1919 Mayfair Novelty Co generic strip cards

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Posted By: Zach Rice

Hey all, I recently was able to purchase the three cards below from the 1919 Mayfair Novelty Company strip card set. I've tried to do a little research on the set but really couldn't come up with much. What really interested me was that though generic most if not all in the set are drawings of a certain player and its pretty obvious on some. The one in the middle with the "1919 Mayfair Novelt Company" in red at the top of the card apparently has some type of icon in the shape of a diamond on the back of it. I think i'm on the right track by saying these possibly game from some kind of baseball playing game ? Below is the scan of the three I recently bought. The card to the left, the batter with red socks, looks very much like Cobb. I've searched through a number of pictures of Cobb and in most he is shown in a very similar if not exact batting pose. The second card or the middle card is based off of an image of Wagner, or so it seems. The images jumps out at you right when you see it and you just know its him from the big nose and ackward and bulky build. The final card to the far right I recognized as being Joe Jackson. The same photo is used on his 1914 Polo Grounds minus the hat. I also included a scan of a card from the same set labeled as shortstop. I think this is the most obvious of them all, it's the same image used on Benders E93 card except it is reversed and a full shot of his body, not cropped. Can anyone else give any info on the set ? I find the set very interesting and had fun trying to match photos to the cards.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

The bottom two are in tai chi class.

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Posted By: fkw

I think the set is called W552 (Baseball Position Drawings 10 in the set). By the look of the cards, it looks like there may be more than one set. I see them on eBay from time to time, sometimes in complete strips. They would be in greater demand if they would have just put a players name on them. Oh well.

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Posted By: David McDonald

Neat cards, kind of D304-ish. "Wagner" looks like he's swinging a two-by-four.

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Posted By: Marty

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Here is the group.

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Posted By: Zach Rice

Well now looking at a gallery of the W552 set thats what they look like but I cant find any with the red wording at the top of the card and they are supposed to have blank backs, the one that I said looks like Wagner has a diamond printed on the back. The First Base player in the set looks exactly like Hugh Jennings in his famous jumping pose. They're neat cards.

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Posted By: Marty

11 of the cards have this back, including the one that says Mayfair.

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Posted By: leon

Some do have the yellow diamond on back and some are blank backed....regards

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Posted By: Zach Rice

Leon or anyone-have you seen W552 with "1919 Mayfair Novelty Co" in red ink at the top of a card ? I'm assuming someone must have or else the date of the set would be unknown which it isn't.

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Posted By: fkw

Martys pic has one. Looks like bottom right corner card "Batter" (Wagner) has "HT 1919 by MAYFAIR NOVELTY CO.". And the one at bottom left "First Base" has "COPY RI"

[GehrigFan]

Came across this thread and was curious if anyone had identified any additional players images used on this set?

I can confirm that they come with either plain backs or the orange diamond checkered pattern on the back. The diamond-backed cards seem to all be from Mayfair Novelty Co., but I can't confirm if any blank backed cards have Mayfair info on them since the archived images are disabled in the thread on the new board. Leon's website has the best full Mayfair text I've found.

There was an auction of a 15-card strip (3 cards wide and 5 cards down) that didn't have the positions listed, so it is either a third variation or a proof sheet of some sort.

Also, there are two varieties of the Pitcher card, one spelled incorrectly as "Picher".

I was about to toss these in a junk box, and they may still belong there, but now that I see the similarities to real players, they have me a little intrigued. Heck, my "Fielder" card may be the closest to a Shoeless Joe card I'll own for awhile! :-)

[fkw]

Here is the full sheet/set


1919 W552-1

[novakjr]

Found this sheet of 15 while searching online. Seems quite different. Any thoughts?

http://sep10.hugginsandscott.com/cgi...l?itemid=25672

And these ones were in a strip of 10.
http://www.auctionscc.com/?showpage=...80/&i=72&p=4#a

[GehrigFan]

Yes, that is the one I would probably consider a proof sheet, but if more were found, would probably call it a their variation. It can get a little tricky on something like this, issued in sheets or strips, as to what is an uncut strip (of a new variation) and what is a proof sheet!

[GehrigFan]

Also note that the images are the same, but the Team letters are reversed on this one - another point in favor of it being a proof or test, most likely.

Originally Posted by novakjr

Found this sheet of 15 while searching online. Seems quite different. Any thoughts?

http://sep10.hugginsandscott.com/cgi...l?itemid=25672

And these ones were in a strip of 10.
http://www.auctionscc.com/?showpage=...80/&i=72&p=4#a

[Butch7999]

That, plus the fact that most of the captions don't make sense for the images -- "catchers" and "shortstops" are lefties, "fielder" is gloveless, "center field" is running bases, "running base" appears to be circling clockwise -- besides which the Wagnerian "batter" seems to have his back to the plate.

The captions might make sense on the H&S version -- the captionless sheet of 15 with the reversed letters -- if the whole sheet was reversed, like this:


Seems like a whole series of screw-ups between the art department, pre-press, and the actual printing.