UK cigarette card

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Posted By: Geno

Has anyone seen this card before or know anything about it? I picked it up over here in the UK for 5 Pounds (about $9 or so). There are a few UK baseball cards I'm familiar with, but I hadn't ever seen this one in the Price Guide before. The seller said it is a 1934 Hill card. If anybody can identify the player or has any other info, I'd love to hear it!

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Posted By: Max Weder

From the look and width of the stadium (ie football [soccer]field), my guess is that this would be something done as a result of the 1914 World Tour.

Max

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Posted By: Ryan Christoff

That's the identical photo used on a ca. 1915-1918 card issue called "Susini" produced in Cuba. The images are often colorized in the Cuban issue and there is a black border around the photo. There are a number of sports-related cards in the issue, but only 3 baseball.

The good news is the player on your card is widely considered to be HOFer Tris Speaker.

Do you have a scan of the back?

-Ryan

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Posted By: Ryan Christoff

Here's a scan of the Susini card:





-Ryan

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Posted By: Scott Forrest

...look at all the room to the right of Speaker.

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Posted By: Ryan Christoff

Scott,

I agree. Could it be a cricket field they tried to convert to baseball? Look at how the 1st base line extends right through the batter's box.

-Ryan

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Posted By: Scott Forrest

One thing I really like about these Cuban photo cards - you can scan them at very high resolution and make very clear prints. I have one of Jack Johnson hanging on my wall.

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Posted By: Geno

Here's the back of the card...

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Posted By: Eric Eichelkraut

They represent the exact same photo, so one can only speculate where the photo was taken, or what year. I thought it was relatively interesting that a Cuban and British tobacco company produced a card with the same photo, yet with no other discernable likenesses. As far as I was aware, Susini Sportiva cards are dated c. 1916, and the R&J Hill has no date (but does have a card number on front, #48). One difference between my R&J Hill card and the scan shown here, is the backside. Instead of the narative in the middle, that area of my card has "Issued only with London Idol Cigarettes".

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Posted By: Jason/earlybball

Hi Guys,

I just picked this up recently thinking it was a US baseball CDV. After a bit of research however, it turns out it was taken in London by Lawrence Lowe of St. Johns Wood, N.W.

Does anyone have a clue to who they may be or why they are in the UK? I would probably date it around 1874c - do you guys concur? If it is around 1874, could it have something to do with the UK tour between Boston & Philadelphia?

The only info I found on Lowe was that he was in business in SJW in 1868. The backdrop and style of the card look to be late 1860's but those uniforms look to be post Red Stockings (1869). A DeWitt guide I have from the early 1870's advertises almost the exact same Peck & Snyder uniforms as on the 2 gents have. This may add weight to the 1874 date?

Can anyone help? This one intrigues me!

Thanks

Jason

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Posted By: brian p

Since the photo was taken in England, I imagine that these two pictured are actually cricket players. Also, to me the uniforms look odd, even for 19th century baseball standards.

Brian