231. Baseball Cats (23) Trade Card

Posted on September 6, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	231. Baseball Cats (23) Trade Card
Year	Unknown
Size	3″ x 4 3/8″
Images	Color
Type	Trade
Number in Set	1

231. Baseball Cats (23) Trade Card Overview

Trade Card No. 231 Cats Playing Baseball 23 This was a trade card that promoted various businesses.

The card served as an advertisement for several companies. The picture features a pair of cats playing a game of baseball. One cat is throwing a baseball while another is awkwardly holding a bat. It is also distinguishable from a small number ’23’ in the lower left hand corner. The card has a thin white border around the edges.

Advertisers commonly added their mark in the upper left of the card or along the bottom. Others may have used the reverse, though many of these are found blank-backed. It is not an overly common card, often starting around $30-$50. While it may have been printed on an assortment of stocks, the examples I have observed are not quite as thin as other traditional trade cards from the 1880s. While believed to have been produced around that same timer period, I have not seen any evidence yet that has proven successful in dating them.

This card was numbered separately by noted trade card collector Frank Keetz in his book, “Baseball Advertising Trade Cards, 3rd Edition.” It was a trade card he identified but did not have a printed title on it. Because of that, he catalogued it with a number instead, which is the number in the title shown here.