H818 Spaldings Sports Players Die Cut Set of (5) Trade Cards

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/28/2020

Trade cards in the latter quarter of the quarter of the 19th century were all the rage. The printed medium for advertising became popular in the 1860's/1870's and really took off toward the end of the 19th century. Trade cards were issued for all manner products from snake oil remedies to oysters to tobacco to household goods. Trade cards advertised the schedules for steamship lines and had months of the year on them. There were trade cards with Electoral College results from presidential elections. Trade cards took on all manner of sizes and shapes. Initially the rectangular trade card was used and companies sold those blank 'sets' of trade cards to other companies to have their advertising printed upon. As time went by, companies looked for ways for their trade cards to stand out.

This set of trade cards from A.G. Spaulding & Brothers Sporting Goods were die cut to the shape of the sporting figure on the front in an effort to help entice people to buy the sporting goods equipment from Spaulding--one of the two or three main sporting goods companies of the 1870's/1880's. Albert Goodwill Spaulding created a sporting empire that crafted high quality sporting goods from leather, cloth, wood or whatever was required for the amateur and professional sports enthusiast alike.

This set of (5) Spaulding die cut trade cards pictures beautifully illustrated sporting figures from the sports of Football, Golf, Bicycling, Baseball and Tennis. The fronts of the figures picture the player using the Spaulding goods in a pose for their sport. The backs of the cards were supposed to have a paper tab adhered where the figure could be stood up by folding back the paper tab. In this lot, only the golfing figure has the tab still intact. The figures are most commonly found missing these tabs. This lot of (5) figures range in condition (minus missing tabs) from Good to Very Good condition and are mostly clean with just some wear where tabs were and other surface issues. In the die cutting process, most of the figures have smaller pieces that are often found missing such as the bat for the baseball player or the heads for most all the figures. The cards in this lot maintain their integrity with all of these pieces and display very nicely.