Not a ball card, but something I've been after for years.
I bought two hardbound books that were in England, and I've been waiting for them to arrive. One is a 1956 edition of Handbook To World Index, by the Cartophilic Society of Great Britain, book #282 of 500. It is Cartophilic Reference Book #22, and it updates the World Index... think of expanding our Standard Baseball Catalog to cover all cards, sports and non-sports. On page 101 they're correcting the spelling of 5 of the Old Mill red border series 6 cards, and adding a new one to the list. There's a listing for Kalamazoo Bats cards.
But the second book has what I've been after. It is the Part II Handbook for British Cigarette Card Issues 1920 - 1940. It is book #144 of the special numbered and autographed edition of 500 copies. It's signed by the authors, Dorothy Bagnall and E. C. Wharton-Tigar. He was an amazing fellow, here's a link to a short bit about him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Wharton-Tigar
Realistically, he has had the most influence on card collecting of anyone. What he put together served Jefferson Burdick as he compiled the American Card Catalog.
So I'm quite tickled to have Edward Wharton-Tigar's autograph, finally.
