I've been following this post and conversation for some time with great interest, both from the conjecture side of what may/may not make up an early 20th century era printing sheet, and also the wealth of E91, T206, early 20th century cards information.
As a graphic designer with over 25 years in the design/print field, I am especially interested in the print side of the conversation, so much so, that I have inquired within the print field to those with 50+ years of print experience and knowledge into early printing processes. I found it interesting that printers agree that cards of this era would NOT have been printed as strips, but rather on sheets and then those sheets cut into strips. Printing on strips would have been unfeasible for many reasons, including the most important: registration. The smaller a sheet is, the more movement can occur in the printing process. Those that collect T206 (or other) scrap are well aware of the movement of the sheets between printing of plates. Just because a sheet of E91 cards does not exist (as of yet) does not mean that sheets were NOT printed. T206 sheets (as far as we know) no longer exist (or have yet to be found), but that does not mean that the T206 cards were not printed on sheets.
A typical print press sheet of today measures 28" x 40." Larger print shops/companies can run even larger sheets. Presses were not as large as 28" x 40" in the early 20th century, and offset printing was first manual, then automatic later with the proliferation of electricity, etc.
The T206 cards were printed in 6 colors. I am amazed as to the quality control of these cards, over 100 years later, as the majority are registered extremely well, all things considered.
|