1880/1960 (ca.), Liebig trading cards, massive dealers stocks covering 95 albums and 39 boxes; around 94,000 cards in total, spread over approx. 14,000 sets and 9,000 singles.
Trading cards by the Liebig Meat Extract (Fleischextrakt) company were first produced in around 1875 in French and at a later stage in several languages. The first cards were singles; from about 1880 onwards, cards were produced in sets of a maximum of 6 single cards. While initially most of the cards displayed genre scenes with children, the sets were soon named and titled and aimed to impart knowledge by means of additional information printed on the back of the card. Until World War I, chromolithography was used to print the cards, while offset printing was increasingly used later. At the beginning of the 20th century, collecting Liebig cards was so popular that it even outshone the advertised product – Liebig meat extract. Soon, catalogues of the cards were published in Italian (Sanguinetti) and German (Arnhold / Spielhagen). The former listed all published cards, while in the latter, merely German cards were catalogued in chronological order according to the date of publication.
The material offered here has been grouped into three sections. The first section includes the sets catalogued in 60 albums from set 2 to set 1781. The two albums preceding this (published prior to 1880) include Sanguinetti issue numbers up to 100, covering 73 complete sets and 295 singles, i.e. a total of 843 cards. The retail price of these two albums is €23,000. As one would expect, the very early sets are subject to greater restrictions; traces of glue at the back, written notes and minor damage owing to folding are more common that with the later issues, which are in overall good condition. The following part lists later issues in the different languages, with issues in some languages being much rarer and hence more expensive. Singles from sets – if available – have been added to the catalogue, but only in this section of the material. In part owing to the Sanguinetti catalogue, Italian collectors particularly cherish Liebig trading cards. For this reason, we have arranged Italian items separately in four albums. These include 211 sets and 142 single items, i.e. a total of 1408 cards, valued at a sales price of around €7,000.
The second section includes 35 thematically arranged albums. As cards are grouped into categories such as world of work, history, art and culture, countries and peoples, nature and environment, sports and games, transport as well as science and technology and the respective subcategories, collectors interested in a particular area (Richard Wagner, railways, mining, etc.) can spot suitable material conviently, too. In this section, each set is only listed once for illustrative purposes. Sets of six cards each issued by the Stollwerck and Palmin companies complement this thematic arrangement. The material does not include many cards from other companies.
The second section – 39 boxes – contains around 10,500 chronologically arranged complete sets, which were intended as a reserve for sets which are available more than twice. These 95 albums were only meant for display of what is for sale, while sales themselves would usually be made right from these boxes, two of which contain Stollwerck and Palmin cards.
The entire material is neatly organized and well kept. The prints of all sets up to 1914 – lithographic prints – are exceptional and the graphic design of later issues is extremely appealing. Considering its size, this object is truly outstanding and has great potential for detailed use. ÷ EUROPA - 1880/1960 (ca.): Liebig-Sammelbilder, riesiges Händlerlager in 95 Alben und 39 Kisten. Enthalten sind insgesamt ca. 94.000 Bilder, welche sich auf ca. 14.000 Serien und ca. 9.000 Einzelbilder verteilen.
Sammelbilder der Firma Liebig Fleischextrakt wurden ab ca. 1875 zuerst in französisch und später in mehreren Sprachen hergestellt. B
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