(LOT 5)
c.1888 HB3 Gast & Co. Lithograph #302 Base Ball Bank Wm. Blair & Co. Trade Card PSA 5.5 EX+ - The ONLY Example Graded by PSA
BANK ON IT!!!... It isn't too often that a card is produced and ultimately graded for a single themed product created with the same ornate craftsmanship as the product itself. Thus is the case here with this c. 1888 HB3 Gast & Co. Lithograph Base Ball Bank Wm. Blair & Co. Trade Card, an advertising card created to promote the rare and collectible "Darktown Battery" cast-iron mechanical bank.  Setting aside the overtly racist overtones, this amazing blank-backed cardboard advertisement has endured for more than 135 years and PSA has graciously encased it in a 5.5 EX+ holder. It is the ONLY PSA-graded example in any grade. The African American caricatures represent a baseball battery and batter mechanical bank where a coin is strategically placed in the pitcher's hand, a lever is pressed and the coin is tossed to the catcher, dropping into the bank. This amazing relic offers wonderful color, clean white borders and the W.M. Blair & Co. name at the bottom.  This card is incredibly rare and scarcely appears for auction.

MIN BID $2,000
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