1895 N300 John Clarkson

[Archive]

Posted By: CoreyRS.hanus

Here is REA's catalog description of the Mayo Clarkson to be offered this Spring:

"Graded EX/NM 80 by SGC. 1895 N300 Mayo's Cut Plug of Hall of Famer John Clarkson. Only one example has ever been graded higher (at NM 84). This is an absolutely outstanding high-grade example of what is considered by many to be legendary John Clarkson's most impressive card. It is also a fascinating card in that even though Clarkson is pictured with St. Louis, he actually retired the previous year, after his final season with Cleveland in 1894, and never played with St. Louis at all. The explanation for this is either that Clarkson was expected to join St. Louis and did not, or that this card was intended to feature Arthur Clarkson, John's brother, who did in fact play for St. Louis from 1893 to 1895, and they got their pictures mixed up. The card is virtually flawless in all respects, with perfect contrast and surface, and just some very light edge and corner wear, as is almost always the case with Mayos due to their condition-sensitive flush-to-the-border design. The reverse of the card is also perfectly clean with no flaws. The Mayo set includes many of the most striking portrait cards of many very significant nineteenth-century players. This is an impressive high-grade example, one of the finest in the world, of one of John Clarkson's most classic and interesting cards from this extremely important and popular nineteenth-century series. Reserve $1,000. Estimate $2,000+."

The comparison image REA sent of John Clarkson was copyrighted 1888. I have sent it to Leon to post inasmuch as the file size I received it in is too large and Leon is much more adept than I in reducing it to postable size. Not knowing how it will appear when Leon posts it, here is my take.

That 1888 image of John Clarkson is almost certainly the same image as appears in the Mayo set. Based on that conclusion, coupled with both the known custom of tobacco companies to use earlier images as well as the dead-on resemblance of the person depicted on the N300 Clarkson card to John Clarkson, my leap of the faith that the N300 card of Clarkson depicts John Clarkson and not his brother is sufficiently small that I would be comfortable purchasing the card believing it depicts John Clarkson. Yes I would like to see an image of his brother too, but in the absence of same am okay believing it depicts John.

I also believe the tobacco company intended the image to depict John. After all, the cards were inserted to sell the tobacco product, and who would be expected to provide more of an inducement to buy the tobacco product, the famous John or his obscure brother?

This instance is distinguishable from the instances of card names not being of the persons depicted on the cards. Here we have an image of John Clarkson with a name of "Clarkson" on the card. So the image does match the name. What it doesn't match is the team name on the jersey. That IMO is not enough to warrant a change in the catalog depiction. In addition, I always thought it stupid to catalog a card based on the name rather than the image. Yes of course you'd like the two to match, but to me as a collector what the image shows is more important than what the card says. Therefore even if the name read A. Clarkson, in the absence of knowing John Clarkson had a brother who looked just like him, for my nickel I would always regard it to be a card of John Clarkson, and would expect it to be cataloged as such.