Ty Cobb 1907 rare rookie postcards - Their origin stories told

[T206Jim]

Here is the story behind two of the rarest of Ty Cobb's 1907 rookie postcards. I'll start with what is the least well known of Cobb's 1907 postcards, the H.M. Taylor Wild Bill Donovan Floral Horseshoe Lafond version.

Floral-Horseshoe-front-Net-54-1.jpg

It depicts Donovan receiving a floral horseshoe during the September 30, 1907 Tigers game at Philadelphia when his Philadelphia fans presented him with this token of their appreciation. A youthfully exuberant Cobb is at the far right. The regular version does not contain "By permission of M.A. Lafond & Co...." overprint. So how did this Lafond version come to be and how was it distributed?

Lafond was a cigar store in Detroit. They advertised on the Bennett Park wall as shown below.

LaFond-Bennett-Park-Ad-Net54-6.jpg

The Lafonds were related by marriage to Wild Bill Donovan and as the October 23 edition of The Tobacco Leaf (a tobacco trade magazine) shows they displayed the Donovan Floral Horseshoe in their shop window in Detroit.

Tobacco-Leaf-page-croped-Net54.jpg

Tobacco-Leaf-page-article-Net54-5.jpg Window-Net54-3.jpg

The floral horseshoe game was September 30th and by October 5th the Horseshoe was on display at LaFonds as shown in the Detroit Free Press of October 6th.

Detroit_Free_Press_Sun__Oct_6__1907_-(1)-Net54-7.jpg

This October 11 LaFond ad in the Detroit Free Press shows the exhibition from the window was already gone.

DFP-10-11-07-windowNet54.jpg

This ad for the H.M. Taylor set was advertised in the October 16th Detroit Free Press.

DFP-10-16-17-HM-Taylor-Ad-Net54.jpg

Here is the front cover of the Detroit Free Press from October 6th when the Tigers clinched the A.L. pennant. It is the first use of this famous photo I can find and variations of the photo were used on numerous 1907 Tigers postcards.

DFP-10-6-07-front-pageNet-54.jpg

The earliest postmark I can find on any H.M. Taylor Tiger postcard is about October 10, 1907 when the World Series against the Cubs was being played. A shot of Chance in the Tigers dugout before the World Series commenced is a part of the set. Thus it stands to reason that the H.M. Taylor set was issued during the 1907 World Series and that the Lafond version of the Floral Horseshoe postcard was overprinted especially for the LaFond store and only distributed by them at their store the week of the display or for a short time afterward. This would explain extreme scarcity of this variation.

Now for the second half of the story. Look at the LaFond window image at the extreme right. We see what looks to be an uncut sheet of the 1907 Dietsche Tigers. Look closer, we can see the rare Fielding Cobb on the bottom row second from the left, but there is no Cobb batting version on the sheet. Remember, this was on display October 5th.

Tobacco-Leaf-page-Dietsche-cropNet-54-4.jpg

Here are October 6th Detroit Free Press ads showing the Dietsche poses, including the Cobb Fielding.

DFP-10-6-07-left-Net54.jpg DFP-10-6-07-right-Net54.jpg

Now look at these pages from the October 11th Detroit Free Press advertising the Dietsche set. The uncut sheet here shows the Cobb batting, but not Cobb Fielding. it stands to reason the Batting replaced the Fielding early in the print run, probably in a matter of a week. This would explain the relative scarcity of the Cobb Fielding as opposed to the Cobb Batting.

DFP-10-11-07-DietscheNet54.jpg

If anyone has any information to add about any of these rare 1907 Cobb postcards I'd love to hear from you!

[Golfcollector]

Great post!

[insidethewrapper]

It also states they sell full sets on a single sheet. I never seen one of them before. Has an uncut sheet ever been in a major auction ?

[bgar3]

I had an uncut sheet of the images, on postcard stock, but I cannot remember if they had postcard backs, , that found its way to a major Cobb collector about 25 years ago. It was a 3 party deal, I did not have direct contact with the collector, sorry.

[insidethewrapper]

I've seen uncut sheets from the 1908 set ( this is a reprint sheet on ebay ), not 1907 or 1909.

[Al C.risafulli]

Fantastic stuff, Jim, as always.

That window display is amazing.

-Al

[T206Jim]

Found this period postcard showing the Dietsche storefront, thought I'd share it.

Dietsche-store.jpg

[T206Jim]

Dietsche-store-crop.jpg

[Kris19]

I am very happy to be able to post again in one of my favorite threads! I just acquired the H.M. Taylor "Tyrus Cobb at Bat" postcard shown below. As Kevin stated above, his outstanding research has turned up the earliest postmark on any H.M. Taylor to be October 10, 1907. As you can see, my Cobb is postmarked October 12, 1907 at 7:30 pm in Detroit. Earlier that afternoon, the Tigers lost to the Cubs in Game 5 of the World Series by the score of 2-0, giving the Cubs the "sweep" by winning four games and tying one. Game 5 was only the second game played in Detroit in the series.

It has been generally accepted that the H.M. Taylor series was issued/sold from 1907 - 1909. The postmark clearly dates this one to 1907. But also look at the different font of "Post Card" and the H.M. Taylor notation on the bottom, which does not include the words "Rights reserved by" as most I have seen do. In fact, the only other Cobb I can find with the same back is on the tremendous vintageball.com site (it is not postally used).

There are a few different backs known for H.M. Taylor PCs, but this leads me to wonder about the correlation between the years of issue and the printing on the back. My hypothesis is that the back shown below, postmarked October 1907 here, was the first style used in the early printing of the H.M. Taylor postcards. Could it be that only ones with this back should be considered one of Cobb's "rookie" postcards? Are postcard collectors now going to collect backs like T206 collectors?

I would love to read your thoughts, comments, and further research!

[calvindog]

Kris, great card. Do you have scans of any other backs of the HM Taylor Cobb? Mine is sitting at the bank and I don't think I can get there before Friday to check.

[Kris19]

Thanks Jeff. Here are the Cobb backs I have found by Googling.

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by Kris19

I am very happy to be able to post again in one of my favorite threads! I just acquired the H.M. Taylor "Tyrus Cobb at Bat" postcard shown below. As Kevin stated above, his outstanding research has turned up the earliest postmark on any H.M. Taylor to be October 10, 1907. As you can see, my Cobb is postmarked October 12, 1907 at 7:30 pm in Detroit. Earlier that afternoon, the Tigers lost to the Cubs in Game 5 of the World Series by the score of 2-0, giving the Cubs the "sweep" by winning four games and tying one. Game 5 was only the second game played in Detroit in the series.

It has been generally accepted that the H.M. Taylor series was issued/sold from 1907 - 1909. The postmark clearly dates this one to 1907. But also look at the different font of "Post Card" and the H.M. Taylor notation on the bottom, which does not include the words "Rights reserved by" as most I have seen do. In fact, the only other Cobb I can find with the same back is on the tremendous vintageball.com site (it is not postally used).

There are a few different backs known for H.M. Taylor PCs, but this leads me to wonder about the correlation between the years of issue and the printing on the back. My hypothesis is that the back shown below, postmarked October 1907 here, was the first style used in the early printing of the H.M. Taylor postcards. Could it be that only ones with this back should be considered one of Cobb's "rookie" postcards? Are postcard collectors now going to collect backs like T206 collectors?

I would love to read your thoughts, comments, and further research!

Terrific pickup, Kris--a hearty CONGRATS!

Sincerely,

Larry

[Kris19]

Thank you, Larry!

Jeff P., I admittedly know absolutely nothing about the printing process of the time (or anytime for that matter), but it just seems odd to me that the publisher would use different backs on the same card fronts if they were all printed at the same time. Especially during a likely very short time period during the 1907 World Series, which it seems all H.M. Taylors appeared/were used for the first time. I would think that type of change would happen in a separate production run. Which I would also guess might not happen until the next season. Why keep printing them during the off-season following the Tigers’ quick demise in the ‘07 Series?

All pure speculation!