N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 28: White Cochin Cock

It's been a little while since I posted a chicken card, and I've got a couple in the queue, so here we go! I've been working on a vintage set of Allen & Ginter cards, the N20 Fifty Prize & Game Chickens set from 1891. I am approaching the 3/5 mark on the set, with today's card being my 28th from the 50-card checklist. Because the cards are over 125 years old, I don't have a lot of requirements for condition, but I do try to get cards that have both front and back intact, especially the pictures on the front.

Card 28 in my set build is the White Cochin Cock. Cochins come in a variety of colors, and are a heavy bird with feathered feet.

Here's a picture of one from FeatherSite's Cochin page. According to what passes for research around here (looking at Wikipedia and FeatherSite for a minute or two), Cochins have been bred for show at the expense of egg-laying and meat-producing qualities. They still lay eggs and you can eat them, but they aren't as good for either purpose as birds bred specifically bred for eggs or meat.

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 27: White Dorking Hen

It's been a while since I added to my N20 Allen & Ginter Fifty Prize & Game Chickens set build. These tobacco cards are over 125 years old, and it's not often that examples show up that are in good shape and also in my price range. July 2016 was the last time I picked up a card from this set.

This most recent addition features the White Dorking Hen. It is the 27th Prize & Game Chickens card in my collection, so my set is now 54% complete. I may have to relax my condition standards and/or open up my wallet a little if I ever want to collect the whole checklist.

Picture borrowed from FeatherSite's Dorking info page.

According to the internet, Dorkings are named after a town in England. They were developed by the Romans and brought to England, and they are the basis for a lot of other chicken breeds. They come in several colors, like Silver-Grey, Colored, Red, and White.

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 26: Japanese Bantam

I found some 2016 Allen & Ginter yesterday, but a couple of weeks ago I found another card toward my N20 1891 Allen & Ginter Fifty Prize & Game Chickens set build. These cards are over 125 years old, and I've now officially moved over the 50% completion mark on acquiring the set. I got this one on eBay, and it's a pretty nice-looking example.

The bird on the card is a Japanese Bantam, which is a true bantam breed, meaning that they have no regular-sized counterpart breed. They carry their tails in an upright manner and are bred with a variety of feather colors. There are frizzled Japanese Bantams, too, which means that their feathers curl around, giving them a windblown look.

Photo of Japanese Bantams from the breed page on FeatherSite

I think these are a pretty cool chicken, and I wouldn't mind having a couple around if I ever get a backyard flock off the ground. This is one of the cards from the set I was really looking forward to obtaining, and I am glad I was able to get such a nice example.

Not much on the tourism front today. I did go to Maverick's again to get a top loader and sleeve for my 2016 Allen & Ginter hit. I decided to list it on eBay right away so I could catch some of the initial rush as set and player collectors try to get the cards they want for their collections. I didn't really want to buy a whole pack of top loaders and a whole pack of penny sleeves, and the guy behind the counter gave me one of each for my card. I thought that was pretty cool. I picked up a couple packs of Topps Star Wars: Evolution while I was there, but didn't pull any cool hits or character cards that blew me away. They are pretty nice-looking cards, though. They have display cases with LEGO kits that have been assembled and are being sold as-is at a steep discount. I was looking at a set yesterday that really tempted me and today it was gone. The price was really good, so I'm not surprised it was already sold.

One thing that really bugged me for the first few days I was here was that on the horizon the sky goes all the way to the trees. Where I'm from in Idaho there is almost always a mountain range or some hills in the distance in every direction, so there is something between the trees and the sky. It's just one of those things that you don't even notice until you actually see a horizon with no mountains in it.

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 25: Silver-Spangled Polish

Just like yesterday's bird, here is a chicken that I don't have a lot of information on. There is a fair amount of information on the Polish in general, but the Silver-Spangled variety seems to have fallen out of favor since this card was released in around 1891. I did find an illustration of some Silver-Spangled Polish chickens from a book published in 1880, so this was definitely a thing that existed back then. There are also a whole ton of different color varieties of the Polish bird, so it is conceivable that these still exist somewhere, especially as I found some very similar birds like Silver-Laced Polish. The Polish breed itself is really only rumored to be from Poland, as no one really knows where they came from. Some people say they came from the Netherlands. They are a relatively small chicken, and are mostly used these days as show birds or to dress up backyard flocks with their fancy feathered crests.

This N20 1891 Allen & Ginter Fifty Prize & Game Chickens card came from the same eBay lot as the last several cards I've shown. It is the last card from that lot, and is probably in the roughest condition out of the bunch. It's a bit dirty and the surface is pocked and lined in spots. Not enough, though, to make this card undesirable to me. As my 25th card from the set, it brings me halfway to completion of the set.

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 24: Wheaten Game Hen

This Wheaten Game Hen is another card from the eBay lot of N20 1891 Allen & Ginter Fifty Prize & Game Chickens cards I purchased a little while back. This bird has been somewhat difficult to research, as I believe Wheaten is just a color pattern that is present in several different breeds. So I am relatively certain that this Wheaten Game Hen is a Wheaten-colored Old English Game Hen. I've seen some pictures of Old English Game Fowl that look a bit thicker than this bird, but I've seen a few that look thinner, too, with the higher carriage this bird is displaying. I don't know for sure. I would guess that in 125 years a chicken breed or two might go through a few changes. This is the 24th different card I've accumulated in the 50-card set, so I'm 48% complete. The text at the top on the front of the card is a little worn, but not to the point that I rejected it as being incomplete. I am maybe a little pickier currently than I have to be, but as long as I can find cards in my desired condition level I will keep to it. Not much else to say about this one, really. I am rapidly running out of chicken cards to post about, and then it will be back to the grind of searching for more.

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 23: Andalusian Cock

This Andalusian Cock card is my 23rd from the 50-card N20 1891 Allen & Ginter Fifty Prize & Game Chickens set. Like the others I've been posting recently, I got this from someone who posted a large number of cards from the set on eBay all at once. I came away with a couple handfuls of them, which was a huge boost to a project that had pretty much been on the back burner for 9 months. It wasn't for lack of looking, but these cards are 125 years old and it's not every day that someone posts one that is both a) in decent shape and b) in my price range.

Andalusian Rooster; Photo from FeatherSite

Andalusians are a blue-hued chicken that probably originated in Spain. They are hardy, forage well, and lay a lot of eggs, so apparently that makes them a pretty popular breed for backyard flocks. Every clutch of chickens will produce black and splash (multi-colored) birds, but whoever is in charge of chicken shows has deemed that only blue Andalusians can be shown. You still need the black and splash birds in your breeding stock, though, as the blue color tends to fade and you have to breed the black ones back into the pool to darken it up. That tells me that it doesn't matter whether you're running a fashion show for people or birds, there is always a committee there who are more than happy to tell you that you're doing it wrong.

I was watching a video a few months ago where a bonsai tree club invited an expert to come in and judge all of their trees, and the guy was just ripping these people apart. He was like, "Just the whole view of this tree does not flow. This branch is out of place, and I don't know what you're doing here. But if you turn the tree like this," and he moved the pot like 1/4-inch counter-clockwise, "it changes the whole view of the tree and hides those issues you've caused." And these people were just eating it up and apologizing for their crimes against bonsai and making excuses and it was awful. But we really are like that as humans. We all have passions and points of expertise that we use to put other people down, and we also have insecurities and fears that other people can use to put us down. I don't know what to do about it, but when it comes to card collecting it might start by letting other people collect the way they choose without bad-mouthing them or being critical of their opinions in the comments section. Just something I was thinking about this evening.

I am rapidly approaching the halfway mark in this set. I hope that I will continue to have success in finding the rest of the cards in the checklist.

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 22: Houdan Cock

I've still got a few more of these N20 1891 Allen & Ginter Fifty Prize & Game Chickens cards left to post from that eBay lot I purchased. This Houdan Cock card is my 22nd from the set, bringing me up to 44% completion. It's in pretty good shape (especially for being 125 years old!) with the mail problem being centering. Still, my requirements for condition aren't extremely stringent, mostly just calling for a complete image on the front and minimal to no paper loss on the back.

Houdan Rooster, image from FeatherSite.com

The Houdan is another breed with a crazy crest of feathers on its head. I figured they were an Asian breed, but they come from the Houdan region in France. That shows how much I know about anything. One cool feature they have that I haven't heard of before is a butterfly comb, as seen in the photo above. That thing is pretty wild. Almost as crazy as the walnut comb featured a couple of posts ago. These are cool birds, but I am more inclined to be a fan of the feather-footed breeds as opposed to feather-headed breeds.

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 21: Silky Cock

Here's another card I picked up from the N20 1891 Allen & Ginter Fifty Prize & Game Chickens set. This card features is entitled Silky Cock and features a rooster of the Silky (or Silkie) breed. This is the 21st card in my collection from this set, bringing me to 42% complete with the checklist.

By way of recommendation, if you want to know more about this breed of poultry, go to a general poultry site first and then search within that site or do a web search with a different term like 'Silky Chicken' or 'Silky Rooster.' I wouldn't recommend just typing 'Silky Cock' into Google and hitting Search. If you don't know why, just maintain your innocence and follow my suggestion. If you do know why, then that's probably the first thing you thought of upon reading the post title. I imagine my hit count is going to be uncharacteristically high on this post.

Silky Rooster head showing walnut comb, from FeatherSite

Silkies are a breed that was developed somewhere in Asia, with rumored origins in China, Java, Japan, and India. I showed the Silky Hen card from this set a couple of years ago. Males have a 'walnut' comb, which looks a bit like a brain or a tumor on the front of the head. These birds come in many colors, but their meat, skin, and bones all have a black tint to them. They lack barb and quill feathers, so they are covered with downy soft plumage.

That's about all I have to say about this one. I'm happy to have made so much progress on this set recently. These are definitely some cool cards.

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 20: Henny Game

Here's another card from the lot of N20 1891 Allen & Ginter Fifty Prize & Game Chickens cards I purchased on eBay recently. This one is the Henny Game card. I think the Henny Game is a variation of the Irish Gamefowl in which the males do not develop the typical tail-, neck-, and saddle-feathers that distinguish males in other breeds. I guess you learn something new every day. Or you're supposed to. Sometimes I don't feel like I learn anything for days at a time, but how can you prove that you haven't learned anything at all?

I am rambling here because I don't have anything at all to say about this card. Sometimes you just don't have that blogging mojo going on. And honestly this bird just doesn't hold my interest like some other poultry. I'm still happy to have this card in my collection. Whether I like the pictured bird or not, acquiring this card still bumps my completion of the set up by 2%. This is my 20th card from the set, bringing me to 40% completion overall. The illustration is at least pretty interesting, with bricks, a wooden fence, a house, and some greenery in the background.

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 19: White-Faced Black Spanish Cock

Recently I've been working my way through a batch of N20 1891 Allen & Ginter Fifty Prize & Game Chickens cards I picked up on eBay. This is the third card from that batch and my nineteenth card overall from the set.

This card features the White-Faced Black Spanish Cock. I featured his counterpart, the White-Faced Black Spanish Hen, way back in 2014. As I mentioned in that post, this breed originated in Spain and came about by breeding the chickens for larger earlobes until they took over their entire faces. This card is pretty far off-center, to the point where you can see text from the adjoining card along the right edge on the back. I am not too worried about that, although I imagine it will hurt the card's grading when I eventually send in all of my ungraded chicken cards to PSA for slabbing. But my goal is merely to have a full PSA-graded set. I don't have much in the way of aspirations as far as the actual grades themselves go. I just feel like cards this old should be preserved and a card slab feels easier to protect than a tiny bit of cardstock.

Close shot of the White-Faced Black Spanish Rooster, borrowed from FeatherSite

Here is a close-up of a White-Faced Black Spanish rooster's head. The internet tells me that these are one of the older Mediterranean chicken breeds, they lay large white eggs, and although they originated in Spain they are now considered rare in that country. An interesting site I came across in researching this chicken is The Livestock Conservancy, which tries to track and monitor the status of different livestock breeds. Some livestock breeds, like the White-Faced Black Spanish chicken, are in danger of disappearing because they don't have various traits that farms desire. In this breed's case, the breeding that led to their white faces also made them a little less hardy than other chickens, so they fell out of popularity once stronger breeds came about that could lay the same number / quality of eggs. They are listed as Critical on the Conservation Priority List.

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 18: Silver-Grey Dorking Hen

Here is the 18th different card in my N20 1891 Allen & Ginter Fifty Prize & Game Chickens collection. As mentioned in my last post about this set, I picked up a couple handfuls of these cards from an eBay seller recently. Today's card is the Silver-Grey Dorking Hen, which is one color variation of the Dorking breed.

Silver-Grey Dorking Hen, borrowed from FeatherSite's Dorking info page.

The picture on the card looks pretty similar to the photograph I found here. According to the internet, the Dorking is named after a town in England. The breed was developed by the Romans and then brought to England, and is apparently the basis for many of the other chicken varieties in existence. I really like adding new N20's to my collection, and I hope to complete the set at some point in the next few years.

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 17: Silver-Pencilled Hamburgh

I feel like my last couple of posts have been a little negative, so I'm looking to inject a little optimism into my blog with this post. One set that I just can't feel bad about is the N20 Allen & Ginter Fifty Prize & Game Chickens tobacco card set that was printed around 125 years ago. Cards from the set are somewhat readily available, but not always at prices I am able to stomach. Recently a seller posted a bunch of them on eBay and I compared the offerings to my checklist and placed bids on all the ones I needed that were in acceptable shape. For me, acceptable shape means that the picture and text on the front is intact and there is no paper loss on the back. Corners and centering don't matter to me unless they affect the picture. I wound up winning several of them, so I'll have plenty of chicken cards to post in the near future.

This first card features the Silver-Pencilled Hamburgh (or Hamburg if you prefer). Usually the card front specifies whether the male or female is pictured, but this one doesn't. This illustration shows a rooster, with a nice backdrop of grass and mountains in the distance. Although technically I got all of the cards in this batch at the same time, if you go by order of posting this is my 17th card from the set.

Silver Pencilled Hamburgs, image courtesy of FeatherSite-The Poultry Page

Here's a photograph of the male and female of the breed. According to the internet there are several varieties of Hamburgh (I've already shown off the Silver-Spangled Hamburgh) and they are probably better for eggs than for meat, being a small- to medium-sized bird. Although the comb on the rooster in the picture looks pretty small compared to the comb on the rooster on the card, I've seen other photographs of roosters with longer combs on their heads. The comb on the rooster on the card is still exaggerated quite a bit, though, in my opinion.

It's always nice to get a stack of cardboard in the mail, especially trading cards whose printing date was closer to the American Revolutionary War(!) than it was to today. There were some really nice cards in this batch, and I'm looking forward to showing them all off.

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 16: American Light Brahma

A few days ago I showed off one card I'd picked up for my N20 1891 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens set. I got today's card in the same transaction, bringing me to 16 out of 50 cards in the set. This one is the American Light Brahma, which is a heavy bird with feathered feet. My family had chickens when I was younger, and Brahmas were my bird of choice, although I chose Buff Brahmas over the Light and Dark varieties. If I were to ever get some backyard chickens I would probably go the same route. I am a creature of habit. This card is a bit off-center, but both front and back are in really nice shape. There's a little crease at the top, but this card has been around for 124 years so I will give it a pass on that. I haven't seen a lot of these cards pop up lately, but I haven't really been looking too hard lately either. I hope to continue making progress on the set as these are some of my favorite cards to collect.

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 15: Black Frizzled Fowl

It's been a while since I added to my N20 1891 Allen & Ginter Fifty Prize & Game Chickens tobacco card set build. A seller recently put some of them up on eBay and after the dust cleared I came away with a couple of cards. First up is the one shown above, a decent copy depicting the Black Frizzled Fowl. The back has some pencil marks, some fading, and some stains. I do care about the backs, but the main concern for me when it comes to the back of these cards is that I don't want paper loss. In this case the back is intact and readable, so it's good enough for me. I have similar requirements for the front of these cards; I don't want any paper loss or chipping, especially when it affects the picture of the chicken itself. This one is pretty good on the front. This is my 15th card from the set. Progress is slow, but it's not that easy to find cards that were printed 124 years ago, at least not on my budget. I'll probably keep adding a few per year as long as I can find them.

Image from the Sana Pets blog

The Black Frizzled Fowl looks about how it sounds, with feathers that curl out and back, giving it puffy frazzled appearance. I have found from Googling it that this kind of chicken comes in many colors with varying levels of frizzle, from birds that just have a few feathers out of place to birds like the one above that look like a poultry grenade detonation. I love these chicken cards, and I can't wait to get more of them.

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 14: Derbyshire Red Cap

I picked up another card recently in my quest to complete the N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens set, which was produced in the late 1800s, probably around 1891. That makes this card around 125 years old. This Derbyshire Red Cap is my 10th PSA graded card from the set, which means I've got 20% of the cards in PSA holders. I also have 4 ungraded cards, so overall I have 14 of the 50 cards, or 28% of the set.

The seller of this card had several cards listed, but I was only able to land this one, which had the lowest grade of the bunch. From what I can tell, the person who purchased the bulk of the other cards from this seller has relisted them at prices much higher than they won them for, and well out of my range.

Here is the back of the card, which is basically a checklist for the set and an advertisement for Allen & Ginter cigarettes. The card carries a relatively low grade, but meets my criteria, which are that the art on the front should not be overly compromised (the rooster's tail is missing a couple of small chips), there shouldn't be much paper loss on the back of the card, and I prefer that cards not be too discolored or stained.

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 10-13: Playing Chicken on eBay

1891 Allen & Ginter's Fifty Prize & Game Chickens: Creve-Coeur Hen, Gold-Laced Bantam, Guinea Fowl, and White Plymouth Rock

I have an eBay search set up for the Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens set from the early 1890's, but most of the things that pop up are the same folks re-listing the same group of PSA-graded stuff over and over. Well, someone posted most of the set on there as singles with relatively low starting prices. I wanted to bid on the whole lot of them, but I restrained myself a little and bid on the six best-looking ones. I got outbid on two of those and wound up with these four cards. These are some nice-looking cards, with the birds featured up front and nice colorful scenes in the backgrounds. 

1891 Allen & Ginter's Fifty Prize & Game Chickens: Creve-Coeur Hen, Gold-Laced Bantam, Guinea Fowl, and White Plymouth Rock

The backs of these cards are pretty clean, without a lot of marking, stains, or paper loss. They are my first cards from this set that are not PSA-graded, so now I have a storage dilemma. I kind of like the look of the slabbed cards in this case, and I also like the protection the slabs afford to these 125-year old cards. Dropping or otherwise damaging any card feels bad, but I would feel especially bad if I were to hurt these cards after all the many things they've lived through.

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 9: Silver-Spangled Hamburgh

This is the last of the lot of N20 Allen & GInter Prize & Game Chickens cards I picked up from a seller on a vintage non-sports card forum. I haven't added any more cards to my set since then as I have been caught up in other things, like Gint-a-Cuffs. This card features the Silver-Spangled Hamburgh, which is apparently just one of a great many color variations of the Hamburgh. The various internet references tell me that they are a smaller bird that doesn't tolerate confinement well and has a tendency to fly over fences. They do lay a lot of eggs, which are rather on the small side and white in color. This particular card is PSA-graded at 4.5 and is my 9th card from the 50-card set, which was released in cigarette packs in the late 1880s-early 1890s. I have seen a variety of dates listed for the set, but they range from about 1888 to about 1892. Either way, these cards are quite old and have really held onto their color quite well.

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 8: Wyandotte Cock (Silver Laced) with a Guest Appearance by Mike the Headless Chicken

I am just about through all of the 1891 Allen & Ginter N20 Prize & Game Chickens cards that I've collected so far. Today I am showing off the Wyandotte Cock (Silver Laced). These chickens are white with black edging around their feathers, although the Silver-Laced are just one of many different color variations that the Wyandotte can be found in. I'd say the illustration is a fairly accurate representation based on the photographs I found.

Linked from http://ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/silver-laced-wyandottes/

The most famous Wyandotte was Mike the Headless Chicken, who lived on for 18 months after being beheaded by his owner in 1945. The ax missed Mike's major veins, as well as part of the rooster's brain stem and ear. Enough of the brain stem was left intact that Mike's basic bodily functions were able to continue. The farmer was able to feed him milk and water through an eyedropper and also small grains of corn, presumably by shoving them down his neck. He was apparently quite a moneymaker, but eventually choked to death in a motel room, kind of a fitting end for a wild-living rock star celebrity. He looked about like you would expect a headless chicken to look...

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 7: White-Faced Black Spanish Hen

I've gone a few days without a livestock-themed post, so here is an old Allen & Ginter card from the N20 Prize & Game Chickens set. I don't know a lot about these chickens. The White-faced Black Spanish breed originated in Spain (surprise!) and the white face of the chicken apparently comes from selectively breeding chickens for larger earlobes, until the earlobes took over the whole face. I guess we do some odd things in the name of beauty.

There are 7 copies of this card in the PSA registry, ranging from 1.5 to 6.0. There are 4 cards graded higher than my copy and 2 cards graded lower, so my card falls on the lower end of the graded population. I am not too worried, though, as the 4.0 cards I have are all quite presentable and retain the artwork and color.

N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens 6: Silky Hen

I have a lot of schoolwork assigned right now, so I haven't got around to scanning and cropping any more sports cards. That means you get another chicken from the N20 Allen & Ginter Prize & Game Chickens set, the Silky Hen. This card is graded 4.0 and again falls pretty well in the middle of the graded cards in the population report.  There is a total PSA-graded population of 7 cards, with 3 cards graded higher, one other card graded the same, and two lower-graded cards. The highest score is an 8.0 and the lowest score is a 1.0. No card in this set so far has been graded at higher than 8.0 by PSA, and only two PSA 8.0 cards from the set exist at the moment.

"Silky bantam". Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

The Silky (Silkie) is kind of an interesting bird. They have fluffy, silky plumage, five toes on each foot instead of the four usually found on chickens, and black pigmentation to their skin, meat, and bones. That meat is kind of crazy-looking. I'd never seen that before. People say it tastes like any other chicken meat. Kind of a cool bird, even if the puffy feathers make it look like a Muppet.

I recently started a new Accounting course, and the instructor is one of those professors who believes that his course should be the highest priority in his students' lives for the duration of the semester and assigns enough homework, reading, and quizzes to ensure that is the case. I know that there are several other students falling behind in the work as quickly as I am due to distractions like work, family, personal hygiene, sleep, and other courses, so perhaps he will notice the trend and ease up a bit over the remaining weeks. We seem to get a lot of brand new adjunct professors in this program, and it seems like we go through this same cycle with most of them. It makes the first couple weeks of any course pretty painful, though, and the fatigue of trying to keep up usually lingers throughout the remainder of the classes, like a sort of academic jet lag.

I am still maintaining a 3.5-ish GPA, but that has been inflated by some pretty heavy grade-curving throughout the last few semesters. The instructors probably are under pressure to keep most of us moving through the program so that the school can keep getting that tuition money rolling in, so it seems pretty rare for anyone in any of my classes to fail a class outright after the curve has been applied. There may be a lot of C- grades, though. I've had one or two of those myself.

My box of Allen & Ginter for Gint-a-Cuffs should arrive today, which is somewhat exciting. It will be hard to wait for the rules to get posted, but I don't really have time to scan all the cards and tally up my score right now anyway. My wife got some Target gift cards for buying a billion Pull-Ups for our kids, so I used them on a blaster box of Allen & Ginter. It was the worst blaster ever, and I had absolutely no reason to scan any of the cards that came from it. Hopefully that isn't some kind of foreshadowing for my Gint-a-Cuffs box.