Two years in the making, our North American Reference Book contains all nineteenth century tobacco insert series, including special printed albums and banners - but not photographic issues, pins, nor silks.
There are 357 pages, with 250 colour illustrations and about 2600 cards shown in total.
Almost every series is illustrated, with every backlisted set in large size so that it can be read, and every unnumbered series is listed in full, with illustrations of nearly every untitled card. Over 90% of the cards listed have been compared with the actual cards and updated where necessary. And there are, of course additions to many of the incomplete lists and illustrations of subjects
The introduction is followed by an index based on the World Index references and a handbook section that is in American Card Catalog sequence (N, A and G numbers).In addition, the book contains all updates by Chris Benjamin and Forbes/Mitchell as well as quite a few completely new series..
In Review - by Mr. S. Whiting ...
I expect the majority of collectors when thinking about reference works on US cards will have one name in mind – Jefferson Burdick. It is true that he is regarded by many to be the father of the hobby in the USA and for years you will have seen his ‘American Card Catalog’ references given in the World Index (e.g. USA/T3). However, despite it being the authoritative reference work on USA issues for over 70 years; there is one issue with Burdick’s guide, for it gives just a list of series, measurements and prices – but very few illustrations, and no checklists for unnumbered series. Robert Forbes and Terence Mitchell issued an excellent book since, that updated the prices, and included plenty of full colour illustrations, as well as using the ‘N’ and ‘T’ numbers which Burdick used (‘N’ referring to Central and South American issues and "T" to 20th Century) though these days things have changed and many collectors now use "N" to refer to nineteenth century tobacco cards.
What our book really offers, above all else, is a fantastic resource detailing everything we know today about these nineteenth century American tobacco cards, for in it you will find lists of all unnumbered subjects (ideal for such sets as Kinney’s N224 ‘Military Series’), all known errors, varieties, banners and posters, and with every series having at least one card illustrated. Indeed, there are hundreds of cards in this book that few of us will have ever seen let alone owned or studied – and many of those are illustrated here in full colour. I can’t think, for example, of ever seeing a Whitlock’s (N856) ‘Circus Series’ card or Leidersdorf (N766) ‘Nudes’ anywhere else! I can appreciate the ask from some collectors for some form of indicative price guide (as Burdick and Forbes and Mitchell offered) but that somewhat misses the point of this book. In sticking with pure reference and steering away from the commercial side of the hobby we are left with an objective guide that I think will stand the test of time. Besides, if we want to know roughly how much we should be paying for something we could do worse than consult Murray’s Guide!
So what is next for Martin? Well, Book 151 is the first of the North American reference books. There will be another book on nineteeth century tobacco photographic issues (RB152) as well as a volume dedicated to all remaining North American Tobacco issues (including the ‘T’ numbers) (RB153). I am sure that those of you that have seen this book will be as excited as we are and will join me in wishing Martin the best of luck on the next book.
- the update to this book is now available, free of charge, in pdf format. Just click below