2. 1911 D304 General Baking Near-Complete Set (23/24) Issued by a Buffalo, NY bakery, the D304 General Baking Co. series is commonly called the “Brunners Bread” issue. One of the more unique card issues of its era, due in part to the size of the cards and partially due to the striking images of the subjects, the D304 issue is also significantly more rare than other issues of the era. Unlike other baseball sets of the day, which often shared poses or images across multiple sets, the poses and illustrations in the D304 set are found only in this issue. The card images feature attractive, full- color illustrations, with 12 of the 25 cards from the issue featuring Hall of Famers. The cards were actually issued with five different back advertisements (Brunners Bread, Butter Crust, General Baking, Martens Bakery and Weber Bakery), but cards from the set are a rarity with any of the back configuration. Cards from this issue are difficult to obtain in any condition, with just under 1,000 examples from the issue graded by PSA and SGC combined. Complete sets are rare; the PSA Set Registry includes not one single complete set in its Current Finest list, and one impossibly high-grade example in the All-Time Finest list. Due to the attractiveness and scarcity of the cards, they are extremely sought after by prewar collectors, but very few are able to piece together
an entire set. We are thrilled to offer 24 of the set’s 25 cards here, missing just the Ty Cobb for completion. This collection was consigned by a longtime collector who discovered the cards ungraded at his local card shop many years ago. The cards simply “walked in” to the shop and were purchased by the shop owner. Our consignor purchased the collection almost immediately - but not before the Cobb had already been obtained by another customer. The remaining 24 cards have remained in the collection of our consignor ever since, ungraded and stored in plastic. We elected to submit the entire collection to PSA for grading. The collection is remarkably consistent, a collector-grade set each of the cards presenting extremely well. A complete breakdown of the cards by grade is as follows: PSA VG 3 (1 card): Arthur Fletcher; PSA VG (MK) (1 card): Charles Herzog; PSA GOOD+ 2.5 (1 card): Chief Bender (HOF); PSA GOOD 2 (2 cards): Hal Chase, Fred Tenny (Tenney); PSA FR 1.5 (4 cards): Jack Barry, Nap Lajoie (HOF). Marty O’Toole; Honus Wagner (HOF); PSA PR 1 (14 cards): Home Run Baker (HOF), George Bell, Frank Chance (HOF - Chicago), Eddie Collins (HOF), Otis Crandall, Sam Crawford (HOF), John Evers (HOF - Chicago), M. Kelly, Rube Marquard (HOF), Christy Mathewson (HOF), Fred Merkle, Chief Meyers, Arthur Shafer, Cy Young (HOF); PSA A (1 card): Nap Rucker. Each of the cards feature the Brunners Bread reverse, with the exception of Marty O’Toole and Nap Rucker, which boast the General Baking ad. An outstanding collection of cards, a nearly-complete set of D304 cards, a truly rare and desirable issue. 24 cards total. MINIMUM BID: $3,000.00
Summer 2019 Premier Auction – Closes August 24, 2019
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