For years T206 collectors have attempted to pinpoint the exact number of cards that were printed on a sheet at American Lithographic Company. In particular, the width of a sheet has been hotly contested. Pat’s research shows us that there is more than one answer to the question, “How many poses wide was a T206 sheet?”
Most of the discussions I have read or been a part of have centered on the numbers 34 and 17. There are multiple subsets that are divisible by 17 and 34, but the two most compelling pieces of evidence are the Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 649 subset and the Brown Old Mill subset.
Of the 48 Southern Leaguers in the T206 set, only 34 of them were printed with Brown Hindu backs. This same group of 34 poses can also be found with the rare and coveted Brown Old Mill Southern League reverse. The fact that those 34 poses comprise the only known cards to exist with Brown Old Mill backs proves that they were printed on a sheet by themselves. T206 historian Tim Cathey explained this proof in a post on net54baseball.com in 2010, which can be read here. Because 34 cards placed side-by-side would require a pretty massive printing press, collectors theorized that a 17-card wide sheet was more likely.
Pat’s research supports the “Theory of 17”. The recreated Piedmont 150 sheet (above) was first printed with Piedmont 150 backs, and then used for the Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 649 subset as well. As you can see, it’s 17 cards wide.
The above information isn’t likely to shock any T206 collectors who have been paying attention to the sheet-size discussions that have taken place over the past decade or so. However, Pat made another discovery that I don’t think anyone saw coming.
A couple months ago Pat was working on three partial sheets that he had dubbed the “E”, “F” and “G” sheets. He had thought for some time that two of the three, or possibly all three partial sheets might fit together to form a larger sheet, but hadn’t been able to fit the pieces together.
The breakthrough came when he realized these Wallace plate scratches, which had previously been in a pile of unassigned scratches actually connected the “E” and “F” sheets to form one larger sheet.
The result is a new, larger sheet that Pat has dubbed “Sheet #3”. There are still a number of missing pieces to fill out the entire sheet, but what stands out is this quote from the net54 thread in which Pat announced the discovery:
This creates a sheet that is at least 24 wide by 11 high based on the scratches. But it could possibly be larger.
– Pat’s post on net54baseball.com on Oct 29, 2017
This is a pretty cool discovery. It shows that American Lithographic Company used more than one sheet size (and probably more than one size of printing press) to produce T206s. Much of the “T206 sheet-size” discussions have centered on collectors trying to prove or disprove a certain sheet size. Now we know there were some sheets that were 17-cards wide and others that were 24-cards wide. That opens the door for the possibility that other sheet sizes were used as well.
I’d like to thank Pat Romolo for collaborating with me on this series of articles. Thanks for answering all my questions, making sure I wasn’t missing anything, and for providing all the scans I kept asking for.
SOURCES:
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=246846&page=2
http://forum.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=128788&page=3