Category: T206 Research

Intro to T206 Print Marks – Starring Hall of Famer Ed Walsh

This will be the first in a series of articles where I delve into the research of Pat Romolo.  Pat has been studying T206 plate scratches and print flaws for years.  He was one of the first (if not the very first) collectors to recognize the importance of such identifying marks.  I personally find his work incredibly clever and illuminating.  In this and the articles that follow, I’ll attempt to explain what makes these tiny print flaws so significant to our understanding of the T206 set.

If you take a very close look at one of your T206s, you may notice some things you hadn’t previously.  Every T206 has it’s own unique characteristics.  Some of the more common traits we look for are centering, registration, and boldness of color.  All of these are examples of “factory attributes”.  In other words, these elements of a card’s appearance are due to the way the card was printed at the factory.  Other aspects of a card’s eye appeal such as corner and surface wear, paper loss, writing, and creasing are all examples of “post-factory attributes”.  Print marks are factory attributes that go a long way towards helping us understand the printing process.

Many of the little marks and flaws on a T206 are unique to that particular example, but not all.  Some were printed on multiple cards, leaving a fingerprint (if you will) that can help us better understand the printing process.  Perhaps more importantly, these print marks and print flaws help us define a timeline for when each back was printed.

Today we’re going to take a closer look at this little red dot on Ed Walsh’s uniform.  The first step is to spot the print flaw.  The second is to look at a library of scans of the same pose to determine if this particular print flaw exists on just one card, or many.  In the case of Walsh’s red spot on his uniform, there are indeed multiple cards that exhibit the mark.

The table below shows the results of a survey Pat conducted.    The number on the right is the total amount of cards Pat examined, and the number on the left is how many of those cards had the red spot on the uniform.  A couple of things stand out immediately.  First, the red spot is very rare.  Pat surveyed over 400 copies of Walsh’s T206 and only found 8 examples that featured the red dot.

Upon closer examination, something else sticks out.  All 8 of the cards with the red spot appear on cards with 350 backs (with the exception of the Old Mill, but we’ll get to that in a moment).  None of the backs that were printed at the beginning of the 150-350 Series have been found with this particular print flaw.  No Hindu, Sovereign 150, Piedmont 150 or Sweet Caporal 150 backs.

It’s not a surprise to see an Old Mill back sprinkled in with the Piedmont 350 and Sweet Caporal 350 backs.  It has long seemed likely that Old Mill backs, along with Sweet Caporal 350 Factory 25 were the last two backs printed in the 150-350 Series.  What is interesting is the lack of a single example with either an El Principe de Gales or Sovereign 350 back.

We already knew that Sovereign 350 was printed at least slightly before Old Mill because Kid Elberfeld’s Sovereign 350 Portrait still has him with New York, whereas his Old Mill pictures him with Washington.  Nonetheless, it’s a nice bit of corroborating evidence.  In that same vein, the fact that Pat couldn’t find an El Principe de Gales back with the red dot supports the growing consensus among collectors that EPDG was either the last back printed in the 150 portion of the 150-350 Series, or the first back printed in the 350 portion.

If you own a copy of Ed Walsh’s T206, I hope you’ll go find it and see if you happen to have a copy with the red spot.  As we can see from the table, it’s a long shot (something like 2% chance), but if you do have one, please contact me and tell me about it!

Some Things To Consider Before Starting a T206 Back Run

T206 is the greatest baseball card set of all time.  Since you’re here, you probably already knew that.  One of the reasons is there are so many different ways to collect T206s.  One of the more popular approaches in the “back run”.  A back run is a collection of cards where the fronts are the same, but the backs are all different.

The most important thing to think about before beginning to collect a back run is, “Which backs are a part of the run?”  Some poses will make for a fairly easy-to-complete project, while others are pretty much impossible.  For example, a Dode Criss back run consists of 7 different front/back combos.  The toughest backs in the run are Old Mill and Sovereign 150.  Neither should be too difficult to find, nor should they break the bank.  In contrast, a Ty Cobb Red Background Portrait back run consists of 24 different front/back combos.  A few of those combos are impossible to find, and even harder to afford.   There are only 2 examples of the Broad Leaf 460, both firmly entrenched in collections.  Finding a Red Cobb with a Drum, Carolina Brights, Blank Back or Red Hindu back would be similarly tough.

Before you commit to chasing a T206 back run, you should find out which backs exist for each pose that you are considering.    Some collectors will want to find a back run that is fairly easy and inexpensive to complete, while others may prefer more of a challenge, and not be deterred by a larger financial commitment.

Gibson is a 150-350 Series pose

Let’s take a look at how the T206 Print Groups can help you select a pose that suits your preferences:

150-350 Series:

With just a few exceptions, a pose from the 150-350 Series will be easier (and cheaper) to complete than a pose from the rest of the set.  The toughest backs in this series are Old Mill and Hindu.  Either back can take awhile to locate, but it won’t break the bank once you do.

350 Only Series:

Completing a back run featuring a 350 Series subject is tougher than a 150-350 pose.  350 Series poses are found with some combination of the following scarce backs: Broad Leaf 350, Carolina Brights, Drum, Tolstoi.  Most 350 Series poses will have some, but not all of those backs.  For example, Tris Speaker is known with all 4 of those backs, but Jimmy Collins is only known with Carolina Brights and Tolstoi backs.

Murphy (With Bat) is a 350-460 Series subject

350-460 Series:

Other than the Super Prints, this series contains some of the toughest back run subjects you could choose.  This series features Drum, Black Lenox, Piedmont 42, Red Hindu, and Uzit backs.

460 Only Series:

These poses can be found with some combination of American Beauty 460, Black Lenox, Brown Lenox, Cycle 460, Piedmont 42, Red Hindu, and Uzit backs.

Super Prints:

The Super Prints* were so named because they were printed with so many backs.  The Red Background Ty Cobb Portrait mentioned above was printed with 24 backs.  The exact back makeup of the six poses differs, but they can be found with the following array of rare backs: Broad Leaf 350, Broad Leaf 460, Carolina Brights, Drum, and Black Lenox.

Southern Leaguers:

A Southern Leaguer back run can range from very easy to complete, to near impossible.  14 poses were printed with only Piedmont 350 and Old Mill backs.  Another 34 poses were printed with Piedmont 350, Old Mill, and Brown Hindu backs.  If those two or three backs is all you are looking for, it should be a fairly easy and affordable project.  However, some Southern Leaguers were also printed with the extremely rare Brown Old Mill back.  In addition, Southern League poses can be found with a blank back.  If the poses you are working on exists with both Brown Old Mill and Blank backs, that is going to make for an incredibly expensive and challenging project.

George McBride and the “Blue Flame”

Take a look at the scans above.  Just below McBride’s belt is a little blue print mark that Pat Romolo has dubbed the “blue flame”.  Pat and I talked about this print mark a year or so ago and I had planned to write an article about it.  It was one of the (many) topics that I intended to write about, but never got around to.

Recently, I was very excited to pick up the McBride Tolstoi below.  When I got it in hand, I noticed the blue mark on his left shoulder.  I remembered the “blue flame” that Pat and I had discussed, but I thought this one might be slightly different.  I went through our old emails to see if I had just found another example of the “blue flame”, or if this was a mark we hadn’t seen before.  To my surprise, this blue mark was in a completely different place.

Excited about this new discovery, I sent an email to Pat.  As usual, he noticed something that I had failed to see.  It’s pretty rare to find one pose with two separate and distinct print marks.  But what makes this even more interesting is that both my Tolstoi and the five cards at the top of this article all share another print mark in common.  It’s hard to see (at least it was for me) but there’s a blue dot just to the right of his left elbow.  On my card it’s pretty faint, but it’s a lot more noticeable on the “blue flame” cards.

I wanted to understand more about these three different print marks, so I went through all of the recorded sales of McBride T206s on cardtarget.com.  I found two things that surprised me, and one that didn’t.  I was not surprised to confirm that every card that exhibits the “blue flame” print mark also displays the “blue dot”.  On the other hand, I was surprised to not find another McBride card that has the same print mark that my Tolstoi backed copy has.

Perhaps the most interesting discovery I made is that the “blue dot” appears on more cards that just those with the “blue flame” and my Tolstoi.  However, it does not appear on all McBride cards.

Card Target has four recorded sales of American Beauty backs.  One has both the blue flame and the blue dot.  Another has just the blue dot, and the other two cards don’t have any print marks.

Of the eight recorded sales of Cycle 350 backs, two have both the blue flame and the blue dot, five others have just the blue dot, and just one of them has no print marks at all.

The Sweet Caporal backs carry roughly the same ratios.  Of the nine recorded SC 350/25 backs, one displays the blue flame/blue dot combo, 6 others have just the blue dot, and three cards exhibit neither print mark.  Of the 28 SC 350/30 backs, two have the blue flame/blue dot combo, 16 have just the blue dot, and ten have no print mark.

Things got a little interesting when I looked through the Piedmont 350 backs however.  The vast majority of them display no print marks, while a small minority have just the blue dot, and an even smaller percentage exhitbit the blue flame/blue dot combo.

The reason I find print marks so interesting is that I think there is a potential for them to teach us some things about the printing process.  The fact that multiple cards can be found with the same recurring print mark tells us that many sheets were printed with the same layout.  That the “blue flame” is found with American Beauty 350 Frame, Broad Leaf 350, Cycle 350, Piedmont 350, and both Sweet Caporal 350/25 and Sweet Caporal 350/30 backs means that the layout of the sheet remained the same as each subsequent back was printed.

Having said that, I’m not sure I am any more knowledgeable about the printing process now than I was before I started to research these print marks.  It’s definitely interesting that so many of McBride’s cards have at least one print mark, but if there’s a pattern, I’m not seeing it.

My hope is that by studying these print marks and others like it, we may be able to shed some light on how these cards were printed.  Pat and I are working on a set of future articles where we will catalog all of the known print marks, and examine many of them in more detail.  We don’t have a timeline for when we expect to finish, but I am hoping it will be completed before the end of the year.

McBride Sweet Caporal 350 Factory 30 with just the “blue dot” print mark

T206 Piedmont Factory 42: Light Blue v.s. Dark Blue Backs

Charley O’Leary with dark blue Piedmont Factory 42 back

This is an article I’ve had in the works for quite a while.  Almost a year ago, I began writing and researching, but then ran into a bit of a snag.

If you look at enough Piedmont Factory 42 backs, you’ll notice that the blue ink tends to be either very light or very dark.  I’d read a few threads on the subject on net54, but beyond the observation that the ink level varied, I didn’t recall seeing any conclusions drawn.  It’s a minor variation, and maybe not worth spending too much time on.  But then again, at one point Sovereign 350 Green Apple backs were thought to be just a slight color variant of the Forest Green Subset.

So, a few months ago I decided to look into the Piedmont Factory 42 subset to see if I could find any patterns with regard to the dark ink v.s. light ink phenomenon.  I asked a couple friends to help me research.  Adam Goldenberg was nice enough to send me scans of his collection of Piedmont 42s, and Pat Romolo offered to dig through scans on Card Target for me.  Going into the research phase, I was hoping there might be some sort of pattern we’d be able to discern.  Specifically, I was wondering if certain players were printed with only one of the two back types.

The graphic below shows the difference between the light blue and dark blue backs.

The “research phase” was over almost before it started.  I got an email from Pat saying that he had begun to look at scans and he didn’t think there was a pattern.  I meant to take a look for myself, but never got around to it.  Some time passed, and I completely forgot I had started working on this article.  A few weeks back I found it while cleaning up the drafts on my site and decided I should finish it.  After all, even if there is no pattern, that still answers some questions.

So, I delved into the scans that Adam had sent me and past sales on cardtarget.com.  What I was looking for was simple.  I wanted to find one pose that was printed with both a light blue and dark blue back.  I did find that, but I found something else as well.  I went into the project thinking that the backs were almost always either dark blue or light blue.  However, after scrolling through dozens of these backs, I realized that the intensity of the blue actually varies quite a bit.

Below is the “smoking gun” of my research.  One Reulbach with a dark blue back and one with a light blue back (and another that’s somewhere in the middle).  This proves there is no easy pattern where one pose always has either a light blue or a dark blue back.

Reulbach PSA 5 with dark blue Piedmont Factory 42 back

After looking at a bunch of scans, I’m left with a couple thoughts.  First, the darkness v.s. lightness of ink varies quite a bit more than I expected (and more than you’d think from reading the net54 threads).  In my opinion, there are light blue Piedmont Factory 42 backs, dark blue backs, and every shade and variant of blue in between.  Secondly, the fact that I never found any consensus online about the dark blue backs v.s. light blue backs makes a lot of sense.  I’m sure other collectors have looked into this topic in the past, and just never posted anything about it, because they didn’t find any interesting patterns.

Reulbach PSA 5 (mk) with light blue Piedmont Factory 42 back
Ruelbach PSA 5 with a Piedmont Factory 42 back that is neither light blue nor dark blue, but rather somewhere in the middle

Despite the fact that I don’t have any exciting news to report, I figured this topic was still worth posting.  I’m sure I won’t be the last person to notice the differences between the light blue and dark blue backs and wonder if there is a pattern.  Hopefully, I can save some of those people some time.

Sources:
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=137166
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=128227

The Incredible T206 Lash’s Bitters Printer’s Scrap Sheet

Recently I wrote an article about T206 sheet mates.  This group of cards was the subject of a fun Net54 thread a few years back where members worked together to figure out what was going on the backs of these T206s.  Besides being incredibly cool, they also offer a unique look into other types of jobs the American Lithographic Company was working on at the time.  The backs of these cards were used to test a run of Lash’s Bitters Tonic Laxative trade cards.

If you are interested in this topic, I highly recommend checking out the original thread on Net54baseball.com.

First, this Lash’s Bitters trade card was found by Net54 member Jantz:

Then Erick Summers posted this graphic, which lines up some of the cards against a grid of the Lash’s Bitters trade cards:

The graphic overlays below were created by T206 sleuth Chris Browne.  The image below looks like it could have been the front of the Lash’s Bitters trade card from above, but it ended up being the front of a different trade card.  If you take a close look at the image at the top of this article you’ll notice that “LASH’S BITTERS” is printed in red ink with two separate layouts.  One version is printed on just one line, while the other has “LASH’S” printed above “BITTERS”.  Chris’s discovery below shed some light on where the single line of red “LASH’S BITTERS” came from, but the double line version remained a mystery.

Then, Chris found the missing piece to the puzzle:

In my opinion, the T206 Lash’s Bitters are among the coolest cards in the set.  From a purely aesthetic standpoint, they are beautiful cards, and the connection with another commercial product from the same time period only adds to their significance.  The Net54 thread was fun and collaborative and epitomized what can happen when collectors work together on a project they are passionate about.

Hindu Newspaper Advertisement “No Prints”

Note:  Much of the background detail in this story is stuff I learned from reading T206resource.com.  Most of my readers will probably be familiar with the site, but if not, make sure to check it out. 

In August 1909, Hindu Cigarettes ads featuring T206 images began appearing in the Times-Picayune Daily and Evening newspapers in New Orleans*.  The ads ran for six weeks from August 2nd to September 10th.  There were 12 ads in total.

The first five ads featured only major-leaguers.  The sixth ad featured both Major Leaguers and Southern Leaguers.  The final six ads featured only Southern Leaguers.

If you collect T206 cards with Hindu backs, you may notice something odd about the ads above and below.  The following four poses appear in the advertisements, but were not actually printed with Brown Hindu backs:

  • Dooin
  • Lobert
  • Nicholls (Hands on Knees)
  • Waddell (Throwing)

It’s not known why these players were advertised but then omitted from the print run.  A similar omission occurred with the Southern Leaguers.  The ad below features Southern Leaguers Breitenstein, Hickman and Jordan, who were all printed with Brown Hindu backs.  The text in the box at the bottom of the ad reads, “This collection consists of a large assortment of colored lithographs of baseball players in the Southern, South Atlantic, Texas, and Virginia Leagues.”

Players from the Southern, South Atlantic, and Virginia Leagues were indeed printed with Hindu backs, but none of the Texas Leaguers were.

*It is believed that the T206 Hindu Ads were published exclusively in the New Orleans Times-Picayune

Sources:
http://t206resource.com/Hindu%20Ads.html
-All images are courtesy of t206resource.com

T206 Cards From the Same Sheet

This trio of Piedmont 350s from the same sheet was sold recently by Huggins & Scott Auctions.  Seeing them got me thinking about other cards that we know came from the same sheet.  In his fantastic book, Inside T206, Scot Reader surmises that the total number of T206s produced could be over 100 million.  Given this staggering estimate, it makes sense that finding two or more T206s that were printed on a single sheet is no easy task.

One of my favorite things about this set is that it lends itself very well to research.  If you learn something about a certain pose or front/back combo, there is often a logical pattern to be followed, which will lead you to more discoveries.  The same cannot really be said for today’s topic.  Finding T206 sheet mates is very cool, but it usually is the result of random happenstance rather than a larger pattern.  In that same vein, there will be little structure to this article.  I mainly just wanted to post some of the coolest T206 sheet mates.

Most of the times that we’re able to trace multiple T206s back to the same sheet, they will be of the printer’s scrap variety.  The reason for this is pretty simple.  In order to make connections between two or more cards, there has to be something that makes them unique.

Take these Hoblitzell and Oakes Piedmont 350s.  They showed up on eBay one day in a group of offerings from the same seller.  I wasn’t able to find out anything about where they came from, but it doesn’t take much of a logical leap to assume they were cut from the same sheet and kept together all this time.  Their large, hand-cut borders and darker-than-normal colors are a dead giveaway.  I’m not sure there’s anything to be learned from them, but they sure are cool.

These three Blank Backs share a similar cut as well as adhesive residue on all four corners of the backs.  They were clearly kept together in an album or frame for many years.  They made their way to market via SCP auctions, where I was able to buy them and keep them together.

The “Lash’s Bitters” T206s are another example of printer’s scrap that work as puzzle pieces that help us to re-construct a sheet of T206 cards.  I have an article in the works featuring these awesome scraps, so I’ll keep this description short.  The back of these T206s was used as a test sheet for trade cards featuring “Lash’s Bitters”.  The fronts look a little odd as well.  They appear to be missing a layer of red.

T206 collector John Dreker was kind enough to send me scans of these four upside-down and mis-cut Piedmont 150s that he owns.  He found Davis in a group of 40 cards he bought in 2000, then bought Tannehill, Doolin, and Cicotte together in the same group in 2002.

This group of cards has been dubbed the “Test Print Sheet”.  As you can see, the backs have a lot going on.

Much like the Lash’s Bitters sheet above, the back of the sheet that Griffith, Lake, and O’Leary were on was used as a test sheet for a Twin Oaks Tobacco advertisement.

This quartet of Blank Backs are very likely to have originated from the same sheet.

What I Have Learned from Pat Romolo’s Piedmont 150 Plate Scratch Research: Part Four

Here is a good look at two mirrored poses from Sheet 2a/2b. Notice the identical Plate Scratch on each back. Brown is a Sheet 2a pose and Kling is located on Sheet 2b.

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.

This is the partial layout for Sheet 2a/2b. As you can see, there are still many missing pieces of the puzzle.

The above image of Sheet 2a/2b is too small to be viewed on many devices.  Please click this link for a larger, zoom-able image

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.

Flick (Sheet 2a) and Clarke Portrait (Sheet 2b) are a matched pair on Sheet 2a/2b

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.

What I Have Learned from Pat Romolo’s Piedmont 150 Plate Scratch Research: Part Three

This is the front-view of Sheet 3

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.

The image above is too small for most devices, so please click this link to view a large, zoom-able image

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.

This is the layout of Sheets 1a & 1b

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

The image of Sheet 3 above is too small for viewing on most devices.  Please click this link to view a larger, zoom-able image

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

What I Have Learned from Pat Romolo’s Piedmont 150 Plate Scratch Research: Part Two

Why was Wilbur Goode printed with Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 649 back, but Ty Cobb and Cy Young were not?

An unexpected result of Pat’s research is that he was able to recreate the Piedmont 150 sheets that were later used to print Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 649 backs.  I always wondered how the players were chosen to be printed with this back.  Logically, if I were going to print a subset made up of just 34 cards, I would pack it with stars.  So what was Wilbur Goode doing there?  Well, now we know.  ALC simply took two plates it already had and printed them with Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 649 backs.  The printers had done their best to include a group of stars, or they might have just gone with pure convenience based on which plates they had handy.  Despite missing Cobb and Young, those two plates include Bresnahan, Davis, Griffith, Johnson, Lajoie, and Mathewson, so it was by no means devoid of stars.

The image below shows Piedmont 150-backed examples of the poses in the Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 649 subset.  To see a larger image, please click the link below.

https://photos.imageevent.com/patrickr/updatedplatescratchsheets/Sheet%201A-1B.jpg

Why wasn’t Ty Cobb printed with a Brown Hindu back?

Brown Hindu was the first of the tougher backs that I studied and began to collect when I got interested in back collecting.  The first thing I did was to make sure I had a complete checklist of which cards were printed with Brown Hindu backs.  It struck me immediately that neither Ty Cobb pose from the 150-350 Series was printed with a Brown Hindu back.  I wondered why.

The plate scratches answer this question as well.  If you take a look at the Plate Scratch collages below, you’ll notice that all of these players who appear together on a sheet were left off the Brown Hindu print run.  Much like the SC 150/649 subset, the poses that were printed with Brown Hindu backs were likely chosen primarily for convenience on the part of the printers.  In other words, they didn’t pick and choose individual players.  They just took existing sheets and printed them with Brown Hindu backs.  They simply chose not to use a sheet with Cobb on it for the Brown Hindu print run.

The partially recreated sheet below shows us that almost this entire section consists of poses that were not printed with Brown Hindu backs.  Curiously, there is a section right in the middle (the cards inside the red rectangle) with four poses that were all printed with Brown Hindu backs.  That is an odd wrinkle, and likely something that will never be fully explained.

The image below is too small to see detail, so please click this link to take a look at the image in full detail:

https://photos.imageevent.com/patrickr/updatedplatescratchsheets/Sheet%203%20Full.jpg

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: