T205 signatures?
 

I wanted to know if the autographs on the t205's are actually from the players or by the artist of the lithograph?

For the most part I believe they are "inspired by" the real signatures from the players and added to the front. My guess is they had the signatures of players on file and then an artist applied them using paint to the card proof. No doubt liberties were taken for sizing but as a broad generalization, that is what their actual signatures looked like.

I agree. Some are very similar to exemplars and others have a bit too much flair. Tinker shown here is very close. Pfeister is also dead on, except "John" is shown on his T205 card when he would sign "Jack" for fans.

And, as far as I know, the image of a signature on George Bell’s T205 card is the closest thing to an exemplar in existence.

Similarly, Spalding Bats at the time etched real player signatures into their bats.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...7622128c_w.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5878b7f4_c.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...7854fe74_c.jpg

Thanks for the responses but it's too bad they didn't to the signatures of the American league players so we could see possibly example of addie joss

Later facsimile autographs on cards, such as on Topps issues, were usually authentic autographs which someone at Topps would then trace over using a dark black ink for the sake of having a bold facsimile on the card. This is why the majority of the signatures look "close, heavy-handed, and just a bit off".

On the T205s, I was always of the impression that the artist may have freehanded many of the autographs from actual exemplars rather than tracing over an authentic autograph. There are various nuances in shading, sizing and formation that are often askew from the real deal.

Edit: I guess I'm just using different words to say the same thing as the others, but we're all in agreement!

Edit 2: Without looking over the entire set, I have some very distant memories that some of the "autographs" bear little resemblance to certain players' actual signatures and that these ones were just creations of the artist's imagination. It has been soooooo long since I've looked at this set that I have forgotten which cards these would be, or how many times it happened.