1916 Morehouse Baking (M101-4/M101-5 and D352) Set

Posted on September 7, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	Morehouse Baking M101-4/M101-5 / D352
Year	1916
Size	1 5/8″ x 3″
Images	Black and White
Type	Bakery
Number in Set	200

1916 Morehouse Baking M101-4/M101-5 Overview

The M101-4 series is one of the more well-known of the M101 Sporting News issues and includes smaller, traditional trading cards. The cards feature black and white images of players along with the name, position, team, and card number on the bottom. The M101-5 series is similar, but has some different players.

The cards are grouped in the M101-4 and M101-5 sets by most collectors. However, the American Card Catalog classifies this as the D352 set as a bakery issue.

While the sets are often called Sporting News sets, numerous advertisers used these cards in their own sets. One of those was Morehouse Baking.

These cards are exactly like the regular M101-4 and M101-5 Sporting News cards but the difference is identified on the back. Instead of a Sporting News advertisement, there is one for Morehouse Baking. The ad read as follows:

“Boys and Girls – Here’s your chance to get a complete set of 200 of the best ball players in the big leagues. These photos will be wrapped in Sunlight 10 cent Bread. When you get fifty, with no two alike, you may keep the photos but show them at our office and get a dandy baseball and bat or a nice long jump rope FREE.”

The Morehouse Baking name is on the back as is their address at Office 7, Mill Street in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Like other companies utilizing the M101-4 and M101-5 cards for their own purposes, Morehouse Baking offered a promotion. While 200 cards were advertised as being in the set, their offer was a little different from others requiring collectors to find an entire set. Instead, Morehouse Baking would give a baseball and bat or a jumprope to the person collecting 50 different cards. This was a local promotion as collectors had to bring the cards to their office to show them (collectors were able to keep the cards).

About the M101-4 and M101-5 Sets

These cards utilized the same pictures and checklist of the M101-4 and M101-5 set.

Both issues were created by Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn produced the set then peddled the issue to various companies for their own distribution. It’s usually called the Sporting News set but that isn’t really accurate.

While Sporting News did use the cards as evidenced by their advertising backs found on some, they were only one company that did so. Many other companies, including Morehouse Baking, distributed these cards as well.

You can find more on the various companies using these cards here.

1916 Morehouse Baking M101-4/M101-5 Checklist

This checklists below are from the M101-4 Sporting News/Mendelsohn set and the M101-5 set. Both checklists are provided because Morehouse Baking cards have been found with cards from both sets. So essentially, these are possible Morehouse Baking cards.

M101-4 Checklist