Posted By:
Joe_G.There are many "minor" variations within Old Judges in general with Brown's Champs being no exception. Here are some facts and observations on the Brown's Champs alone:
Brown's Champs are considered part of the "short numbered" cards along with King Kelly cards (w Boston) and the Hahm & McCormick cards.
They can be found with & without the number (this is a huge clue).
Notice that the cards were produced by placing a matte over the photo to frame it (arched top). Also notice that this arched matte contains both the name & number.
Although not important here, there are also variations with and without a copyright line.
Now let's put it together, again, the number falls on the same matte as the players name. This matte is certainly different between your cards, one has no number and the other does with the players name written differently (both in style and position).
Basically, the two examples you have were made at two different times (by Goodwin back in 1887) with a different matte framing Caruthers each time. I suspect the unnumbered version is a little more rare as most are numbered. The number and the script on the more common numbered cards is what most would be familiar with.
Why the variations?, one can only speculate. It is quite possible that Goodwin produced many of the Brown's Champs cards on 24 card sheets while others were mixed within mixed team sheets etc. For the most part same pose & year cards look very similar but variations come about with the highly manual process by which the cards were made over the course of the year they were produced.
Perhaps Jay Miller can add to this. I know he has many numbered and un-numbered Brown's Champs.
Hope that helps.
Joe Gonsowski