75: Beautiful 1888 Scrapps Uncut Pair - William Robinson/Bill Gleason - SGC EX 60 - only known example!

Category: 19th Century

Starting Bid: $250.00

Bids: 23 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed
Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "Fall, 2014 Premier Auction",
which ran from 10/10/2014 4:00 AM to
11/2/2014 8:43 AM



It was in a 2005 auction catalog that Rob Lifson of Robert Edward Auctions came clean about the origin of the “Scrapps Tobacco” name. “The responsibility for this erroneous attribution we must admit falls squarely on the shoulders of Robert Edward Auctions’ President Robert Lifson.” Lifson then proceeds to explain that in 1974 while working on the Sports Collectors Bible he was fact-checking with hobby pioneer Dr. Lawrence Kurzok. When Kurzok verified that the cards were “Scrapps ” Lifson interpreted this as “Scrapps Tobacco.” The issue was published in the Sports Collectors Bible this way and has been known by that moniker ever since. The reality is that no “Scrapps Tobacco” brand has ever existed and that the word “scrapps” was merely a catch-all term used to describe die-cut paper cards meant to be glued into 19th Century scrapbooks a popular hobby of the time. Perhaps these cards can provide a clue. Two separate lots each containing an attached pair of “Scrapps Tobacco” cards. These cards represent two of the only three such attached pairs we have ever encountered two of the only three such pairs our research has been able to uncover. Quite an incredible find representing two pair one of Hall of Fame Wolverines Ned Hanlon and Sam Thompson and the other of the Browns’ Bill Gleason and Yank Robinson. Each card is spectacular in appearance (though the Hanlon/Thompson card is graded SGC FAIR 20 due to two tiny pinholes at Sam Thompson’s shoulder. The cards are intact the die cuts and tabs still remaining. It is a die cut tabs on the Robinson/Gleason pair that to us was most interesting. Printed on one of the tabs is “H. D. S. & Co ” perhaps in reference to the firm that produced or distributed the cards. Our research led us to “H. D. Smith & Co. ” owned

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