[squelch]

In 2016 the 1st Annual Canadian Baseball History Conference was held in St Mary's, ON Canada. St. Mary's is the home of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. I presented a paper on this card set at the that initial conference.

When I began my research, my first move was to contact Imperial Tobacco. Their head office was (probably still is) in Montreal. They would not discuss any promotions with their products. I assume this is because they are in great fear of lawsuits.

That same year (1912) as the baseball cards, Imperial Tobacco put out the c57 Hockey Card Set. That set is very similar to the baseball card set with numbers on the backs and absolutely no clue as to the producer.

That c57 set is very well known in Canada. The cards came out of Derby Cigarettes. Those packages are very hard to find. There is a metal reproduction of the Derby Cig. Pkg. on eBay.

I would assume that Derby Cigarette Packs would have also held the c46 baseball cards.

In those days, baseball was at least as popular in Canada as was hockey. There were more baseball leagues in Canada than there are teams today.

I regret that I have been unable to find a definitive source (other than Burdick) to attribute the cards to ITC. However, I have never encountered any doubt as to the set's origin.