Lot # 2752: Circa 1910 T218 Mecca "Champion Athletes and Prize Fighters" Partial Set (117/153)

Partial set (117/153) of circa 1910 T218 Mecca "Champion Athletes and Prize Fighters" cards. Eighty-two cards have the Mecca tobacco brand advertisement on the reverse, while thirty-four have Hassan and one (Hall of Fame boxer James Jeffries) has a rare Tolstoi back. Collectors are well aware of the many baseball sets of the 1910 era, but several very substantial high-quality sets featuring other athletes were also issued by tobacco companies. The largest and most substantial of these sets is the T218 Mecca "Champion Athletes and Prize Fighters" set. The T218 series includes sixty-six boxers and eighty-seven other champion athletes of the era, including golfers, bowlers, billiards champions, and track-and-field stars. Condition is 18% Vg-Ex to Ex (including one Ex-Mt), 53% Gd to Vg, and 29% Pr to Fr (including three trimmed). Keys: Joe Gans (Gd+), James Jeffries/front pose (Vg-Ex, Tolstoi back), James Jeffries/side pose (Vg+), Jack Johnson/front pose (Gd), Jack Johnson/side pose (Gd+), Stanley Ketchell (trimmed, otherwise Pr due to back damage), and Sam Langford (Vg). Missing the following thirty-six cards for completion: Attell, Baldwin, Cline, Corbett, Cutler/portrait, Cutler/action, Daly, Demarest, de Oro, Douglas, Griffin, Hamilton, Hayes, Herreshoff, Hobens, Holmer, Hoppe/portrait, Hoppe/action, Hoxsey, Hueston, Jeannette, Kaufman, Keogh, Kiviat, Low, Moisant, Morningstar/portrait, Morningstar/action, Nicholls, O'Toole, Riddell, Smith, Sutton/portrait, Sutton/action, C. Weston, and E. Weston. This is an attractive medium- to lower-grade partial set of one of the most classic tobacco sport issues from the early twentieth century. Total: 117 cards.