N167 Thread - Important New Question

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Posted By: Dave Seaborn

Lots going on with the board, I thought it might be a good time to get back to our roots (vintage cards), or at least my roots (19th century cards). I've always loved the N167 Old Judges. There may be a precious few sets made earlier and there may be a precious few which are more rare, but for me these started it all. Precursors to the 19th century 'Monster', the N167's are not only a beautiful set and an exceedingly rare set, but an important set as well. They certainly started my obsession with 19th century cards.

From their wonderfully ornate backs to the portraits on the fronts with the eyes of players seeingly glancing into the distance as if to recall the glory days of each player, this set has got me. There are very few sets which give me the feeling of excitment and fascination like I had when I was collecting as a kid. This is one of them. Here's to the N167's...

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Posted By: peter ullman

here here...those are sweeet!

pete in mn

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Posted By: barrysloate

A beautiful set indeed, and it is time to get back on topic.

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Posted By: Wesley

Great cards David. The Ewing looks fantastic.

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Posted By: leon

Sorry Rich....I know that won't happen again .....

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Posted By: paulstratton

Very nice. Any guesses as to how many of these are floating around?

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Posted By: barrysloate

Hey Leon- why does David's Ewing in the same grade look so much nicer than yours? I think you are due for an upgrade.

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Posted By: Dave Seaborn

Barry-

My Ewing has some back issues. I love the presentation of the front though!

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Posted By: barrysloate

Don't feel bad David, I have some back problems too. Think I slept in a bad position last night!

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Posted By: Bruce Babcock

My one and only. I bought this from a guy I met in the food line at the 1996 National.

Great looking cards, David & Leon.

Any guesses, anybody, as to how many of each N167 exist? 5-10? 25-50? 50-100? More or less scare, per subject, than N173? N43? N162? N321? N29? My guess would be scarcer than all of the above.

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Posted By: Hal Lewis

Anyone who posts a photo of a John Ward N167 had better be prepared to sell it to me!!!

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Posted By: David Seaborn

Did anyone notice the "Old Judge" font on the cards? Each different player has the words in a different font or location on the card:

1) Gerhardt - lower case, centered
2) Corcoran - left centered
3) Gillespie - block font
4) Ewing - arched font


From the looks of Leon's Ewing and Bruce's Gerhardt, these look consistent within the card of each player. Wow - four cards, four different fonts. I never put that together before, but now that I think of it I believe the Keefe also has block letters like the Gillespie. I can also confirm the Connor has font pattern #1. Very interesting, at least to me. All this time and I'm still learning. I guess that's good though...I think you stop learning when you think you know everything (but, of course, don't). There's always more to learn! Just one more reason to collect!

Does anyone know the font patterns of any of the remaining N167's?

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Posted By: Judge Dred (Fred)

Dave,

Those are absolutely awesome. It's too bad some kid stamped "Old Oriole Sportscards" on all of them!

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Posted By: Bruce Babcock

Had no idea about these different fonts, Dave. The scans in this thread plus a few cards at shows and in catalogs are the only N167s I've seen. Maybe 10-20 in all, but had never compared fonts before.

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Posted By: Clint

My first post on this forum was about this card. The lady I bought this from had several books of scrapps, removed and laminated them and this was in with them.

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Posted By: Dave Seaborn

Clint,

Great card! So, the Welsh has a similar pattern as the Connor and the Gerhardt. Very interesting.

Questions came up to the population of these cards. Any guess is as good as mine but off the top of my head and having tracked these since 1994, I would estimate no more than 10 of each exist (Bruce- I agree - these are more scarce than all the sets you mentioned). Just my $ 0.02 though...

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Posted By: Jim Clarke