Posted By:
bruce dorskind
Gentleman
Before you limit your discussion of "most incredible collection ever,"
we suggest that you consider that "ever" is a very, very long time.
Long before Jim Copeland knew what a baseball card was or
Barry Halper obtained his first Yankke autograph, there were a select
cadre of very serious and intellectually curious gentlemen who built, what
we consider, truly world class collections.
At the very top of our list would be the wonderful collection
of World Tobacco cards built by the late Sir Edward Wharton-Tigar.
Sir Edward, the heir to a South African mining fortune, was the
author of the five volume World Tobacco Index.
Over a 40 year period, beginning in the 1930's, he traveled the
world and corresponded with collectors such as Charles Bray,
Jefferson Burdick ( American Card Catalog) and Goodwin Goldfaden.
We were fortunate enough to spend a number of evenings with
Sir Edward and his lovely wife both in our New York residence
and his London town house.
His flat had a entire floor dedicated to rare baseball tobacco cards.
Said collection included more than 4000 Old Judges, 200 Kalamazoo
Bats, 6 Kalazmazzo Bat Cabinets , 400 Ramlys and 5 Just So Chewing
Tobacco... and then there were ten thousand 20th century US
tobacco cards (including two Wagners)
Whilst Sir Edward traded regularly with a select few prominent collectors,
the vast majority of his holdings were donated to the British Museum.
His contribution to the hobby as well as his incredible generosity will
forever be etched in our memory and in hobby lore. His was certainly
amongst the greatest collections ever.
Bruce Dorskind
America's Toughest Want List