Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Paying Respects to a Pioneer of Cards



Lewis Ginter's grave monument is the largest in Hollywood Cemetery

The stained glass windows were handmade by Louis Comfort Tiffany.
For more works by Tiffany, see this great page on Artsy.
Across from the Monument was a street sign for Ginter Ave., which you can see on my A&G want list page.  I have a number of relatives on my mother's side buried in Hollywood Cemetery, which is in Richmond, VA.  My great-grandfather was caretaker at the cemetery for a number of years.  It's really a spectacular place to visit.  I'll save you the history lesson, but do check out the slideshow on the cemetery website to see some of the people buried there.

As for the cards, I was disappointed to get shorted a mini.  The highlights of the pack:


You gotta love the irony of opening a pack at Lewis Ginter's grave and not getting a tobacco-sized card.  To quell my dissappointment, we stopped at Target and I picked up another rack pack.  Well, apparently Lewis Ginter just wanted to play a joke on me, as this rack pack yielded not one, not two, but THREE minis.  The first two:



not bad, but the last one was quite nice:

It briefly crossed my mind to return to the cemetery and plant this near the Lewis Ginter's grave...
MASSIVE ERROR ALERT.  Wow, while researching this one, I found out Topps F'ed up big time.  There are two plants referred to as "Mexican Hat".  They are Kalanchoe daigremontiana and Ratibida columnifera. This first is a plant native to Madagascar that sporadically blooms and has 6-8 inch long fleshy leaves, just like the description on the back.  The second is a flowering plant of the daisy family that is native to North America.  This is the plant that is shown on the card front.  In fact, they used the same exact picture as on the wikipedia page. Googling "Mexican Hat Plant" produces results including the first (and incorrect, I assume) wikipedia page.  Am I really the first person to catch this? 

Anyway, for those of you that may think the inclusion of flowers in Allen and Ginter is questionable, find a reasonable explanation here

So, Lewis Ginter jinxed me with no mini, then made my cup overfloweth with minis, and then helped me find a huge disconnect in the particular Flora of the World card I pulled. 

I feel closer to Allen and Ginter cards now.  I have made my pilgrimage.

7 comments:

Ryan H said...

Cool video! I've been to Hollywood Cemetery a few times but never saw Ginter's mauseleum. There is so much history buried there. Did you happen to see the Confederate Memorial Pyramid while you were there?

Anonymous said...

Great catch with the Mexican Hat. Now that you've been blogging for a while, have you noticed how much readers like to immediately point out how you're wrong about something? Well, I'd just like to point out how you're right.

The Baseball Card Snob said...

Nice video, look out C. Harris, Cardboard Mistress is doing quality on locations and he scooped you.

Potch said...

OK, no joke, this is awesome! Right at his grave - classic stuff, truly. Nice job. Hope you get more than three comments.

Hey! There ya go!

Nachos Grande said...

Should you wish to trade that flora card ever I would be quite interested!

As for Topps, I think they might want to stop yanking so many images (and descriptions) off of wikipedia. I can imagine them designing a new set in about 20 minutes based on the "research" they do...

The Lost Collector said...

Sorry I missed this first time around, and hopefully you get more comments and views this time.

First off, that is not a grave. Anything that is bigger than my apartment is not a grave. Does he have a kitchen and bathroom in there? For all I know you could have knocked on the door and he would have opened it and invited you in for a beer and told you he has just been chilling inside in his man cave for the last however many years.

Anyways, your pick rip is part of why I'm not a big Ginter fan. It took you like three or four cards to get to your first baseball card. Not ok in my book, but that's just me and my collecting preferences. I like baseball cards, not WNBA cards. Sorry Diana.

Commishbob said...

I knew almost nothing of Ginter until I went and googled him. Now I get the significance of the post.