1910 C56 Imperial Tobacco #13 Ed. Decary
| Subtotal | $190.00 |
| Discount | -$40.00 |
| Price | $150.00 |
1910 C56 Imperial Tobacco
1910 C56 Imperial Tobacco hockey cards, first set of hockey cards! pre war vintage cards
1910 C56 Hockey Series got the tobacco era underway for the sport. Collectors can find several top rookies from the game's history.
The first major set of hockey cards was issued along with cigarettes and predated the NHL, featuring players from the National Hockey Association. This league directly preceded the NHL from 1909 through 1917. During the NHA's second season in 1910-11, the C56 cards appeared and offered a glimpse into what was still an evolving game.
1910 C56 Hockey cards contain a lithographed player picture with a white border. The player's last name and team appear in the border area below the picture, while the card number is shown in the top corner. Backs feature a "Hockey Series" design with two crossed hockey sticks and a puck, followed by the player's name, team and a history of his past teams.
Issued is packs of cigarettes produced in Canada by Imperial Tobacco, the 1910-11 C56 collection came out as hockey stars were emerging as sporting heroes in an age where professional athleticism was still frowned upon by some. Focusing on a small loop of teams based in Ontario and Quebec, the National Hockey Association came together for the 1909-10 season. Some organizations had been around for a few years, like the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Wanderers and some teams that arose due to heavy spending in Northern Ontario mining towns like Cobalt and Haileybury. With mining baron Ambrose O’Brien throwing money around in Renfrew, Ontario, big stars were coming to play for the Creamery Kings and Montreal had two more entries – the Shamrocks and Les Canadiens.
With a design similar to the T206 baseball cards of the era, Canadian smokers could find a small (measurement) card inside a pack. While it is uncertain whether or not a few folks of youthful persuasion were grabbing some cigarettes in order to get a picture of a hockey hero, the excitement within Ontario and Quebec was most certainly high as two more sets were issued in the seasons that followed. The designation of C56 was bestowed upon it by Jefferson Burdick’s American Card Catalog many years after it was issued and the “C” comes from the fact that it was a Canadian release rather than being given a “T” for tobacco.
Loaded up with Hall of Fame talent, each card is obviously a rookie issue since there were no others on the market prior to the time of issue. Made up of 36 cards, it is not an easy challenge for most collectors – especially when there are key cards of the sport’s pioneers like Art Ross, Cyclone Taylor, Newsy Lalonde, and Lester Patrick. The card fronts are quite striking due to their rich color and the backs have a nice design which includes a listing of the teams the subject had played for at that point.
A 37th Card?
Back in the early 1990s, reports surfaced in the Collector’s World supplement of The Hockey News regarding the discovery of a 1910-11 C56 Newsy Lalonde card which featured the number 37 on the front instead of 36. At the time, it was generally accepted that it was a salesman’s sample and that belief carries on to this day. The Hockey Hall of Fame has one copy in their archive (your humble author has seen it with his own eyes and respectfully held it while wearing white gloves!) and there are believed to be four others in existence – one of which is presently for sale on eBay.
