Senator Russel's tobacco card collection on exhibition

[Archive]

Posted By: JimB

I came across a website set up by the University of Georgia for an exhibition of Senator Richard Russel's (died 1971) tobacco card collection which included an almost complete set of T206s (minus Wagner and Plank), T210s, T205s, etc. The two big highlights are a T206 Cobb/Cobb back and a Doyle N.Y. Nat'l. Does anybody know if this collection has been known for a long time or if these are new discoveries to the hobby. I believe they are now part of the University of Georgia's library holdings, but there will be a public exhibition this Winter. Wish I lived in Georgia now.

JimB

http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell/online-exhibits/baseball/about.html

[Archive]

Posted By: leon

Another Cobb with Cobb back. I wonder how many more are out there and unknown to the regular collecting world....I say it everyday.....I think there is far more still unknown than we think.....

[Archive]

Posted By: Dan Bretta

I don't think more of the Cobb/Cobb surfacing will affect value any on this card. It is still rarer than the Wagner by far. And it doesn't surprise me that one would pop up in Georgia. Wasn't the Cobb brand local to Georgia only?

I wonder how old Senator Russel was when he died? Maybe he was putting the set together as a young man.

[Archive]

Posted By: leon

I completely agree about values...whether there's 12 Cobb/Cobbs or 15...the demand is such that the value won't decrease. regards

[Archive]

Posted By: Jeff Mohler

After reading some of the information on the link, I had to wonder if the Senator actually stopped collecting when he was a kid... I mean the Cobb/Cobb...how many kids would be that thorough to get that card? I think he was a closet collector when collecting baseball cards wasn't as accepted as it is now. No facts to back me up. Just a guess!

Jeff

[Archive]

Posted By: dennis

"The tobacco cards in the Russell collection offer a rare, private glimpse into the lifelong passions of a very public figure. Library staff discovered these keepsakes neatly stacked in cigar boxes and stored on a top shelf in the senator's bedroom closet." jeff,i think you are correct and this paragraph from the website seems to back up your thoughts.

[Archive]

Posted By: JimB

This is why I wonder if it is a new discovery or one of the known 12. May Rob Lifson could help us out here since I believe he has handled virtually every known copy.
JimB

[Archive]

Posted By: Steve Dawson

To answer Dan's question, Senator Russell was born in November 1897, so he was 11-13 years old when T206 was issued.


Steve

[Archive]

Posted By: martindl

JimB,
I'm in Georgia but unfortuntely I think the public exhibit you referred to ended in 2005.


I love this statement "The cards were found among his other juvenilia when additional materials came to the library in 1983."

I now have a new term to use - "Yes dear its another Ebay package. Just adding a bit to my juvenilia"

[Archive]

Posted By: David Smith

Instead of raising student's tuition or asking for more money for the Endowment Fund, the University should sell the collection. That way, true collectors could enjoy the juvenilia.

It sounds like the people in the Ivory White Towers at the U of G have attended the Bruce Dorskind School of Public Relations. IE, they are too good for such trivial things as baseball cards.


David

[Archive]

Posted By: Bill Todd

Geez, would you lay off the guy? Bruce has a linguistic quirk (One! for Pete's sake) that some people take as elitist, and maybe a bit patronizing. But he's an astute historian of both the game and the hobby. Plus, he maintains a historian's most important attribute--a healthy curiosity about the unknown.

Bruce takes an incredible amount of gratuitous crap on here over nothing. The fact that he continues to make useful contributions on here says a lot about him. I've never met the man, or had any dealings with him. I'd love to see some of his cards. Maybe if you guys would lighten up a little we'd get a chance to. (Bruce? Buy yourself a $200 scanner, and do what I had to do--get some teenager to show you how to use it. With all the ooh-ing and aah-ing over Marshall's cards, you can imagine the response you'll get when we see some of yours.)

Bill

[Archive]

Posted By: David Smith

Mr. Todd,

Though the "WE" crap that Dorskind uses is annoying, what got to me was his whining a couple of months ago about no good shows in New York City and having to drive to Pennsylvania to the Fort Washington show. Then he brings up the idea of a black tie baseball card event with investment bankers.

The elitist, New York City is the center of the universe stuff gets old. If Dorskind really wants to feel out of the card collecting world, he should try living in Indiana. Very few sports card shops and even less with anything older than the 1950's. As far as big shows go, the National in either Chicago or Cleveland is it and they only come around every other year.

As far as baseball cards and memorabilia go, Dorskind is a big fish in a small pond. However, that seems to be not good enough for him. What he really seems to want is to be able to hob knob with the REALLY wealthy art collectors, like Ron Pearlman of Revlon Cosmetics fame. However, his finances keep him from it, so he is doomed to only be able to mingle with us (we?) pedestrian card collectors.


David

[Archive]

Posted By: Bond73

Where does it say Russell has a Doyle N.Y. Nat'l variation??? It has an image of the card but it doesn't say he has one. It doesn't say he has a Cobb back too, it simply says t206 set includes a tough back which is Ty Cobb back.

[Archive]

Posted By: Despres Louis

Click "a Boys Life"

[Archive]

Posted By: JimB

Bond73,
If you read the page entitled "A Boy's Life", it says,

"Some of the rarest T-206 cards are included in the Russell collection, including an extremely scarce misprint of a Joe Doyle card and an equally uncommon Ty Cobb portrait featuring the slogan, "Ty Cobb, King of the Smoking Tobacco World," on the reverse. While two of the other most valuable cards from this set - the fabled Honus Wagner card and the very scarce Eddie Plank card - are missing from the Russell collection, almost every other card produced in this series is present, often in multiples. The majority of cards are in very good condition."

JimB