N174 Old Judge 'Master Set' checklisting and images

[G1911]

Type 3 now, which looks just like the last type but has a 0 prefix and starts the numbering over again - certainly a different issue. There are a massive number of cards but only the first 30 something are not baseball players. 041 Dempsey is numbered in the baseball range.

These are tough. The quality of the checklist continues to deteriorate with an increasing number of mediocre subjects appearing.

What I believe to be the boxing Checklist, with those with images I do not have in red. There was also a jockey named Fred Wood at this time, so I'd especially like to see him. I am not quite sure who H.G. Peterson is. I have a crappy 'photo of a photo' of 08 Mitchell.

01 Arthur Chambers
02 Billy Frazier
03 Jno. F. Scholes
04 Pete McCoy
05 L.S. McGregory (Boxing)
06 Johnny Regan
07 L.S. McGregory (Suit)
08 Jemmy Mitchell
09 Jack McAuliffe (Boxing, no belt)
010 James F. Larkins
011 Billy Edwards
012 Dominick McCaffrey (Suit)
015 Steve Taylor
021 Jack Harding
022 William Ellingsworth
023 Charley Ellingsworth
025 Tom Allen
026 H.G. Peterson
029 Fred Wood
030 Johnny Murphy
041 Jack Dempsey

[G1911]

Type 4, the Gyspy Queen Arch cards. These are very tough. This is the same set as N175.

There are almost certainly more subjects than claimed today. I have images of 3 different copies of Clow's card, so they are not quite unique but they are not that far from it.

Checklist (surely incomplete):
1 Jack Burke
2 Patsy Cardiff
3 Willie Clark
4 J.P. Clow
5 Jack Dempsey (Boxing)
6 Jake Kilrain
7 Jack McAuliffe (No belt)
8 Pete McCoy
9 John L. Sullivan

[G1911]

Type 5, the wavy banners. These come in two types, advertising either Old Judge or Gypsy Queen at the bottom. N332 cards, a 'pirated image' issue from S.F. Hess share the same format, but which copied which I am not entirely clear. Probably Hess was the copier. These are common N174's, and they have generally aged better than types 1-3 have.

The rule I have observed is that ff a card exists with one branding, it exists with the other. There is also a card of Oarsman Wallace Ross that is catalogued as an N174. There are numerous actresses which I am also trying to slowly accumulate images of - I think it proper to checklist sets as they actually existed instead of by after-the-fact cut ups.

I believe at present that this set is from some time remove after the 1887 type 1's. These cards borrow heavily from the images and checklist of type 1, but done in a way that suggests to me they redesigned them from scratch, as if the original work had been scrapped by the time these were re-made. One will note that a couple of the cards are not actually the same image, but very similar images to the type 1 cards of that fighter taken from the same session at Wood's studio (Mitchell, if you look at his feet and Sullivan, if you look at his back posture and arm positions). Only Dominick McCaffrey is a new subject, and Mitchell gets only one card this time around. The lack of Dempsey (Chest up) further makes me question whether that truly exists in type 1.

Attaching Gypsy Queen first.

Master Set Checklist:
# Card (Pose) Branding variation
1 Jack Burke Gypsy Queen
2 Jack Burke Old Judge
3 Patsey Cardiff Gypsy Queen
4 Patsey Cardiff Old Judge
5 Mike Cleary Gypsy Queen
6 Mike Cleary Old Judge
7 John P. Clow Gypsy Queen
8 John P. Clow Old Judge
9 Jack Dempsey (Boxing) Gypsy Queen
10 Jack Dempsey (Boxing) Old Judge
11 Jack Fogarty Gypsy Queen
12 Jack Fogarty Old Judge
13 George Godfrey Gypsy Queen
14 George Godfrey Old Judge
15 Jake Kilrain Gypsy Queen
16 Jake Kilrain Old Judge
17 George LaBlanche Gypsy Queen
18 George LaBlanche Old Judge
19 Jack McAuliff (Belt) Gypsy Queen
20 Jack McAuliff (Belt) Old Judge
21 Dominick McCaffrey (Boxing) Gypsy Queen
22 Dominick McCaffrey (Boxing) Old Judge
23 Charley Mitchell Gypsy Queen
24 Charley Mitchell Old Judge
25 Paddy Ryan Gypsy Queen
26 Paddy Ryan Old Judge
27 John L. Sullivan (Boxing) Gypsy Queen
28 John L. Sullivan (Boxing) Old Judge
29 John L. Sullivan (Suit) Gypsy Queen
30 John L. Sullivan (Suit) Old Judge
31 Tommy Warren Gypsy Queen
32 Tommy Warren Old Judge
33 Tug Wilson Gypsy Queen
34 Tug Wilson Old Judge

[G1911]

And the OJ variation of this type. I have images of all 17 pugilists that I believe constitute this set.

[G1911]

And type 6, the UK Old Judges "Cigarettes". Jem Smith is the only prize fighter I am aware of. Not an easy subject, here's 2 copies of it.

[G1911]

Type 7 is probably the worst understood in the states. It is a set of 76 cards released in Australia c. 1889/1890, counting 2 different poses of a non-boxing subject and the Slavin variation.

1) The OJ cards have the "Cigarette factory" caption at bottom.

2) They also come in a pink tint variation - I have observed that the ugly pink colored cards have tended to age even worse than the black and white OJ's. Some categorize this as damage peculiar to only certain OJ issuances.

3) The third type comes with a Dog's Head branded back instead of the blank back of all other cards, and remove the bottom branding. All of the boxers probably exist/existed in this type based on what has been observed of the subjects the Australian's care about a lot more than the prize fighters. These are very tough.

4) I am not clear yet if the Dog's Heads also had a pink tint print run.

My list had 8 pugilists until recently, where I am told that Jennings and Jack Thompson exist. I am not sure which boxer "Jennings" is.

In addition, Joe Thompson was a booker/manager/promoter/sports businessman who might be of interest to boxing fans but I do not think he belongs in the boxing subset. Professor William Miller was a fine boxer, but was more known as a wrestler so I have checklisted him as a wrestler - others may not agree with that categorization.


I have seen 3 additional boxers claimed but highly doubt this is actually true and these will ever be shown: Dempsey, Kilrain and Jem Smith.

Boxing Checklist:
# Name, Caption (variation)
1 Jac’ R. Burke, Pugilist
2 Martin Costello
3 Mick Dooley, Pugilist
4 Bob Fitzsimmons, Champion Middle Weight
5 Larry Foley, Ex champion. Boxer of Australia
6 Peter Jackson
7 Jennings
8 Frank E. Slavin (name left)
9 Frank E. Slavin (name right)
10 Jack Thompson


Here's the Dog's Heads I have saved

[G1911]

And a pink tint, which are also tough but with the significant physical degradation of the cards not always as easy to ID as one would think. This one is obvious