Friday, July 02, 2010

Collection: N28 1887 Allen & Ginter- A Couple of Billiard Players

With the Allen & Ginter frenzy in full swing I thought I would add to the madness by sharing some of my vintage N28's here. This is a set I have been working on for many years- longer than I can remember. In total, it consist of 50 cards and features everything from Baseball players to oarsman, boxers and even billiard players. My own, yet to be completed set, is missing just 7 cards. Unfortunately, they are the most expensive ones- the Baseball players. On the plus side, I really don't worry about condition. So, I can keep the overall cost of my endeavor down. Still, some of the cards are fairly sharp, especially those considered commons.

Above are two cards in my set. They are billiard players William Sexton and Maurice Vignaux. These two masters knew each other well. In 1875 Frenchman Vignaux won the Collender Challenge Cup in America. As was expected at the time, the trophy would stay stateside, but Maurice had other plans. He left for France with the trophy in tow. Expectedly, this caused quite a stir. So, William Sexton was tapped to head to Europe to reclaim it. In 1876 they finally faced off, and under some controversy, Sexton lost. Till his final days he always believed he was robbed. In fact, American expatriates in France thought the same thing and made up a purse to reward him for his efforts. Only after being convinced that no Frenchman contributed did he accept the prize.

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