1880s H804-7 Baseball Comics Merchant’s Gargling Oil Advertising Hugging the Bat

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1880s H804-7 Baseball Comics Merchant’s Gargling Oil Advertising Hugging the Bat
The H804-7 cards were used to promote a few different businesses. The main one was Merchants Gargling Oil Liniment, which was supposed to remove all sorts of body pains and aches. That is the namesake of the set even though it was only one of many advertisers using these cards. A quick glance at the checklist on the back shows that it was usable for all sorts of things, including burns, flesh wounds, swelled legs, toothaches, hemorrhoids, joint weakness, and many other things you’ve probably never even heard of. Cost at the time was for a large bottle or $.25 for a small bottle.
The H804-7 checklist includes the following cards:
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Something must be done “Put it there!” (with bat)
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The Hero of a Home Run. The Ladies Favorite.
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Bravo! The Pet of the Nine.
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A Close Affair. Hugging the Bat.
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Struck Out
The fronts of the cards had a generic image depicting the same fellow in five different poses. The Merchants Gargling Oil name was on the front in different spots, including the players belt or the baseball bat he carried. And while they were a primary sponsor, these cards also featured many other businesses, too.
In the 1800s with the game of baseball growing in popularity, businesses began using the game more and more to promote their businesses. In addition to N-Cards distributed with tobacco products, trade cards began sprouting up quite a bit.
One popular H-Card set is from the 1880s and is designated with the Baseball Comics classification in the American Card Catalog. The publication also gives it the designation H804-7 (the seventh under the Baseball Comics header) and calls these the Merchants Gargling Oil cards, which is only partially accurate.
The set features an odd-looking, overweight baseball player in a variety of baseball poses. Two feature him with a baseball bat – one (as shown here) ready to swing and a second dragging the bat after he struck out. A third depicts him as a catcher waiting for a pitch. They are printed on white or cream-colored paper with black ink.
Two are a little more comical in nature. One has him on the ground holding a baseball with his legs up in the air and the final one shows him taking a break, fanning himself.
The cards are commonly found trimmed because the bottoms had an advertisement for the oil, which some collectors cut off. The H804-7 set was a typical trade card issue featuring a player in various comedic poses. That was common for trade cards of the day.
Lithography for the set was done by Gies & Company of Buffalo, NY. Trimmed versions of the cards with the bottoms cut off will not include this information. However, the fully intact versions have their name in small letters in the bottom border. This site says the company existed for about 50 years from approximately 1871 through 1922.
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