209. Smiling Girl with Bat and Ball Trade Card

Posted on September 15, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	209. Smiling Girl with Bat and Ball Trade Card
Year	Unknown
Size	5 1/2″ x 7 1/2″
Images	Color
Type	Trade
Number in Set	6 (?)

209. Smiling Girl with Bat and Ball Trade Card Overview

These were trade cards that were used by various businesses. A key feature is that they are somewhat oversized compared to most trade issues, measuring 5 1/2″ wide by 7 1/2″ tall.

These cards served as an advertisement for all sorts of products and included a color lithographic picture of a young child. The most popular card in the set is a sports issue — that of a girl holding a baseball bat and also ready to throw a red-colored ball. To date, that is the only sports card I have seen in this set.

Advertisers printed their business information both on the front and/or the back.

Cards in the set are printed against a white background. Most are printed on a slightly sturdier stock than standard trade cards, which often were printed on thinner cardboard.

More Than Baseball

The baseball 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.

However, while the baseball card is often believed to be a standalone issue, it is clearly part of a set of other cards.

One of those is shown here. It features a boy as a makeshift ‘jockey’ on a rocking horse. To date, I am not certain how many other cards may be part of this set. Several others exist, however.

The title of this particular page is No. 209 Smiling Girl with Bat and Ball Trade Card, as that is the classification given by Keetz. However, that did not take into account the other cards in the series.