[oldeboo]

I have a really wild theory that I don't think is so wild.

-These were found local to the Pittsburgh area.
-They are hand cut.
-There is at least 3 or 4 different fonts being used from card to card. It is highly unlikely a printer would do this on anything intended to be distributed, especially on the same sheet as others. It would look pretty silly and unprofessional.
-"Team" and "Club" would very unlikely be on the same sheet, especially if intended for any sort of distribution or even a window display. Again, way too sloppy.
-Leifield is cropped differently, I'll get into that.
-These all have the Horner/Johnston copyright. It's very possible these were added before whoever requested them received the images.
-Seeing the one's that say "World's Champions," it's rather obvious these were intended to celebrate the 1909 WS team. So these would be late 1909 or early 1910. Especially since one or two of these guys were only with the team until 1910.

I've never seen "Pittsburgh" across the chest on anything from this era, except the 1910 Tip Top cards that happen to celebrate the "World's Champions" as well. Has anyone else seen "Pittsburgh" in this context? They indeed all have the same images when comparing the Tip Tops and hand cuts, except the Leifield variation again. I think it's very possible these are some sort of prototypes or artist's/printer's proofs directly related to the producers of the Ward-Mackey cards. They potentially belonged to a few different proof sheets explaining the different fonts and "team"/"club" usage. They might have been trying to see what looked best for a potential print run of postcards if they could sell it to a customer. This explains the Leifield as well, there may be many others that were made with the oval crop to see how a postcard like that would look. Alternatively, maybe they were on the same sheet and the printer just picked random font because these were only intended to be used by the artist to create the Tip Top cards, so they just needed the info(spelling, position, etc). I think the postcard proof theory from the same producers of the Ward-Mackey cards makes the most sense. The chance of it being something other than outlined seems pretty slim.

This would fit with the Clarke having stuff on the back. Forged signature, writing after creasing, and a non matching stamp. These things were done after their intended use was complete and they were no longer needed. That particular card is deceiving and throwing people off to what these really are.

There is a solid chance these are very, VERY SPECIAL. Unfortunately, I think we need a few more clues to come to a definitive conclusion.