1903-04 Breisch-Williams Set (E107)

‘It’s In The Details’
Title | E107 Breisch-Williams |
Year | 1903-04 |
Size | 1 1/2″ x 2 5/8″ |
Images | Black and White |
Type | Candy/Caramel |
Number in Set |
150 |
E107 Breisch-Williams Overview
One of the rarest and most expensive E-card issues is the 1903-1904 E107 Breisch-Williams set. The release is one of the earlier known candy cards as those didn’t really become popular until later in the decade.
With black and white images on the front, it lacks the color of many candy card issues. Player names and teams are also on the front and the backs can either be found entirely blank, with a short message (“One of a hundred and fifty prominent Baseball players”), or sometimes with that same message and a Breisch-Williams stamp over top of it. Versions with the stamp are the most difficult to find. The various E107 backs are shown here.
Many of the pictures will be familiar to pre-war collectors as they were featured in other sets. One example of that is the T206 release. Shown here are pictures of cards for Cleveland’s Bill Bradley.
The striking pictures help make this truly an elite set, even using black and white imagery. All cards are rare and the set is known for what are believed to be several key rookie cards of players, including Christy Mathewson.
Mathewson did appear in the the 1901 Police Gazette Supplements set as well as the 1903 Sporting Life Cabinets set, but those are often disregarded as they are more pictures than traditional baseball ‘cards.’
An E107 Breisch-Williams checklist can be approached in one of two ways. 150 cards are advertised on the backs of each card, but to date, only 148 (not including team variations) have been discovered. However, several players have team variations and if you count all of those, the number exceeds 150. The 150 card number is clearly the number of players featured and not the number of actual cards including the variations.
Type I vs. Type II
A little known fact about this impressive issue is that there are actually two different types. Type I represents the ‘regular’ cards in this set.
A second, significantly rarer type, includes slightly different cards. Type IIs are on a thicker card stock and are slightly smaller (more narrow). There may have previously been some debate if these were actually different cards but they no doubt are as some of the print in the border area indicating a player’s name and team are different.
E107 Breisch-Williams Checklist
These cards are exceedingly rare. SGC has generally only graded a few copies of each.
Players with the team variations are, as identified by Old Cardboard: Anderson, Dahlen, Dillon, Doyle, Elberfeld, Gleason, Kittredge, Lee, Lush, McGuire, Poole, Powell, and Thoney.
- Whitey Alpermann
- John Anderson
- Jimmy Barret
- Ginger Beaumont
- Fred Beck
- Jake Beckley
- Harry Bemis
- Chief Bender
- Bill Bernhard
- Harry Bey
- Bill Bradley
- Fritz Buelow
- Nixey Callahan
- Scoops Carey
- Charley Carr
- Bill Carrick
- Doc Casey
- Frank Chance
- Jack Chesbro
- Boileryard Clark
- Fred Clarke
- Jimmy Collins
- Duff Cooley
- Tommy Corcoran
- Bill Coughlan
- Lou Criger
- Lave Cross
- Monte Cross
- Bill Dahlen
- Tom Daly
- George Davis
- Harry Davis
- Ed Delahanty
- Gene DeMont
- Pop Dillon
- Bill Dinneen
- Mike Donlin
- Red Donahue
- Pat Donovan
- Patsy Dougherty
- Bill Klondike Douglass
- Jack Doyle
- Lew Drill
- Jack Dunn
- Kid Elberfeld
- Duke Farrell
- Hobe Ferris
- Elmer Flick
- Buck Freeman
- Bill Freil
- Dave Fultz
- Ned Garvin
- Bill Gilbert
- Harry Gleason
- Kid Gleason
- John Gochnauer
- Danny Green
- Noodles Hahn
- Bill Hallman
- Ned Hanlon
- Dick Harley
- Jack Harper
- Topsy Hartsel
- Emmet Heidrick
- Charlie Hemphill
- Weldon Henley
- Charlie Hickman
- Harry Howell
- Frank Isabel
- Fred Jacklitsch
- Charlie Jones
- Fielder Jones
- Addie Joss
- Mike Kahoe
- Willie Keeler
- Joe Kelley
- Brickyard Kennedy
- Frank Kitson
- Malachi Kittridge
- Candy LaChance
- Nap Lajoie
- Tom Leach
- Wyatt Lee
- Sam Leever
- Herman Long
- Billy Lush
- Christy Mathewson
- Lew McAllister
- Jack McCarthy
- Barry McCormick
- Ed McFarland
- Herm McFarland
- Iron Man McGinnity
- John McGraw
- Deacon McGuire
- Jock Menefee
- Sam Mertes
- Roscoe Miller
- Fred Mitchell
- Earl Moore
- Daniel Murphy
- Jack O’Connor
- Al Orth
- Dick Padden
- Fred Parent
- Roy Patterson
- Heinie Peitz
- Deacon Phillipi
- Wiley Piatt
- Ollie Pickering
- Eddie Plank
- Ed Poole
- Jack Powell
- Mike Powers
- Claude Ritchey
- James Ryan
- Ossie Schreckengost
- Kip Selbach
- Socks Seybold
- Jimmy Sheckard
- Ed Siever
- Harry Smith
- Tully Sparks
- Jake Stahl
- Harry Steinfeldt
- Sammy Strang
- Willie Sudhoff
- Joe Sugden
- Billy Sullivan
- Jack Taylor
- Ira Thomas
- Fred Tenney
- Jack Thoney
- Jack Townsend
- George Van Haltren
- Rube Waddell
- Honus Wagner
- Bobby Wallace
- Jack Warner
- Jimmy Wiggs
- Jimmy Williams
- Vic Willis
- George Wiltse
- George Winters
- Bob Wood
- Joe Yeager
- Cy Young
- Chief Zimmer
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