Were T215 Pirates distributed?

[tedzan]

Several here have mentioned that the "Pirate" cards were printed in England.

Not so....the "Pirate" cards are "cousins" of the 1910-12 T215 cards that were printed in NYC at American Lithographic.

How many cards were shipped to the W.D. & H.O. Wills Tobacco Co. in England for inclusion in their "Pirate" cigarette packs we will never know.

Interestingly, Wills Tobacco started inserting cards in their cigarette packs in 1887. A popular set of cards were included in their packs in 1895
depicting Ships & Sailors that were printed in England.

During WWI, they had a colorful 50-card set of Generals printed in England for inclusion in their cigarette packs.

And in the 1930's, they had a high-quality, photographic-like color card set of "Football" (soccer) players included in their tobacco products.


TED Z

[Sean]

Originally Posted by tedzan

Several here have mentioned that the "Pirate" cards were printed in England.

Not so....the "Pirate" cards are "cousins" of the 1910-12 T215 cards that were printed in NYC at American Lithographic.

How many cards were shipped to the W.D. & H.O. Wills Tobacco Co. in England for inclusion in their "Pirate" cigarette packs we will never know.

Interestingly, Wills Tobacco started inserting cards in their cigarette packs in 1887. A popular set of cards were included in their packs in 1895
depicting Ships & Sailors that were printed in England.

During WWI, they had a colorful 50-card set of Generals printed in England for inclusion in their cigarette packs.

And in the 1930's, they had a high-quality, photographic-like color card set of "Football" (soccer) players included in their tobacco products.


TED Z

Ted, were the backs also printed in New York?

[tedzan]

Sean

I tend to think that the "Pirate" backs and the "Pirate" packs were printed in England. So, we shipped to Wills Tobacco blank-backs of T215-type cards.

This would make more sense to me, since the "Pirate" Non-Sports Asian cards were most likely printed in England.

However, that contradicts my thinking that these recent finds of very sharp condition "Pirate" cards originated straight from the American Litho. Co.

Therefore, I gues I'm uncertain where the backs were printed.

Anyhow, those are my opinions.


.






TED Z

[Sean]

Well, we certainly agree that these Pirates were never distributed in packs.

[Exhibitman]

Wills also made a number of high quality litho boxing sets in the era that were in packs in the UK so they were capable of churning out the cards themselves.

[buymycards]

Lew Lipsett's book mentions that all of the known Pirate baseball cards have the green back. I noticed that all of the Pirate bb cards in thread have green backs and a closed cigarette pack.

Has anyone seen a Pirate baseball card with a back color other than green, or a back style other than the closed pack?

Notice the "magnums" back. It is noticeably larger than the other backs.

An interesting feature of the Pirate Non-baseball cards is that some of them have gold leaf on the front of the card, similar to the T205's. The cards I have pictured were purchased from a seller in China.

Rick

[Leon]

Originally Posted by buymycards

Lew Lipsett's book mentions that all of the known Pirate baseball cards have the green back. I noticed that all of the Pirate bb cards in thread have green backs and a closed cigarette pack.

Has anyone seen a Pirate baseball card with a back color other than green, or a back style other than the closed pack?

Notice the "magnums" back. It is noticeably larger than the other backs.

An interesting feature of the Pirate Non-baseball cards is that some of them have gold leaf on the front of the card, similar to the T205's. The cards I have pictured were purchased from a seller in China.

Rick

Have only ever seen one type of Pirate baseball card back.