In the first three articles of this series, we’ve mostly looked at what the layout of Pat’s recreated Piedmont 150 Plate Scratch sheets can teach us. This article will be no different in that respect. However, we’ll also take a look at the relative scarcity of Plate Scratches on individual poses and the surprising connection between Piedmont 150 Plate Scratches and Sovereign 150 populations (for poses on one particular Piedmont 150 sheet).
Today we’re going to take a closer look at Sheet #2, which consists of two mirrored sets of poses that have identical Plate Scratches. Pat has dubbed them Sheets 2a and 2b. Sheets 2a and 2b are very interesting for a couple of reasons. First, all of the “150 Only” subjects with the exception of Powers are located on Sheet 2a. If you read Part One of this series, you already know the significance of that discovery. The second reason concerns the Plate Scratches themselves in a way that we haven’t delved into in the first three parts of this series.
You would expect the population of Plate Scratches to be roughly equal for each mirrored pair of poses on each sheet. For Sheet #2, that expectation doesn’t hold. The poses on Sheet 2a are far easier to find with a Plate Scratch than the poses on Sheet 2b. Hold that thought for a moment, while we turn our attention in a completely different direction.
Recently, I found myself thinking about the Sovereign 150 subset. If you’ve collected this subset for a while, you know some poses are much more difficult to find than others. It’s relatively common knowledge that the “150 Only” poses are harder to find with Sovereign 150 backs than the typical 150-350 Series pose. I’ve accepted this as fact for a while, but it bothered me a little that I couldn’t explain why. Sovereign 150 backs were printed fairly early in the 150-350 Series, so it doesn’t really make sense that these poses would have been pulled from production during the Sovereign 150 print run. In addition, there are other poses that are extremely difficult to locate with a Sovereign 150 back. So, I got to thinking: Perhaps Pat’s recreated Piedmont 150 sheets could shed some light on the matter? I reached out to him with a list of the toughest Sovereign 150 front/back combos and asked him if by chance any of these poses might be located on the same sheet.
Before we get to his answer, let’s take a quick detour in order to prove that Sheets 2a and 2b were used to print both Piedmont 150 and Sovereign 150 backs. Check out the pink mark on the left border of the Piedmont 150 Cicotte above. This is a print mark that can be found on some (but not all) Cicotte Piedmont 150s. If you take a look at the Sovereign 150 example below, you’ll see the pink mark was printed on it as well. As a result, we can safely conclude that Sheets 2a & 2b were used to print both Piedmont 150 and Sovereign 150 backs with the exact same sheet layout.
As it turned out, Pat was way ahead of me. He already knew the poses on Sheet 2a were easier to find with Plate Scratches than the poses on Sheet 2b. And he had already found the connection I was looking for. The poses on Sheet 2a are easier to find with Piedmont 150 Plate Scratches than the poses on Sheet 2b. Conversely, Sheet 2a poses are much scarcer with Sovereign 150 backs than their Sheet 2b counterparts. Pat’s theory (which I agree with) is that Sheets 2a and 2b were printed in similar quantities, but Sheet 2a was printed with more Piedmont 150 backs than was Sheet 2b. As a result, Sheet 2b was printed with more Sovereign 150 backs than was Sheet 2a. This is the reason why the “150 Only” poses are scarce with Sovereign 150 backs (with the exception of Powers*). It has nothing to do with the fact that they were pulled from production early.
Still, there’s more to the story. The 11 “150 Only” poses are not alone on Sheet 2a. Other notoriously scarce Sovereign 150 poses such as Joe Birmingham, Fred Clarke (With Bat), Ty Cobb (Green Portrait), Elmer Flick, and Frank Isbell also reside on Sheet 2a. As you can see from the recreated sheet above, Pat has already found where Cobb and Isbell fit. However, there are a number of Plate Scratches that Pat hasn’t found yet, so for now the puzzle remains unfinished. As for the other three poses I just mentioned (Birmingham, Clarke (bat), and Flick), they belong on this sheet, but as of now it’s unclear where they fit.
You might be wondering how we know they belong on Sheet 2a if their Plate Scratches don’t fit neatly into the layout above. To discover the answer takes a complete understanding of how Sheets 1a/1b, 2a/2b, and 3 are laid out. Sheets 1a and 1b are similar to Sheets 2a and 2b in that they are also a set of matched pairs. However, there is one big difference. Sheet 1b was also used to print Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 649 backs. So, if we find a matched pair of Plate Scratches, and neither pose was printed with a Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 649 back, we know that pair of Plate Scratches doesn’t belong on Sheet 1a or 1b. The Plate Scratches that comprise Sheet 3 do not have a matched pair.
In other words, any matched pair of Plate Scratches that doesn’t include a SC 649 pose is a virtual lock to belong on Sheets 2a and 2b. The connection between Piedmont 150 Plate Scratches and Sovereign 150 populations is perhaps the most exciting of Pat’s discoveries, at least in my opinion. As someone who has been collecting Sovereign 150s for a while, I know that some of them are fairly common, while others are like ghosts. It’s not unusual to find variances in populations within a given back subset, but it’s very rare that we’re able to definitively prove why they exist.
Another reason this discovery is exciting is that the research is ongoing. There are still a bunch of holes that need to be filled on Sheet 2a/2b. I have my suspicions of which poses belong on Sheet 2a (based on which as-of-yet uncatalogued poses have the lowest Sovereign 150 populations), but hopefully in time, Pat will be able to find the missing Plate Scratches and put the full sheet back together.
If you find any Piedmont 150s with a Plate Scratch on the back, please either post scans in this net54 thread, or email them to me at luke@thatt206life.com and I will get the scans to Pat.
* The reason that “150-Only” poses are scarce with Sovereign 150 backs is because they are located on Sheet 2a. Because Powers was printed on Sheet 1a/1b rather than Sheet 2a, he shouldn’t be considered a tough Sovereign 150 pose just because he is a “150-Only” subject. However, population reports indicate that Powers is only slightly easier to find with a Sovereign 150 back than say, Pattee. There are a number of SC 649 poses that are quite tough to find with a Sovereign 150 back (Goode, O’Leary and Wilhelm come to mind).
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. I also want to thank Steve Birmingham for noticing the Plate Scratches and commencing the research years ago.