My T206 Display Project
 

I hope you'll allow me a few minutes to share a project I have worked very hard to put together. I'm a big fan of the T206 set, but I know that I'll never put together the entire 520 card set. I wanted to find a way to showcase what I love about the set, without breaking the bank in the process. I thought the best way to showcase the cards would be to find one player from each of the 16 major league teams. I set a restriction of no Hall of Fame players to keep my budget reasonable.

I spent a lot of time trying to determine what appealed to me most about the set, and realized it's the bright, bold colors. My first thought was to get a portrait from each team; it was quickly dashed when I discovered there are no Red Sox portraits in the set. I figured I could shift to the 350 series action shots with solid backgrounds. That idea was similarly discarded when I learned there were no Pirates in that subset. In the end, I opted for a hybrid approach, eight portraits, eight 350 series solid back cards. In order to properly showcase the colors, I decided to try and assemble the eight portraits and eight 350s with different color backs.

Once I landed on the general goal, it was a matter of many hours combing through the set gallery to identify the various combinations of cards for each team. The Pirates have no 350 backs, and only two available portraits, a yellow Leach, and a red Abstein. Knowing there were many more red portraits than yellows, Tommy Leach became the first card added to my checklist.

The Philadelphia A's had one 350 card (a green Hartsell), and three portraits, all blue. Hartsell became the second card. Working through the teams there were some challenges - the Phillies, Naps, and White Sox had very few options. Fortunately, some teams had plenty of options to balance things out, there were no shortage of options for the Giants, Tigers, and Senators. The Brooklyn Superbas had some unique wine-red 350 cards, and the Reds have a sunflower yellow background that was similarly unique.

Eventually I landed on my 16 card checklist, and set to buying them. I prioritized color, and clear images. All the cards I found were free of creases, and visual distractions. I found a local framer who could mount the cards without adhesive (she used small clear plastic corners to create pockets for the cards), so as to make sure they will remain undamaged. The cards are installed behind UV protectant, non-reflective museum glass.

I finally picked up the finished product yesterday, and couldn't be more excited to share it.

Hi Sean, that's a great display. Nice color selection, so very visually appealing (though I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't include the pink Chase). But I don't mean to be critical. I think that those cards are a great choice, and the display looks great.

Thanks Sean, the Pink Chase was definitely on my short list (along with the green Hans Lobert, and the lavender Patsy Dougherty). In the end, I really loved that Jack Knight card, and I needed a dark blue to complete my 350 subset, so it was a better fit for my Highlanders card.

Your display looks great.

I would love to do something similar but am concerned with how the cards backs are held or attached to the mat board. Please share on how your framer handled this issue.

Again kool project!

Absolutely gorgeous.

Love this! I started a thread a few weeks ago asking about people’s displays, because I was so curious how people chose to show off their favorite parts about the t206 set. To my disappointment, no one replied, but this is exactly the stuff I wanted to see. Very cool and congrats on completing your own “set”. Quite a beautiful display!

Very sharp looking display.

Great way to display the cards

Stunning display, great job putting it together.

That was a big concern of mine. Obviously I don't want to ruin 110+ year old cards. There are clear plastic corners that adhere directly to the background matting. They essentially form a pocket the card sits in. The cards are held in place, but are not attached directly to the mat. With the lighting you can see it on the top corners of the Dooin/Donovan portraits. It's really not noticeable most of the time.

I saw that post and wanted to share, but I didn't have the finished product in hand yet. I didn't want to share this until it had been completed.

Terrific

Sean, do you mind if I reach out to you when I am ready to do such a thing? Wonderful...

That looks very nice!

Such an appealing aesthetic would draw in lots of people who otherwise wouldn't care about cards. Incredible schematics!

...and, awesome as it may be, the pink Chase has its place, but certainly not here! Anywhere but here!

By all means. I'm no expert, but I'm always happy to talk cards/displays

Awesome display

This is fantastic. Thank you for sharing.

Looks great? Did you use standard glass on the frame? Curious if there was any UV blocking options available.

Thank you, it is a UV blocking, non-reflective, museum glass.

Beautiful. These cards, as colorfully varied as they are, look great with that background.

Beautiful. I've often thought of doing something similar with my 1953 Topps project, but to display all 274 cards like that, I might need to buy a bigger house!

Love this! The transition from warm to cool colors is very striking.

ROY G BIV was my first thought.

Awesome choice of cards and great execution on the display. Congrats.

Great stuff!
 

love the colors and portraits....nice variety:)

Nicely done.

Classic, gorgeous example of why one might choose to not have his/her cards graded. Looks fantastic when cards are professionally displayed like that!

This is just incredible!
I like the color you chose for the matte which is a color I wouldn't have thought of but it works with a great balance and does have a bit of color theory in it with how darker colors will saturate bright colors more. I'm quite curious what the back looks like & what exactly you used to mount the cards that doesn't damage them.

Looks amazing. Well done.

I'm no expert in color theory, but I went into it knowing I wanted to make the colors of the cards pop. I also figured, given the set is known as the white borders, that I wanted some contrast to emphasize the borders as well. Black seemed a natural choice for the matting, and the little white accents gave a tuxedo effect (loosely inspired by SGC holders). I an very happy with how the finished product came out.

I don't know the exact name of the mounts used, they're just tiny plastic triangles with an adhesive on the back that sticks directly to the matting. I'll have to ask the framer what they're called.

Great looking display!
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Love this! Nice job

I love the display!

I had a similar thought process a couple years ago...I wanted to collect and display some t206 cards, but had a limited budget.

So, since I'm a lifelong KC baseball fan, I decided to put the Kansas City Blues (minor league) team set together. With only seven cards and one HOF player, it fit the bill.

I also wanted to a make custom matte with artwork to match a t206 cigarette brand, so I landed on a Piedmont design.

I made a longer thread about this process a few months ago, but here are a couple pictures of the end result.

Since I intentionally made sure I acquired a few different back variations, I mounted mine in trimmed down card savers behind UV glass, but cut holes in the back matte too so you can still see the backs. Here is the finished project, front and back:

Attachment 508129

Attachment 508130

Love the t206 display! Here’s my recent W551 with UV/museum quality glass. I wanted something I didn’t have to keep in the dark (although I still try to minimize light exposure).

Very cool thatkidfromjerrymaguire and JackR. I always think these cards are works of art, so show them off.

Nicely done. I like how you did a color gradient with the background colors.