Some More Cards from 1887!

My love of modern Allen & Ginter cards long ago led me to look into the original Allen & Ginter sets from the late 1800s.  A few years ago, I decided to try and collect one such set - the 1889 50 Fish from American Waters set which I finally completed!  Now, I've turned my attention to two other sets from that era - one of which I get to feature today:  the 1887 Flags of All Nations set!

My quest for this set has only begun this year so I haven't made a ton of progress yet.  On the other hand, I have to think that any time I can get a single card from the 1800s that actually that in and of itself is a lot of progress!  

Today's mail was a trio of auctions that I won over on eBay, all from the same seller.  I'm definitely happy with two of the three cards - the Egypt card is the one I worry about.  It was listed as "trimmed" which is kind of common on these super old cards (and for cards in my price range I don't usually worry too much about that).  What I do wonder about though is if the Egypt card is actually real...the ink/color seems to pop so much more than the other two cards from this same lot - and the card itself shows very little sign of wear (obviously the trimming plays a role in that).  I'm no expert on such things so I can't say for sure...but I guess I'll take the seller's word that it's real and go with that.  

Of the three cards, my favorite is probably the overly ornate Pontifical States card - one of the two different Papal Standard variations that exist in this set.  

As I've said, I have a long ways to go on this one but the fun of the whole thing is the search!  Well, that and actually looking at the cards once they are in hand - such pretty pieces of art!