Lot # 642: 1922 Olsen's Baseball Game with Instructions and Babe Ruth & Ty Cobb E120 American Caramel Card Offer

Though this early baseball game - Olsen's Base Ball, manufactured in 1922 by the Olsen Games Company of Chicago, Illinois - is scarce and highly collectible in its own right, the offered example holds even greater significance for card collectors by virtue of the inclusion of its exceedingly rare original instruction sheet. Featured on the back page of the four-page fold-over sheet is an advertisement showing kids how they can obtain cards that, from the front, are identical in design to the 1922 E120 American Caramel Series of 240. Pictured are the E120 cards of Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb (incorrectly spelled "Cob"), along with instructions on how to obtain fifteen different cards from the set (ten cents) or a "Complete set Base Ball Players, 120 leading players of the season" (50 cents). It should be noted that the backs of the cards are not pictured, so we do not know whether the cards offered were actual E120 cards (advertising for the American Caramel Company on the reverse) or perhaps are the similarly designed blank-backed W573 (a strip-card set that "borrowed" the designs of the E120 set), or if the Olsen Games Company simply used E120 (or W573) cards for its own purposes. Obviously, the company chose the right players to picture in promotion of the set. It is interesting to note that kids could obtain albums from the American Caramel Company containing 120 cards featuring either American or National league players (240 cards comprise the complete set), just as is offered here, meaning that the cards in this promotion probably were the official E120 cards. If so, this is one of the earliest instances known in which cards were cross-promoted with another product. This is one of only a few examples of this Olsen's instruction sheet we have ever seen. Unfortunately, the portion of the sheet featuring the advertisement of Ruth's and Cobb's E120 cards is detached (but included). As such, it is in Poor condition. The game itself is complete with its original box (5.5 x 4 x 1 inches, Fr), all sixty cards (30 red back and 30 blue back, each picturing an illustrated game scene depicting the "action," Ex overall), and the paper instruction sheet (14 x 10 inches unfolded, Pr).