[forbesrs]

As background, I co-authored the book American Tobacco Cards and have completed the manuscript for another book on American tobacco silks, flannels, and leathers. My specialty is 1900-1920 tobacco.

As a collector I have a ton of reference material, catalogs, etc., as well as the silks and flannels themselves.

I can categorically state that the tobacco flannels were NOT originally produced to be used as pen blotters. They were produced to be used in quilts, decorations, tablecloths, etc., but there was never any intent to produce these for wiping pens. The fact that someone may have at some point used one of the flannels as a pen blotter (while tragic for that example) does not prove anything. I have handled thousands of tobacco flannels and have never seen one example with ink on it in any type of pattern as you would get when wiping a pen.

This falls into the category of urban legend - sounds interesting but has absolutely no basis in fact.

As a note, B18s are flannel, not felt. Flannel & felt are two distinctly different materials. Burdick named the "B" category "Blankets, Rugs, Cloth Items" for the tobacco inserts and premiums which were made out of flannel, plush, and a couple of other types of material. I am not certain whether Burdick originated the term or whether others in the early hobby (1930's) called these items blankets, but Burdick used the term in his American Card Catalog: ("B" is for blanket...). The BF2 Baseball Players are on felt. (non-tobacco).

There is a distinct logical system in the "B" section of the ACC, with divisions made by type of material, whether fringed or not, and size. Not perfect, but a pretty good organization of this category of tobacco collectibles.

Bob Forbes