This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/7/2024
[CIGARETTE CARDS]. JOHNSON, Jack (1878-1946). A Pair of Rare Cigarette Cards Featuring Heavyweight Champion Jack Johnson. [New York: Mecca Cigarettes and Hassan Cork Tip Cigarettes, ca. 1910]. Cards with color portraits of Johnson on the front (two different action poses), with descriptive text on versos. Both approximately 2 ½ x 3”. Some mild rubbing, Hassan card with faint creasing to upper right corner. Excellent and rare (ungraded). Johnson, nicknamed “The Galveston Giant,” was a legendary boxer and the first African-American to claim the Heavyweight Championship. He had a total of 95 fights, with 72 wins (38 by K.O.), 11 losses, and 11 draws. He famously beat former champion James J. Jeffries (1875-1953) in the racially-charged “Fight of the Century” in Reno, NV (Jeffries, “The Great White Hope,” initiated the fight in order to prove the so-called superiority of the “White Race;” Johnson beat him so badly, that even Jeffries acknowledged the prowess and power of Johnson).