(LOT 82)
T206 Jack Chesbro – Sweet Caporal 350-460 Subjects/Factory 25 (PSA NM/MT 8) - "1 of 1" Sweet Caporals; NO Sweet Caps Graded Higher!
For many years we have come across some of the finest pre-WWI cardboard gems that have withstood the "test of time", defying close to a century or more of potential wear and able to retain their original "pack fresh" qualities. One of those astonishing examples is this T206 Chesbro offering is the SOLE Sweet Cap PSA 8 example identified on the PSA "Pop" chart with NONE graded higher! Cooperstown inductee Jack Chesbro will forever be renowned as the owner of the all-time single season victory mark when he tallied an incomprehensible 41 wins for the New York Highlanders in 1904. One of the most notorious spitball pitchers to ever toe a pitching rubber, he developed the pitch during his 1902 season with Pittsburgh, finishing his Hall of Fame career with five 20-win seasons.

Synonymous with his remarkable 41-win season is this near-immaculate PSA 8 gem that certainly appears to have just been pulled from a pack of Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. Ultra-rare for the grade, Chesbro's classic Carl Horner portrait pose is affixed to a near–flawless olive-green background, with the contrast of his facial hues, period style hair style and Highlander's uniform virtually un-improvable. Dazzling white borders, four precision cut corners, sharp edging, and super clean surfaces complete this miraculous tobacco offering whose image only reveals a modest favoritism towards the upper left edges. Ultra-popular with collectors, Jack Chesbro is one of those turn of the century players who does not appear on an abundance of cardboard issues.

With his Major League career only spanning from 1899 thru 1909, his handful of mainstream cards include the W600 Sporting Life Cabinets, ultra-rare E107 Breisch Williams, Fan Craze and T206 subjects. His early exodus from professional baseball prevented him from appearing on the myriad of additional candy and tobacco cards that would flood the market between 1909 and 1916. However, hobbyists are extremely fortunate that the ATC decided to include Chesbro in their prestigious T206 issue before he hung up his spikes at the end of the 1909 season. What could be more rewarding than seizing what is arguably his most popular cardboard memento, with this "1 of 1" highest graded Sweet Cap prize anxiously awaiting a new home in any revered T206 compilation!

MIN BID $3,500