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Old 11-01-2003, 11:42 AM
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Default OJ ? about color/tone

Posted By: Hankron

I figured I should post on this one, and clear it up.

Adam is correct. When they were originally made, the Old Judges-- and and any albumen photo card, like Four Base Hits, Gypsy Queens, etc-- were much closer to black and white. The original images often had some subtle purples or browns in the images. With age they turned to the common modern day sepia. Adam is also correct that you will occasionally find some well stored ones that are the original colors.

I am more than confident that any of the color ones (typcially pink, potentially other colors as well) were intentionally made that way. During this period, a photographer had invented a technique where colored dye could be added during the development of of the photograph. Chemically (photography is a chemical process), pink dye worked best (explaining the relative plentitude of the pink Old Judges), though other colors could be used. This is coupled with that, while detioration can cause different colors of fungus in paper, I can't imaging an Old Judge aging to a consistent pink tone ... How the pink tone effects the value is an issue for they buyers to answer, but the pink Old Judges should be considered intentional and factory made.

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