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| C. A. BRIGGS FOOTBALL CARD |
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| IS THIS RED GRANGE? |
C. A. BRIGGS 1934 CANDY CARDS: A SWEET FIND
"There is no new thing under the sun."
Ecclesiastes 1:9
Although the words of Ecclesiastes on the subject of newness are the gospel truth, every now and then people
still manage to forget things. That way, when the forgotten item pops up again, it seems like it is brand new, even when it
isn't.
Such is the case with the C. A. Briggs multi-sport trading card set. While the Briggs candy cards are definitely
not new, they are a sweet discovery for vintage sports card collectors who are seeing examples of this unique set for the
first time.
The 31 card C. A. Briggs multi-sport set was included as a premium in Briggs candy products in the early 1930s.
Although the exact date of issue cannot yet be established, an educated guess might place it around 1933 or 1934.
One clue to the date of issue is on the backs of the cards themselves. Throughout the set, the blurbs on the
reverse side mention sports events from the 1931 and 1932 seasons. Nowhere in the existing cards is a reference made to any
later season. This suggests, but does not necessarily confirm, that the cards were printed sometime in late 1933 or early
1934.
During the 1930s, the C. A. Briggs Candy Company was a major fixture on Boston's confectioner's row, manufacturing,
among other things, a throat lozenge that was popular nationally. To promote their products, Briggs occasionally slipped trading
cards into the packages.
Baseball card collectors may be familiar with a Briggs set pertaining to their hobby. The 30 card 1909-10 Briggs
baseball set has an "E-97" listing given to it by hobby pioneeer Jefferson Burdick in his classic text on paper
collectibles, AMERICAN CARD CATALOG. This rare grouping of tinted baseball cards is valued at more than $8,000 in near mint
and features such stars as Cy Young, Bull Durham, and Wee Willie Keeler.
The E-97 designation in Burdick's catalog marked the Briggs baseball card set as a turn of the century candy
and gum issue.
Although baseball hobbyists have long known about the Briggs E-97 set, Burdick appears to have missed the later multi-sport
offering completely.
The Briggs multi-sport set has therefore flown under the radar of vintage collectors for nearly 70 years. This
kind of oversight is not unheard of in the annals of the trading card hobby, but it is exceptionally rare. Burdick was a meticulous
and wide-ranging collector, active until the late 1950s. Helped along by a network of other collectors across the country
and abroad, Burdick missed almost nothing.
Vintage collectors are now privileged to see the C. A. Briggs multi-sport set brought to light in a national
forum for the first time. It comes to us courtesy of Garret Lewush, a Massachusetts collector.
Lewush received an incomplete 26 card set as a gift from his uncle Andrew Lewish (branches of the family spell
the surname differently) at a family reunion in 1993. Lewush's uncle Andrew collected the cards as a boy, saving them from
the World War II paper drives that swallowed up so many pre-war trading cards, comic books, and cardboard souveniers.
Lewush advertised some of his doubles on E-Bay, in hopes of completing his set. Of the 31 different items, Lewush
is missing No.s 3, 5, 12, 15, 17, and 31.
"I've been frustrated for years by my inability to find a hobby listing for the set and by my inability to
complete it," Lewush said. "I once brought the cards to Rotmans in Worcester. They said how rare it is that someone
brings in something they have never seen before and even rarer when they can't find any information on it."
But Lewush's E-Bay ad caught the eye of vintage collectors, who are always on the lookout for something new that
is also old. As a result of Lewush's E-Bay hunt for the missing numbers, this unique set is finally receiving some long-overdue
attention.
A close look at the Briggs multi-sport set reveals a fairly attractive batch of cards with many strong features.
One has to ask: How did this set escape Burdick's attention?
It's a difficult question to answer. The card backs tell us that completing the set allowed Depression era sports
fans the opportunity to request one of three additional items--either a baseball bat, a mitt, or a one pound box of assorted
chocolates.
As a bonus, Briggs also promised to return the sender's card set, along with the requested item.
Did Briggs follow through on the promise? No one seems to know. It is not especially unusual for companies to
make premium offers difficult to redeem. It may be that Briggs deliberately withheld a few key cards from circulation, to
forestall collectors from even being able to request the redemptions. Anyone familiar with what it takes nowadays to claim
a mail-in rebate on a sale item knows that anything is possible.
In size, the cards measure 2 1/2" by 3", and look remarkably similiar to other Depression era trading
cards, such as the Goudey Sport Kings set, the 1935 National Chicle set, and baseball cards of the same period. Also like
the Sport Kings, the Briggs set celebrates a wide range of sporting activities. Among the most popular sports are baseball,
football, and hockey. But lesser known sports such as trotting, yachting, speed boating, running, and motorsports are also
featured.
The card colors in the Briggs set are red, black, and white, with the red color dominating. The cards give evidence
of having been drawn from real life sports scenes, using figures based on photographs of the various sports. The style of
the drawings is in what is called art deco, a technique that uses large empty areas on a piece of artwork to focus attention
on realistic detail.
No actual sports celebrities are identified on the fronts. Instead, composite drawings of the various sports
in action are shown on them. However, it's not hard to guess at the identities of the athletes whose sports are represented
in the set. Briggs does mention individual sports achievements in the text on the card backs, suggesting a relationship to
the scene featured on the card front. But no direct connection is made between the two, allowing collectors to draw their
own conclusions.
For example, the golf card mentions American golfers Bobby Jones and Gene Sarazen as notables in the sport. The
text reads:
"In the United States (golf) has become popular only recently. Bobby Jones, now retired, most popular player
and champion for many years. 1932 Gene Sarazen was winner of British-American Championship and outstanding golfer of today."
The picture on the front of the card shows a golfer getting ready to putt. He is wearing knickers and the woolen
cap known as a Tam o' Shanter. He looks a little too solid to be Bobby Jones and Gene Sarazen never wore a Tam o' Shanter
in photographs. Like most of the Briggs card fronts, this golfer is a generic type, not a specific star of the sport.
An example of a player who is not generic is the football player, shown kicking away a punt. The text on the
back makes mention of English rugby as the inspiration for American football.
It also refers to the Harvard-Yale contest of 1876, considered by football pioneer Walter Camp as the first truly
American version of the game.
Practically every football star before the 1950s has at least one posed photo of himself high-kicking the ball.
Red Grange has a couple different versions, although he was mainly a running back who rarely punted. Still, earlier cards
of Grange, like the 1926 Shotwell and the 1930 Rogers Peet issues, depict Grange in exactly the same punting stance! Although
Briggs may not have shelled out for a license to use Grange, this surely has to be him.
The Briggs baseball card also looks like Babe Ruth swatting one into the upper deck. Again, the text on the back
of the card calls Ruth an "idol of baseball" and says that he has once more signed with the Yankees for the 1933
season, for an eye-popping $52,000 salary. If that ain't a picture of the Bambino on the Briggs card, it might as well be
a picture of King Kong.
Briggs modeled the pictures on the front of their cards after stars of the sport to a certain extent, without
quite crossing over the boundary that would absolutely require licensing. The result is a kind of an identity grey area. Briggs
highlighted the many sports shown, while falling short of making this a set of players in the mold of the Sport Kings. For
that reason, it will never be on the same level as the Sport Kings. Despite that, the Briggs cards have a value and a cachet
their own. The style, color, and previously unknown history of the Briggs set mark it as a undiscovered treasure.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Collector Garret Lewush was never able to finish his set, and eventually sold it off piecemeal through an internet auction.
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