Auction #18 - October 2024
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.
This complete set of (25) N99 Battle Scenes is the finest we have had the opportunity to offer generally in VGEX to EXMT condition and extremely clean. The cards are bright with strong black-printed backs and nice corners. There are (18) Gail & Ax backs and (7) Honest Long Cut backs. This set would dovetail nicely into a world class 19th century tobacco collection.
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