In 1887 Charles Gross & Company produced one of the most iconic baseball card sets up the era the N690-1 Kalamazoo Bats set. These cards are larger than most tobacco cards and mirror the size of tradition Carte de Vistas 2-1/2 x 4 inches. Gross inserted a single card in each “Kalamazoo Bats 4 for 10 cent” package and labeled the cigars “the best cigar in the world…for the money.” While most 19th-century baseball cards are relatively scarce cards from the N690 Kalamazoo Bats set are truly rare. To date no collector has completed the set and most collectors are fortunate to own a single type of their collection. This card shows Arthur Irwin tagging Al Maul as he slides into base and is graded a 10 by SGC. This card’s front displays absolutely brilliantly with a sharp photo and crisp corners and importantly is an example of one of few two-player cards in the set. Although the card’s reverse does suffer from paper loss occurred in removing the card from an album what is left is truly important and scarce. Most N690-1 cards are blank backed but this Irwin/Maul card shows a rare advertising back with the option for smokers to redeem their baseball pictures for an assortment of prizes. In total this is an exceptional looking card from a very scarce set with an even scarcer back variation. Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE