Oddball w519 Cravath -- what is this exactly??

[shammus]

Took a chance on a card I saw on Ebay not really knowing for sure what it was. I have it in hand now and, well, I'm still unsure....heh. What I can see is that the card is black and white and entirely reversed on one side (both the photo and caption) and blank on the other. This example is normal thickness for a w519 so I don't believe it could be skinned or anything like that. Plus, these cards would probably fall apart altogether if they were ever skinned.

I know that there is a variation of w519s that has reverse images, yet no variation within the set that I've seen has a reverse caption. This card is somewhat similar to the Morton that Leon has on his website where a sheet of w519s was placed on top of a different sheet that was still wet and a neat "ghost" was created -
http://luckeycards.com/pw519masterx6cards.jpg

However, the reverse to this card is blank, which complicates that theory a bit. I have two possibilities for how this card might have come into existance -

1. Maybe they put a blank sheet on top of a wet, normal production sheet for whatever reason. Then the "cards" that were created were cut up later just for fun.

2. This actually isn't a ghost, it was from a sheet that was accidentally printed upside down or backwards to start with and then discarded once the mistake was discovered. That might at least explain why the card has no color - it didn't survive at the press long enough to go through any color passes.

Any thoughts guys? Thanks in advance...



cravath-001.jpg

cravathbk-001.jpg

[mets41]

The picture looks like a reverse negative (just like the 1957 Topps Hank Aaron).

[ullmandds]

awesome...i love it...aside from the type font...looks maple crispette-ish?!

[shammus]

A reverse negative is an interesting idea, although all the reverse negatives I've ever seen that were classified as such were cards that had a backwards photo but the caption was always facing the right way, unlike this card. Its sort of like, the whole card got turned inside out somehow. Plus, there's still the whole thing with the color being missing. Reverse negatives retain their color I believe....

[CobbSpikedMe]

That's a pretty clear image for a W519. If its a wet sheet transfer that's pretty amazing. Cool pickup at any rate.



.

[packs]

Man that's a cool card whatever it is.

[shammus]

Andy,

Good point. One of the things I don't like about any sort of a wet-sheet transfer theory is that the image is extremely dark and detailed for a "ghost".

[Zach Wheat]

Brian,

Pretty neat. It is similar to my W516 2-2 of Cobb that was printed in "reverse". Cobb's glove is in the wrong hand and the Copyright info is in reverse.


Z Wheat

[steve B]

Being that clear it's probably an impression cylinder transfer.

The press wets and inks the plate, then the plate prints to a rubber sheet on a metal cylinder(The blanket). Then the paper is fed between that cylinder and a smooth metal cylinder (The impression cylinder).

If the ink and printing is engaged before the paper feed, the blanket prints onto the impression cylinder. Also if the paper feed is stopped for some reason before the inking is stopped.
Then the next sheet gets printed in reverse on the back side of the paper.

So the operator probably stopped the press without stopping the ink. Maybe a paper jam in the feeder, maybe for break. Then on restart ran a blank sheet through which got the offset from the impression cylinder.
Maybe a few blank sheets, the feeder jam seems likely, and if it was happening a lot that day he'd have fussed with things trying to get it fixed.

Steve B