A Look at the Rare N354 Consols and Paxi Cigarettes Baseball Turn Card

Those that know me realize that I consider myself primarily a set collector. That said, over the last few years, I’ve really dove more into collecting singles.

What kind of singles? I wish it were that simple! The reality is that the singles I pursue tend to fall into one of the following buckets:

Rarities
Rookie cards or, for non-sports figures, first/early issues
Cards that I just think are aesthetically-pleasing

The 19th century N354 Consols and Paxi Cigarettes Turn Cards set is a rare series of 25 two-sided cards. It’s mostly a non-sports series but does include a few generic sports subjects from the world of boxing, billiards, fencing, and horse racing. While the entire set is quite rare, the most desirable card is one featuring a pair of baseball players — a batter and a catcher. I’d only managed to see two examples of the card up for auction in the past few years and was fortunate enough to grab the example shown here. The other example was part of a complete set offered in a Vintage Non-Sports Auction in 2022, which sold for just over $2,130 at the time.

Suffice to say, that is the first time I’d ever seen a complete set offered for sale since I’d been tracking the card. Finding any of the cards is a challenge and building an entire set seems like a monumental task.

The original cards included a pair of small holes with a small string running through them and tied at each end. The odd design was meant to create a sport of magic motion card, similar to the 1980s Sportsflics 3D cards. As Old Cardboard notes in their article on the set, the card utilizes a ‘thaumatrope’ technique, allowing for a combined image when the string is twirled quickly enough, rapidly alternating the two sides of the card.

The image for one side of the baseball card features a comical pose of a batter mid-swing with the ball sailing past him. The other side features a catcher, wearing the same striped red uniform about to receive the ball. The card is titled, “Three Strikes,” indicating the batter has struck out.

Many of the cards, however, have lost their strings over time or, as was the case with my card, included only a partial string. Cards with the full string intact are certainly more desirable. However, the set is so rare that most collectors seeking the cards would likely pursue them just as hard when they are without it.

A few discrepancies are reported for this set labeled as No. 354 (now known as N354) in the American Card Catalog. First, there are conflicts surrounding the date of issue. Old Cardboard lists this as both a set from 1889 and/or 1894. The Met Museum states it is from c1894.

There are also two different sizes for the cards that have been reported. One type is generally reported at 1 5/8″ by 2 7/8″ with a second type approximately 1/2″ bigger on each side. However, my card is slightly smaller by about 1/16″ of an inch in each direction and does not appear to be trimmed. I believe the measurements that have been reported could be slightly off — often measurements are rounded up or down to the nearest 16th of an inch as I’ve seen in other early sets. Another possibility, of course, is that it was similar to other 19th century tobacco cards (i.e. Old Judge) where the measurements were routinely a bit off.

I love the really oddball sort of generic stuff out there. That’s especially true when it comes to 19th century baseball where you can find a handful of really great issues buried in mostly non-sport or multi-sport sets.