About that caramel card proof....

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Posted By: Bob

O.K. maybe I can post about it without mentioning where it is for sale or include a link to get there, etc.
The uniqueness about the proof is that three (3) proofs to the mystery set have surfaced: a Chance New York AL (which I own), a Davis Cleveland (owned by Keith Olbermann) and the Kling Boston AL. At first glance the proofs appear to be E96s as they have the same rich color and same poses but the team names on the bottom are different. Likewise, these can be distinguised from the so-called E96 proofs which turned out to be pictures of cards which were cut from the cover of a child's notebook. Those "cards" had the same team names as the E96s and I also believe (Frank or Pete correct me if I am wrong here), Davis, Chance and Kling were not included in the cards displayed.
The three proofs were created after the E96 set was issued in 1910. We know this because of the team designations. I believe the date would be around 1914 because that is when Chance appears in the T213 Coupon set for the first time with a NY AL designation. In that same Coupon set, though, Harry Davis is still appearing with an "Athletics" designation so it could very well be closer to the end of the decade, perhaps 1915 or 1916. I am not sure when Johnny Kling was traded to the Red Sox, that would certainly shed more light.
It is the unanimous conjecture of all who have seen these proofs that there was going to be another caramel card set issued and plans were to recycle the pictures of some players, adding new team designations and other players would be added, perhaps a Joe Jackson or other budding superstar. We can only speculate on this, of course. No one knows for sure. What we do know is that these three proofs are authentic, original and the precursors to a new caramel card set which was never issued, for one reason or another.