Lot # 530: 1914 T216 Kotton Tobacco Honus Wagner Batting S.S. PSA POOR 1

Pleasing example of legendary Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Famer Honus Wagner from the extremely rare 1914 T216 Kotton Tobacco series. The offered card has vibrant colors, a bold image, and rounded corners. The Kotton Cigarettes advertising reverse is boldly printed. Graded POOR 1 by PSA largely due to heavy creasing and staining front and back. All Kotton Tobacco cards are extremely rare, but an example of Honus Wagner has a special significance to collectors because of the legend of the T206 Wagner. This is a card with a tremendous story. Some collectors point to the Kotton Tobacco of Wagner as evidence that the legend of the T206 Wagner is not true, and that Wagner was willing to allow his image to appear on tobacco cards. We do not agree. The extremely rare Kotton Tobacco series was regionally issued only in the Louisiana area. It is a virtual certainty that the very small People's Tobacco Co. of New Orleans, which produced the Kotton Cigarettes brand, did not bother to obtain Wagner's permission to issue his card, and Wagner was probably never even aware that this set was ever issued. The American Tobacco Company, which issued the T206 set under various brands, was the largest tobacco company in the world. It is not surprising that it would be very careful about approaching advertising and player endorsements in a professional and legally sound manner. It is also fascinating to note that this T216 Wagner is actually considerably rarer than the T206 Wagner, a fact that gives this card of one of baseball's greatest stars yet another dimension of significance. The set includes two different poses of Wagner (batting and throwing). This example features Wagner in a batting pose with the "S.S." position designation printed along the bottom, which is seen far less than the "2b." position designation. Despite the low technical grade, this is a presentable example of one of Honus Wagner's rarest tobacco cards.