Going to explore china for a few posts. Released in early 90s 1993 seems to be popular date for a lot of them there are a some good documentation on some sets but a few are mysteries cards that are numbered to 10,000 just don't pop up at all and complete sets that are supposed to exist are never seen. I will piece together a few items I have found out in next few posts and see if a clearer picture comes about.
For those unfamiliar with them R&N china produced porcelain cards, plates, mugs sometimes under different names or co names. For today I will concentrate on the small 3-4 card sets that are pretty easy to checklist but for some reason nobody has.
From 1995-1999 R&N China produced sets for both Topps and Upper Deck which in it self is rather odd that one of them didn't hold exclusive rights to the concept. The Signature Series consisted of 3-4 porcelain cards in a felt lined wood holder. Rather limited production for each set most were around 500 range but featured some of the biggest names in sports.
The Mantle series is interesting in that they were signed only 18 days before he passed away so they are some of the last signatures he ever did.
It appears late in 1996 Upper Deck got involved and produced basketball and football cards under the same name and time frame as the mostly topps cards but upped the production into the 1000 range. But even at that they are still rather hard to come by and carry a big price tag.
Below is checklist of the sets in PDF format.
Checklist
