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1887 N172 Goodwin and Company
8 April 2007
While Allen & Ginter were busy releasing exciting tobacco cards, competition in the tobacco market was growing at an extremely rapid rate. Not to be outdone, several additional cigarette manufacturers were also issuing cards. One, the Goodwin and Company, issued a sepia-colored baseball set promoting their Old Judge and Gypsy Queen cigarettes.
It’s known as the enormous N172 series. This was the first set the featured baseball players exclusively. There are six different printings expanding over four years extending from 1887 to 1890; three in 1887 and one each in 1888, 1889, and 1890. There are more than 500 known players depicted with as many as 17 different cards each.
The thick, sepia-toned, tintype cards depict a studio photograph of a baseball player, surrounded by a white border, pasted to a thick, blank-back piece of cardboard. Printed on the fronts of almost all of these cards are the words, "OLD JUDGE Cigarette Factory" and "GOODWIN & CO. New York." Here is how Jeff Kurowski described this important set:
In 1887 - over 100 years ago- the first nationally distributed baseball cards were issued by Goodwin & Co. of New York City. The 1-1/2" by 2-1/2" cards feature posed studio photographs glued to stiff cardboard. They were inserted into cigarette packages with such exotic brand names as Old Judge, Gypsy Queen and Dog’s Head. Poses were formal, with artificial backgrounds and bare-handed players fielding balls supended on strings to simulate action.
Included are a number of varied cards making it probably impossible to knowingly complete the N172 set. For example, some of the cards were numbered, while others were not. Renowned throughout the hobby for this strange numbering system, Bob Wilson of Baseball Hobby News, described this wonderful set:
There were four types of cards in this wonderful set. The largest grouping was unnumbered. But, a second division was numbered, up into the 500s, in script in the upper right hand corner, or at the bottom where the number and the player’s name and team appeared in italics. A third small grouping (rare) had the player’s name or nickname only in fair sized reverse italics running diagonally across, or at the bottom of the photo . . . The fourth series was the highlight of the entire N172 offering - St. Louis Browns World Champions of 1885-6-7-8. These cards included the entire team and were all portraits in a light, classy, sepia tone.
In making matters worse, some cards show the player’s name in print, while others show it handwritten. Many contain a date of manufacturer, whereas others do not. The Goodwin and Company N172 is also renowned for containing the first minor league cards ever printed. Represented are players from the Western League (which later became the American League), or minor league.
Even players from the Player’s League (formed in 1890 to protest against owners and officials), were represented in the N172 set. Also, while some players are shown on more than a dozen cards, one series contains several subsets. They include two-player cards, "Brown Champs", and players in suits sporting dotted ties. To summarize, almost 4,000 different N172 cards are known to exist today.
To learn more about the N172 Goodwin and Company baseball set, including a more detail understanding of the four different series, continue here . . .
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on April 10th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
[…] Issued in 1887 by Goodwin and Company is the N174 Gypsy Queen baseball card set. Issued in two sizes, with the large cards measuring 2" by 3-1/2" and the small cards at 1-1/2" by 2-1/2", these cards are similar to the Gypsy Queen series in the N172 set. […]