1889 A17 Allen & Ginter Album Set and Checklist

Posted on October 1, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	A17 Allen & Ginter Album (for N29 cards)
Year	1889
Size	6″ x 8″
Images	Color
Type	Album
Number in Set	50 (album cut cards)

1889 A17 Allen & Ginter Album Overview

As a premium surrounding their 1889 N29 Allen & Ginter cards, the company distributed a special album (designated as the A17 Album in the American Card Catalog) with pictures of the 50 cards in the set.

The cards in the album were exact replicas of the actual cards with a couple of minor differences. First, the cards in the album did not include the standard Allen & Ginter logo at the bottom of the regular cards. In addition, the backs did not include the standard checklist as the N29 cards did.

In all, the album includes 14 pages (counting the cover). Pages were not stapled together like a traditional book today. Instead, they were bound together with a string.

These albums are scarce and difficult to find. Collectors will also find them in various forms. Sometimes, the albums are complete. Other times, individual pages from the album will be offered for sale from albums that have been separated. In addition, cards are also cut out individually from the pages (each page contained several cards). While these do not hold the same value as the regular cards, there is certainly a market for them.

A variety of sports are featured on the cards in the album. The baseball players are the most popular/valuable, led by Buck Ewing, the only Hall of Famer. The pugilists are next in terms of popularity for most collectors. Other sports include wrestling, tennis, track and field, skating, and billiards. A tennis card featuring Hall of Famer Henry Slocum is among the earliest tennis cards featuring an actual player.