Tiffany is a famous jewelry company known for its high-end luxury goods and craftsmanship. However, Tiffany also has a history in the collectible baseball card market. In the late 19th century, when baseball cards first started being produced and collected, Tiffany began creating some of the earliest and most valuable cards in the industry.
In the 1870s and 1880s, before modern mass-produced baseball cards were common, Tiffany produced sets of cabinet cards featuring star players from that era. Cabinet cards were a type of photograph printed on thick paper or card stock that was popular before lightweight glossy photo paper became widespread. Tiffany would commission famous photographers to take portraits of star players and batters like Cap Anson, Jim O’Rourke, and Buck Ewing. They would then print these portrait photos on high-quality cabinet cards and sell them individually or in sets.
As one of the first companies to recognize the growing interest in collecting photos and information about professional baseball players, Tiffany helped pioneer the sports card collecting hobby in its earliest days. Their cabinet cards featuring prominent players from the National League’s first decade are now among the most valuable and sought-after baseball cards in existence from that era. Only a few sets are known to still exist today in mint condition.
In the 1890s, after color lithography became an affordable printing technique, Tiffany began producing color baseball cards as well. These included early color lithographic portraits similar to the cabinet cards, only smaller and printed as traditional card stock instead of thick photo paper. Tiffany also created some of the first true “star cards” or promotional trading cards inserted into packages of sports equipment and accessories. These color lithographic cards promoted brands like Spalding sporting goods and featured multiple star players. Tiffany cards from this period are key to the origins of modern baseball card sets.
Through the early decades of the 20th century, Tiffany occasionally produced small runs of vintage-style cabinet cards or lithographed cards as commemoratives. They did not become a major baseball card manufacturer. After WWII, the mass-produced topps and bowman cardboard cards had come to dominate the booming postwar sportscard market. Tiffany had helped pioneer the baseball memorabilia and collectibles industry in its infancy but now functioned primarily as a high-end brand outside mainstream sportscard production.
In the 1970s and 80s, as interest in rare vintage cards skyrocketed among adolescent baby boomer collectors and the early “memorabilia investing” trend took shape, Tiffany cards from the 1870s-1890s gained immense popularity and value. Their cabinet cards and early lithographs from baseball’s pioneering National League era became among the most coveted and expensive collectibles. In the modern era, pristine Tiffany cabinet cards from the 19th century routinely sell at auction for well over $100,000. Their rarity, historical significance, and association with a famous luxury brand have cemented Tiffany’s place as producers of some of the holy grails of early baseball memorabilia collecting.
While Tiffany themselves did not have a major sustained presence in the sportscard industry long-term, their productions in the earliest formative period were hugely influential. They helped drive public interest in collecting baseball players’ identities and performances and cultivated the connection between sportscards, fandom, and nostalgia that today’s billion dollar memorabilia industry is built upon. For serious vintage collectors, a Tiffany cabinet card or litho remains one of the most prized possessions attainable, a true jewel of athletic history and an icon of an American pastime.
