C46 Imperial Tobacco

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by tedzan

Patrick

I found these Game Birds cards (issued by Imperial Tobacco, circa 1910-1920) in my archives of miscellaneous stuff, perhaps they can provide some insight to your
question. These cards are numbered 1 - 30. A number which is consistent with the printing format of the C46 cards. That being, my theory is that there were 3 print
runs (30 cards each) in the production of the C46 set.

Anyhow, something to ponder over.








TED Z

T206 Reference
.

Hi Patrick

Further research into these Imperial Tobacco Canadian (ITC) bird cards indicates that they were possibly printed at American Lithographic. Their fronts and their back descriptions
are identical to ALC's T43 Gold-Bordered Bird cards issued in 1911. I have an example of the T43 Oriole for comparison with this ITC Oriole card. And, when I get it back from PSA
I will post it here.

So, one might ask what do these Birds have to do with the C46 Baseball cards ?

ITC was a subsidiary of British American Tobacco (an ATC affiliate). The ITC factory which produced the cigarettes which the C46 cards were packaged with was based in Montreal.
However, it gets somewhat tricky from there. Although, the back descriptions are identical to the aforementioned T43 cards, the printed format is similar to other non-sport issues
produced in Great Britain.
Therefore, I am not sure if the C46 cards were printed by American Litho in NYC, or in Great Britain (and then shipped to the Montreal factory).

I will continue this research, as I (too) have wondered where the C46's originated from.






TED Z
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