Latest Pickups

[G1911]

Was gifted this card yesterday, which was very exciting. I have poured a ton of time into trying to decipher N332 and researching it, and little time collecting it as a set as a complete set is effectively impossible and the images have faded so much on most of the cards. Thompson is only my second N332 I actually own.

Mervine Thompson is a guy I don’t know anything about. He is credited as beating Pat Killen in modern sources, but apparently "won" after Killen was DQ’d when his fans stormed the ring after he knocked Thompson down several times and period sources mostly say Mervine lost. I am unable to find another picture of him, only several copies of this photograph on his N332 card. Thompson is described as black in several sources I found, which I did not guess from the picture. An 1895 supplement describes him as “more powerful and more muscular than any of the colored pugilists since 1810”, which seems very difficult to correlate to his ring record or actual performance when Godfrey and Jackson had already had their primes. I always have a fun time with cards of the ‘randoms’ as it gives me a research project and fleshes out the boxing world beyond the bigger names of the time. “The Cleveland Thunderbolt” is an awesome nickname for a prize fighter.

[sthoemke]

Interesting article about Mervine Thompson, 1883.

[refz]

Sugar Ray!

[G1911]

6 more Red Crosses for the t219 master set build. Conley and Walsh are dupes but at a price I couldn't resist, hoping to trade them eventually. At 165/200 for the T219 set, with only 1 Miners Extra (Jack Twin Sullivan) and 1 Honest Long Cut Green (Willie Lewis) to go. Probably will never finish Red Cross, but I'd like to get as close as I can. With T218 finished, T219 and C52 feel like holes in the collection I have to fill.

[G1911]

159/250 in T225-1 now with this O'Leary Surbrug no factory back. A couple of the backs are difficult, but the greater difficulty is just finding a pool of cards to go through and pick what I need, as great confusion and pedantry over the 10 backs limits me to mostly trolling eBay listings with back scans to find the cards I still need. Thankfully there's no Jack Johnson so this is a cheap master build if I ever finish it.

[Exhibitman]

I have liquidated nearly all of the T225s I owned. I am looking to rebuild in higher grade with just the cards I really like, aesthetically speaking. Maybe 5 or so.

I notice that a few of the T219 Red Cross cards have wormholes similar to what you see with Cuban issues. I've had a few of them too over the years. I don't recall seeing those with other T boxing cards. I wonder if it is something about the storage: perhaps a large % of the RC backs originated in the same 'buggy' hoard?

What're you missing in T219 RC?

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I have liquidated nearly all of the T225s I owned. I am looking to rebuild in higher grade with just the cards I really like, aesthetically speaking. Maybe 5 or so.

I notice that a few of the T219 Red Cross cards have wormholes similar to what you see with Cuban issues. I've had a few of them too over the years. I don't recall seeing those with other T boxing cards. I wonder if it is something about the storage: perhaps a large % of the RC backs originated in the same 'buggy' hoard?

What're you missing in T219 RC?

Seems to me that most of the RC's in circulation are from a tiny number of original finds/collections/sources. Unlike a lot of the T sets where the rare ones come up 1 or 2 at a time, it's always seemed to me that the RC's have originated in bulk sources. Lithographers sure went to a lot of work for a set with a small production run to recrop everything. Won’t ever finish it, but it’s a fun ride to come as close as practicable. Johnson ain't worth it unless I manage to round up the 49 others, and that's probably not happening unless I luck into a hoard. Sometimes you get lucky


Still hunting for:

Honest Long Cut Green Back
Willie Lewis

Miners Extra
Jack Sullivan

Red Cross
Matty Baldwin
Patsy Brannigan
Young Corbett
Leach Cross
Al Delmont
Dave Deshler
Young Donahoe
Jim Driscoll
Abe Goodman
Battling Hurley
Joe Jeanette
Jack Johnson
Al Kaufman
Frank Klaus
Patsey Kline
Sam Langford
Harry Lewis
Young Loughrey
Johnny Marto
Honey Mellody
Owen Moran
Battling Nelson
Fighting Dick Nelson
Young Nitchie
Phila. Jack O’Brien
Tommy O’Keefe
Tommy O’Toole
Unk Russell
Jim Stewart
Harry Stone
Jack Sullivan
Mike Sullivan
Ad Wolgast

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by G1911

Was gifted this card yesterday, which was very exciting. I have poured a ton of time into trying to decipher N332 and researching it, and little time collecting it as a set as a complete set is effectively impossible and the images have faded so much on most of the cards. Thompson is only my second N332 I actually own.

Mervine Thompson is a guy I don’t know anything about. He is credited as beating Pat Killen in modern sources, but apparently "won" after Killen was DQ’d when his fans stormed the ring after he knocked Thompson down several times and period sources mostly say Mervine lost. I am unable to find another picture of him, only several copies of this photograph on his N332 card. Thompson is described as black in several sources I found, which I did not guess from the picture. An 1895 supplement describes him as “more powerful and more muscular than any of the colored pugilists since 1810”, which seems very difficult to correlate to his ring record or actual performance when Godfrey and Jackson had already had their primes. I always have a fun time with cards of the ‘randoms’ as it gives me a research project and fleshes out the boxing world beyond the bigger names of the time. “The Cleveland Thunderbolt” is an awesome nickname for a prize fighter.

He does have a small section in Nat Fleischer's 1st "Black Dynamite" volume, but with very little useful information. It does mention he had a better reputation as a wrestler and general athlete, then as a boxer, but not really any info to back that up either.

[sthoemke]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

He does have a small section in Nat Fleischer's 1st "Black Dynamite" volume, but with very little useful information. It does mention he had a better reputation as a wrestler and general athlete, then as a boxer, but not really any info to back that up either.

News articles mentioning Mervine Thompson:

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=q&hs=1&r=1&r...t-txIN--------

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by sthoemke

News articles mentioning Mervine Thompson:

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=q&hs=1&r=1&r...t-txIN--------

That’s a great batch of info. Had no idea a proposed Mervine Thompson vs. John L. bout was a big deal at the time. Shades of Dempsey vs. Wills, but not quite as elevated nationally.

[sthoemke]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

That’s a great batch of info. Had no idea a proposed Mervine Thompson vs. John L. bout was a big deal at the time. Shades of Dempsey vs. Wills, but not quite as elevated nationally.

More from the LOC, but the results are tougher to dig through (by page, not article):

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/s...nced&sort=date