Rare c. 1880s Palmer Cox Brownies Matching Game Cards (Partial Set)

Regular price $45.00

These seem to be quite the rare cards; I have only found one reference to them out there, from a baseball card afficionado relative to the two baseball player depictions included! Certainly there is a fair amount of material out there featuring the Brownies--imaginary sprites invented by Canadian author and illustrator Palmer Cox, apparently based on Celtic mythology and highland Scottish tales told to Cox by his grandmother--but these I believe are quite early, and the application of the characters to a matching type card game seems to me just right.  And I love the production of this set, printed on brown paper, with blank backs, such that it is all about the drawings themselves. This set is not complete, as evident (there is only one of a few of them) but, happily, a good number of them endured, which I found in a cardboard box perfectly fitted to them, which may be the one they were sold in. 

Cards measure 3 1/4" x 2 1/4". 24 pictured, plus a few more with a little more tearing that I'll send along too. A few corner losses as evident, but overall good condition.