Updating this 4-year old thread of mine.
1st.....the 2nd paragraph in post #1 is corrected to read......
I recently acquired 40 cards from Sen. Russell's original collection. A relative of his had consigned approx. 200 duplicate cards from Russell's
boyhood collection to a dealer in Atlanta (who consigned them to ebay).
In one shot from this collection, I acquired 7 of the tough "ELITE 11" (as I've coined them) with their very scarce PIEDMONT 350 backs.
These 7 cards are......
Dahlen (Boston)
Ewing
Ganley
Jones (St Louis)
Karger
Lindaman
Mullin (horiz.)
I contacted the dealer in Atlanta. He told me that this lady was a distant relative of Russell's, and these tobacco cards were in a box inside a
desk which she had acquired from Russell's estate.
2nd.....the link to Russell's colllection in Post #1 has been modified. The old link doesn't work anymore. Here is the new link......
http://baseballcards.galib.uga.edu/about/
3rd.....Factory #33 identified on the back of the Ty Cobb/Ty Cobb card is the F. R. Penn tobacco plant in Reidsville, NC.
4th.....The biography of Senator Richard Russell says he started smoking cigarettes at the early ages of 13 and 14. This coincides with the T206 timeline (1910)
when the PIEDMONT 350 cards were issued in packs. The T205 cards were issued in 1911. I think it is fair to assume that he collected these cards directly from
their packs. Therefore, the Joe Doyle error card in his collection was acquired in real time during his youth (from a PIEDMONT cigarette pack).
5th....The Ty Cobb/Ty Cobb card in his collection was most likely acquired in real time during the Spring/Summer of 1910. Russell often took trips with his Dad
(a well known Judge) to the Atlanta where opportunity to get this card was possible. Russell was an avid Baseball fan who followed Major League results in his
local newspapers. And often played the game in his youth.
After Russell went off to Gordon Military Institue (circa 1911), his BB collection appears to have been "archived" until 1983, when it was donated (with tons of
Russell's stuff) to the University of Georgia (Athens, GA). Where it is on display (by appointment).
6th.....Some thoughts regarding the Ty Cobb tin....the artwork on this tin is patterned after the T206's 150 Series image of Cobb (bat on shoulder card).
Circa Feb 1910, newspapers reported of the new Ty Cobb Granulated Cut Plug Tobacco; and, that's consistent with the timeline of the T206 Cobb (bat on shoulder)
card. But, the image on the Ty Cobb card with the Ty Cobb back is that of the T206 red portrait Cobb (which was printed in the Spring/Summer of 1910). I'd venture
to say that the Ty Cobb back card stands alone as an advertising (or promotional) premium that was handed out.....rather than having been inserted in the Ty Cobb
Tobacco tin.
TED Z