1888 Duke’s Perilous Occupations Set (N86)

Posted on November 25, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	N86 Duke’s Cigarettes Perilous Occupations
Year	1888
Size	1 1/2″ x 2 3/4″
Images	Color
Type	19th Century Tobacco
Number in Set	50

N86 Duke’s Cigarettes Perilous Occupations Overview

The 1888 N86 Duke’s Perilous Occupations set is a set that featured cards with pictures of difficult occupations. The issue is a mostly non-sports set but does have one baseball card in it. The cards were packaged with Duke’s Cigarettes packages.

Cards feature colorful pictures on the front with a caption of the job in question at the bottom. Backs of the cards have a longer description of what makes the particular job difficult. They have a horizontal or vertical layout and, as is the case with most 19th Century issues, is printed on a thicker card stock.

In addition to the baseball umpire, which is cited as one of the difficult jobs, all sorts of subjects are here, including standard ones, such as police officers or firemen to some that are a little more bizarre, such as snake charmers and tightrope walkers.

Aside from baseball, there isn’t much in the way of sports here so baseball card collectors often just focus on finding the umpire card. But a few other minor sports are included. Here’s a list of cards that could be considered sports of a sort:

Baseball
Bullfighting
Diving
Fishing
Hunting (several cards)

Baseball

While the set doesn’t have many sports in it, it does include a baseball card. The issue of featuring the American sport is the most popular in the entire set.

The release includes a variety of perilous occupations in a tongue-in-cheek manner. The baseball card describes the umpire’s job as a difficult one. The baseball card is titled “A Bad Decision by the Umpire” with the image on the front depicting him running away from players.

The back goes on to describe his job as a difficult one. It reads as follows:

“Base ball is a game for the people, and good wholesome sport. The materials are inexpensive, and all that is wanted is a field. It takes the stoop from the shoulders, puts hard honest muscle all over the frame, and frequently gives the player hard knocks and dangerous falls. Sometimes the umpire holds a thankless position. In his anxiety to see that the provisions of the rules are observed – to judge good and bad balls, put outs and runs – he is liable to make mistakes, and sometimes, as in the picture, he is chased off the field. But the breeze soon blows over.”

These cards were included in packages of Duke’s Cigarettes as mentioned on the back. Printed in 1888, this is one of the earlier baseball-themed cards out there.