Dating of The Reccius Cigar Card of Honus Wagner

[Michael Peich]

Great job of sharing valuable information, Rob. Many thanks to you and John Thorn.

Cheers,
Mike

[h2oya311]

Excellent info! Thanks for sharing!

[1880nonsports]

that IS the date. NO-ONE knows more about cigars and their containers than Tony. His book is a must read for the cigarbox collector. A bit on the rougher side for some - he has always been willing to help me over many years. Pretty much retired and no longer doing radio shows....

[1880nonsports]

show your cigar band :-)

[gnaz01]

Originally Posted by 1880nonsports

show your cigar band :-)

Here it is

[spacktrack]

For anyone not familiar with the Reccius Wagner card, I've included a picture below, followed by the cigar box REA auctioned featuring the same picture.

[Steve D]

I've just done a bit of research on Ancestry.com, and have found the following information:

According to the 1889 Louisville Phone Directory, Henry Reccius lived on Elliott Ave near 29th.

According to the 1900 Federal Census, he lived at 2803 Elliott Ave.

The 1901 Louisville phonebook has him at 2803 West Broadway, in the Cigar Manufactures section of the "Yellow" pages.

The 1902 Louisville phonebook, lists him at 2803 West Broadway.

In the 1904 Louisville phonebook, his residence was 2606 Elliott Ave

The 1904 phonebook further listed his business at 2603 West Broadway. It also has an Elsie Reccius (his wife), with a sewing business at 2803 West Broadway.

The 1910 Federal Census shows him and his family living at 2608 Elliott Ave.

He's further listed in the 1915 phonebook at 2608 Elliott Ave.

Now, in the 1919 phonebook, he's listed as working for the J B Coblens & Co at 431 Amy Ave.

Then in the 1920 phonebook, he's listed at 1824 W Jeff, again with J B Coblens & Co.

The 1925 Phone book has him at 402 Amy Ave.

So, based on the above, it appears to me that the card was probably issued before 1902. This is because in 1901, he had a business at 2803 West Broadway. The card shows his address at 2606 Elliott, which was his residence. It also specifically mentions his home phone. If it was issued in 1901 or later, it is logical to think he would have put the West Broadway address on it, as that was his business address. Since the card shows his home address (he presumably worked from home at the time), it must have been issued before that. Furthermore, since his address is listed as 2803 Elliott Ave in the 1900 Federal Census (dated 4 Jun 1900), the card was probably issued after that. All this, to me, puts the trade card's date of issue before 1902.

Steve

[Baseball Rarities]

Originally Posted by 1880nonsports

that IS the date. NO-ONE knows more about cigars and their containers than Tony. His book is a must read for the cigarbox collector. A bit on the rougher side for some - he has always been willing to help me over many years. Pretty much retired and no longer doing radio shows....

I agree, Tony Hyman definitely knows his stuff, but in this case he is referring to the Wagner cigar box the REA auctioned off, not the trade card. They have nothing to do with each other except that they used the same image of Wagner.

[ethicsprof]

many thanks for the information, Rob and John.

As an aside, it's always great to hear about Hal Lewis and his involvements in the hobby some years back. Thanks for the memories, Peter S. .
all the best,
barry

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by ethicsprof

many thanks for the information, Rob and John.

As an aside, it's always great to hear about Hal Lewis and his involvements in the hobby some years back. Thanks for the memories, Peter S. .
all the best,
barry

Yeah, he was relentless in his obsession with "true" rookies. As some of the candidates were not baseball cards in the traditional sense, it made for some interesting discussions.

[1880nonsports]

could someone post a picture or link to the trade card? I've seen it before in a catalog I can't lay my hands on and the one on the blog linked above was hard to see clearly or make out details...........