New Discovery - 1911 Philadelphia Athletics RPPC set

[T206Jim]

I wanted to share with everyone what I believe to be a newly discovered Deadball Era RPPC set. It was issued by John Haworth Company, a camera and film store based in Philadelphia, and depicts members of Philadelphia Athletics during their 1911 championship campaign.

Haworths actively promoted the use of the then recent invention of the personal camera, particularly the Kodak versions and the Velox brand of real photo postcard paper. Here is a marketing postcard they issued in 1911 with a real photo and pre-printed advertising front and back. Clearly producing RPPCs for the public was squarely in their wheelhouse.

Haworth-crowd-front.jpg

Haworth-ad-pc-back.jpg

Haworth's first foray into baseball RPPCs that I can find came in 1909. Here is an ad that appeared in the August 8th edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Haworth ad Phil Inq 8-8-09.jpg

It describes a display photo depicting a crowd at the Tigers/Athletics game earlier that year. Note it states that a photograph postcard of the image would be given to fans free at the store for two days. Here is that postcard. Particular thanks to Brian Dwyer and REA for going over and above to help me locate and acquire this RPPC.

152-circa-1910-bleachers-crowd-athletic-detroit-game-real-photo-postcard.jpg

152-circa-1910-bleachers-crowd-athletic-detroit-game-real-photo-postcard-2.jpg

The back description of the scene coincides perfectly with the description in the ad. The printed script is similar to the previous RPPC ad. It is remarkable that such an obscure crowd pose RPPC still exists and found its way into the hobby.

But now for the newly discovered set. Here are the two known postcards, and the only known copy of each, in the set that have surfaced to date.

Lapp

Jack-Lapp-RPPC-front.jpg

Jack-Lapp-RPPC-back.jpg

and Coombs

Haworth-Coombs-front.jpg

Haworth-Coombs-back.jpg

Note the Velox back is the same as the other earlier Hayworth RPPCs and note the date of the posted Lapp RPPC during the 1911 World Series. Note the compliments of Haworth's bug with "Kodaks" in the center. My guess these were issued for a few days only to commemorate the Athtletics' World Championship. To my eye they are some of the most beautiful RPPCs from the Deadball Era, their combination of the real photo and the color splotch advertising bug is quite distinctive.

These are the only two known cards in the set, but I find it very difficult to believe there are not other players that were produced. A Haworth Chief Bender would be my dream RPPC! Has anyone else ever seen other cards in this set? I would be interested in any information anyone can add and it goes without saying I would love to acquire more of these Hayworth RPPCs.