Quote:
Originally Posted by HR JR
I was checking through the threads looking for some help with this set. I purchased a Lot of the Reemtsma (Band II) cards and was surprised to find that they were printed on such thin paper. The other question I had, and I was hoping you could help me with, is are there different sizes for these cards?
I find online that the cards measure about 5" x 7" but the ones I purchased measure about 4 3/4" x 3 1/8"
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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Hi,
There were two sizes of inserts for the Olympia books. I do not want to call them cards or photos. They are not cards and I would not equate them with true photographs any more than one I would cut out of a magazine. They were 8 cm x 12 cm and 12 cm x 17 cm and were issued solely to be glued into the books. Remember that these are sized in metric. There were both color and black and white inserts. I do not know how they decided which would be color and which would be black and white and which would be smaller versus larger. I have the 1932 book handy. Babe Didrikson was on 3 small inserts and one large all black and white. Ellen Braumüller, German gold medalist in javelin is large and in color as is Lillian Copeland, American gold medalist in discus. All of the medalists is decathlon have small individual color inserts and are on a large color one in the medal ceremony. At one time I also had probably a complete set of unmounted cards from 1936 Band 1 & 2 (Volume 1 in 1936 was the winter games, Volume 2 was the summer games). I did notice that any insert that featured 'der Neger', German for 'the Negro', appears to be in black and white, though Edward Gordon winner of the long jump in 1932 got a large card.
The thinking behind these was that you would acquire the book then purchase a bilder-gruppe (photo group) for that book. The envelope that contained inserts listed the numbers on the outside so you knew which ones were included as they were not consecutive. You needed to acquire all of the envelopes to complete the set. Since Reemstma also did other subject books the envelopes were numbered. For instance 1936 Olympia Band 1 had bilder-gruppe(s) 53 through 56. Envelope 55 had the large inserts, the remainder were small. There were 50 in each small envelope and 25 in the large for 175 inserts for that book. The envelopes were also identified on the outside with 'Die bilder der Sammlung "Olympia 1936 Band 1 (or 2) - The images of the collection Olympia 1936 Band 1. I know there were 175 inserts in the 1936 Band 1 (winter). I believe there were 200 inserts for Band 2. You can actually find people from Germany selling complete unmounted sets for Band 1 and Band 2 in their original envelopes. I even recall seeing someone selling the complete group for both Bands for 1936 in the original mailing box. They should not be that expensive. In my opinion the people trying to get $5 and up for the individual inserts or over $30 dollars for a complete volume is blowing smoke out of there rectum. They are not rare and are not that valuable. I will say they are nice to reproduce. I made 8x10 photos of the one showing Jack Shea and had him sign them back in the late 1990s. I also made photographs of others to go with autographs I was selling.
I hope this answers your questions.