THE YELLOW KID 1896-1897 COMPLETE SET OF 154 BUTTONS IN HIGH GRADE NUMBERED 1-160 WITH 116 NM TO MINT AND 38 VF TO EXC.
Item Description
Richard F. Outcault, the creator of The Yellow Kid, Buster Brown and Tige, first saw his character in print Feb. 17, 1895 in the New York World newspaper. The Irish street urchin, soon named Mickey Dugan, quickly took over the large panel cartoons and is considered by many as the character that gave birth to America's first Sunday supplement newspaper comic strips. The next year, pin-back buttons were in their inaugural year as a nationwide fad. Before 1896 was over, High Admiral Cigarettes, a brand of the National Cigarette & Tobacco Co. of New York, capitalized on the fad by giving a button w/the "funny saying" of the Yellow Kid printed on his yellow nightshirt. Given w/each package of High Admiral, Admiral, Royal Sweets or Yellow Kid Cigarettes, an 1896 promotional mailing card states "They Cannot Be Had By Any Other Means" and the concept of a "set" was promoted w/an image of the Kid (and three illustrated buttons), w/his nightshirt reading "Say Dose Are Some Of Me Buttons/An Say Dey Are All Numbered An Dey Makes A Hot Collection." All 154 buttons are in the 1.25" size, some w/open backs and back papers and others w/metal covered backs w/High Admiral text.
First came numbers 1-94, w/the cartoon balloon text of the comic strip now printed on The Yellow Kid's iconic yellow nightshirt. This series ends w/94 (reason unknown) but in 1897 Outcault created a cartoon series titled "Around the World With The Yellow Kid" and the button give-away was repeated consisting of numbers 101-160, most showing the flags of countries (from Argentine Republic through Victoria) w/just three exceptions: #142 the skull and crossbones flag of "Ole Captain Kid," #143 an "Auction" flag ("Fer Sail Any Old Ting") and #144 the Red Cross flag ("We Will Fix You Alrite/We Ain't So Cross"). Thus a full set of 154 buttons numbered 1-160. Numbers in the 90s are especially scarce w/the numbers in this set 92-94 being NM and essentially un-improvable. In fact, we grade 116 of the 154 buttons as NM. The remaining 38 buttons have small age traces (as detailed by button number below) but remain in VF to Exc. condition. From several inches away and shining a bright flashlight on the buttons, all 154 display essentially Mint, w/o visually apparent flaws. Years in the making, this is the highest grade set known to us in a population of around just 8-10 or less complete sets.
Condition breakdown is as follows -
3 - 1" long hairline cello split by back collet, front has 1/8" dot at 12 o'clock and small edge scuff along 2-6 o'clock area.
41 - side edge has partially loose cello chip 1/8" deep on side curl edge and .25" long on reverse.
45 - covered back has 3/8" dia. surface rust spot.
47 - reverse at 9 o'clock area has hairline sliver of cello off.
48 - tiny 1/16" craze line below pennant.
64 - all is clean but right side just a little flattened.
65 - small flat spot on side edge at 3-4 o'clock and lt. stain near edge at 4-5 and 7-10 o'clock positions.
70 - very faint dot at 7 o'clock and 1/16" lt. spot at 10 o'clock.
72 - tiny tan dot on head and two on pennant.
74 - rim speck of something under cello at 9 o'clock, two faint dots by hat, one faint dot by left foot.
75 - small faint mark above crown.
77 - just slightly concave at center.
80 - a few tiny, faint age dots.
81 - reverse has two tiny 1/16" splits by metal covering.
82 - right side has extremely faint age toning.
86 - very faint age toning at center of bathtub.
90 - two very shallow 1/32" cello cuts on extreme edge at 10 o'clock.
91 - tiny age spot by left hand and one over "91" number.
101 - hairline 1/8" craze below flag.
105 - faint edge stain by 2-3 o'clock position.
109 - pinpoint nick w/1/8" spot at 2:30 plus .5" narrow white paint streak on back and curl, not seen from front.
112 - rim spot at 9 o'clock w/1/16" craze line and thin streak of staining along extreme edge at 9-12 o'clock position.
116 - many all over tiny craze lines but cello remains totally clean w/fat surface.
121 - five dark but small age marks at lower right.
123 - two faint barely seen age dots.
126 - five tiny faint age dots.
127 - 1/32" cello flake below number.
129 - a few tiny, faint age dots.
135 - very faint aging to right edge.
143 - 1/16" tiny craze line and faint dot by left foot.
144 - reverse has dark stain on curl but barely visible on front.
145 - a few tiny lt. spots at upper right.
151 - faint age dots above flag pole.
152 - .25", .5" and 1" hairline cello cracks but cello remains totally clean and glossy.
154 - barely visible 1/8" craze line below fan.
155 - .25" hairline crack left of his foot.
158 - edge stain at 4-6 o'clock position.
