This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/22/2019
Once you get past the usual hobby icons; the T206 Wagner or 1933 Goudey Lajoie for example, there are few cards that simply capture your eye and make you happy to just stare at it for a prolonged period of time. The featured piece is one such example; an absolutely magnificent PSA 8 graded card of Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson from the difficult T213 Coupon Cigarettes Type 3 series, a regional issue released in the Louisiana area. Mathewson was actually retired from baseball and finished serving in United States Armed Forces when this card was distributed, calling into question whether the 1919 date is accurate. Some experts have theorized that the year of release may have been as early as 1915, which would have "Big Six" still standing on the hill when it came out of the pack on Bourbon Street. Matty is listed as a member of the New York Giants despite having pitched his final game with the Cincinnati Reds to close his playing career in 1916. He became the manager of the Reds for the 1917 season and most of 1918, when he left the team enlist in the Army. Though similar in design to his famous and significantly more common T206 "Dark Cap" variation, the central image color is bolder and less refined than the T206 with blue print at the bottom, a narrower white border and that alluring Coupon Cigarettes ad back on the reverse. The T213 ranks among the most elusive Mathewson cards in the hobby, in any grade, but this PSA 8 example shares the NM/MT level with one other and none graded higher out of the scant 11 examples evaluated. This visually stunning piece appears to offer endpoints in excess of the grade with the bottom two making a strong case for MINT status, yet still manages to deliver a reasonably centered product, no small feat considering how little room for error there is with the narrow borders. Flip it over and prepare yourself to be amazed once again as the presentation of the deep black ad on its ivory white reverse is, and we know it sounds like hyperbole but we stand by it, pack-fresh. If you're a world-class collector with an eye for the most elite specimens in existence, this museum-quality piece can only serve to take your collection to the next level.