A lot that initially appeared in our second auction nearly ten years ago, the Arbuckle Brothers "History of Sports and Pastimes of all Nations" set was issued in 1893 and featured 50 advertising trade cards with full-color lithography depicting popular sporting activities from a variety of different nations along with descriptions on the reverse. Each 3x5" card also contains an ad for the Arbuckle Bros. Coffee Company of New York City (along with a suggestion that each home have a coffee mill since fresh-ground Arbuckle Bros. coffee tastes better). Arbuckle Brothers trade cards are widely collectible and very popular. The company's trade cards distributed inside packages of Arbuckle Brothers coffee featured a wide variety of subjects, and helped introduce the concept of collecting and trading cards as a means to advertise coffee. The company, run by brothers John and Charles Arbuckle of Scotland, was broken up in the late 1930s, but a new company also called Arbuckle's was started in the 1970s with a direct descendant of the original Arbuckle Brothers. The original Arbuckles, in addition to being marketing geniuses, patented a method of coating roasted coffee beans with eggs and sugar to help seal the flavor into the beans. This method, which yielded a brand called Arbuckle's Ariosa Coffee, is advertised on the back of each of these colorful cards.The cards themselves are beautiful depicting a wide variety of sporting activities, from such familiar nations as the United States, France and England but also such faraway places as Assyria, Tyrol, Patagonia, and (gulp) Canada, illustrating the preferred activities and pastimes in each country (note: "To the Canuck snow and ice are as the breath to his nostrils"). The set grades largely VG/EX with many greater and several lesser with the bulk of the wear related to corners and mild toning of certain cards. The cards are vivid in color and uncreased with unblemished backs. A stunning representation of 19th century advertising sport and lithographic art.