1930s Sociedade Industrial dos Tabacos de Angola Set

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	Sociedade Industrial dos Tabacos de Angola
Year	1930s
Size	1 1/2″ x 2 1/4″
Images	Color
Type	Tobacco
Number in Set	Unknown

1930s Sociedade Industrial dos Tabacos de Angola Overview

The 1928 Sociedade Industrial dos Tabacos de Angola set was a large multi-sport issue covering a number of subjects. Baseball was included through the presence of 25 cards in the set. This 1930s set with the same name, however, is more obscure.

Two baseball cards are known to date from this set – Babe Ruth and Grover Alexander. It also includes the use of color pictures while the 1928 set used black and white images.

An exact date of issue not known but the set is believed to have been produced at some point in the 1930s. The set appears to be some sort of multi-sport set featuring different sports from around the globe. We know that because of the ‘Am. do Norte’ designation, presumably for North America. These types of sets were commonly produced by international tobacco companies.

The cards seem to be extremely rare. While a good amount of examples of the 1928 set are known, there are only a few of these Ruth and Alexander cards believed to be in existence (PSA has graded only one Alexander and two Ruth cards to date).

Confusing Pictures

The most interesting thing about the images is that they are virtually the opposite of what the players are more known for. Ruth is shown pitching and while he, of course, did play that position early in his career, the iconic player is mostly depicted with a bat due to his 714 home runs. Grover Alexander, while a part-time batter, was a Hall of Fame pitcher, so it is odd that he is pictured with a bat.

Odder still is that Ruth is not throwing a baseball, but a football or rugby ball.

Why were the photos so odd? I’ve got a few explanations that you can read here. In short, I believe the Ruth photo is supposed to depict Anderson and vice versa.

1930s Sociedade Industrial dos Tabacos de Angola Checklist

A complete checklist of this set is not currently known. Ruth and Alexander are the only two baseball cards known to date and they are No. 37 and No. 38, respectively.