Inaugural January 2019 Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/27/2019
The Duke N99 Battle Scenes series is a beautifully artistic take on a brutally ugly war. The Civil War had just wrapped up a little over 20 years earlier and was a popular topic to revisit in many advertising campaigns throughout the US. It was very much so on Duke tobacco advertising with a number of sets devoted to Civil War heroes and this set, picturing scenes of the Civil War. This set depicts numerous cards of generals on horseback, charging into battle, muskets blazing. Also pictured are the Monitor and Merrimac in their epic battle. The 25 card set can be found with either Honest Long Cut or Gail and Ax back advertising, neither of which commands any significant premium. The backs detail the battle depicted on the front with main combatants listed as well as a narrative of the events of the battle. The bottom half of the card checklists the 25 cards in the set in a pyramid of titles.
The condition breakdown is as follows: The Federal Advance SGC50, Foote Supporting SGC40, McClellan At Antietam SGC40, Thomas Reinforced SGC30, Heroism of Colonel Rogers SGC30, Lee at Malvern Hill SGC20, and Fredericksburgh, VA SGC10. While the technical conditions of some of these cards is lower, you can see from the large photos that some appear to be in much better condition. The grading companies are notoriously difficult on the larger format Duke cards
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