The 1911 Stevens Firearm issue featured members of the 1911 Philadelphia Athletics printed onto ink blotters that advertised the Stevens brand of firearm and included a space at the bottom of the card where a retailer or salesperson could write or stamp their name. Since the cards were intended to be ink blotters, they are rarely found in better than poor condition and are usually covered on front or back with ink. The Standard Catalog indicates that eight subjects were known but that other players were likely to have been issued - one of which was Eddie Collins, an example of which we sold in the Spring of 2016, just before the Standard Catalog produced its final issue. As a result, the Collins we sold eight years ago remains uncatalogued.
This example features Home Run Baker, and was catalogued in that final issue. Graded FAIR 1.5 by Beckett, the card exhibits overall wear and some small markings at the edges, but does not suffer from the heavy scribbling and ink spots typically seen on the reverse of these blotters. As a result, this is one of the finer-known examples of this very rare issue, in this case featuring a Hall of Famer.