1916 Holmes to Homes Bread Set (M101-5)

Posted on September 9, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	Holmes to Homes Bread M101-5
Year	1916
Size	1 5/8″ x 3″
Images	Black and White
Type	Bakery
Number in Set	200

1916 Holmes to Homes Bread (M101-5) Overview

The M101-5 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 M101-4 set is similar, but has some different players.

While the sets are often called Sporting News sets, numerous advertisers used these cards in their own sets. One of those was Holmes to Homes Bread.

These cards are exactly like the regular M101-5 Sporting News cards but the difference is identified on the back. Instead of a Sporting News advertisement, there is one for Holmes to Homes Bread.

Holmes to Homes Bread has a unique advertisement on the back with a picture of a baker, the Holmes to Homes name, and a description of the cards. It states there are 200 cards in the set comprising what they call ‘Baseball’s Hall of Fame.’ The cards, the ad continued, were given away with the company’s bread products.

In addition, the company also had a promotion surrounding the cards. Anyone collecting the entire set could redeem it for baseball uniforms, gloves, and catcher’s equipment for a full team (of ten). The ad even says ‘etc.’ at the end, indicating there would be more in addition to that. Completing the set wouldn’t be easy, though. The ad stated that only one card was included inside a loaf of bread.

About the M101-5 Set

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

The M101-5 set was 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 Holmes to Holmes, distributed these cards as well.

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