Not so fast.
I have seen nothing to prove that these cards could not have been printed in 1909, and I maintain that they were, perhaps more than any other year. All I have been shown is that one player could not have been produced until 1912 and a few others are shown with their 1910 teams. Now we know that t206, p2 pins and px7 were all produced over a span of years in the 1909-1912 range (depending on set), and there is nothing to suggest that the same could not be said for these square cards. More importantly, Colgans themselves were issued over a period of these years, with new cards added and team changes made. Under these circumstances, I believe it is a fallacy to say that because one was made in 1912 they all must have been, just as it is to say that because some were made after 1909 it is impossible for any to have been made that year.
Millerhouse says Harry Lord has a square for both Boston and Chicago, so changes were apparently made to these cards when teams changed in 1910. Also, Egan shows Harry Davis with Philly, and the Goodwin auction has him on Cleveland, so there’s another example of a square with different teams. Yet from Egans list are 13 players who had more than one e254; i.e., cards where team changes were made. Of these, all but one is depicted on his square card with the team he played on in 1909. Two, Demmitt and Elberfeld, were on different teams in1909 and 1910, and have different Colgan e254s. Each of these has a square card showing the 1909 team. Rube Waddell has three different e254s, two which show team changes from 1911, yet his square card shows him with his 1909-10 team. More than another dozen others from Egan’s list had an e254 and then an e270, the latter reflecting team changes, yet none appear on square cards for anything other than the original team. Now why would the manufacturer take the time to update Davis and Lord on these squares but none of the others? Better yet, why, if the entire kaboodle was not printed or issued until 1912 or later would the manufacturer not take the time to make obvious corrections which it knew about from e254 and e270? And where, please, is there ANY evidence that Autosales had anything to do with this? It appears that maybe one square card reflects a name/team combination that might have existed after they acquired Colgans. How does that equate to some belief that they had control of all these square cards and decided to allow distribution by someone else later on? Many many of these images are Horner portraits, and appear in other card sets or Spalding/Reach guides. Why should we believe that Autosales had some sort of exclusivity on who got to use these images, when there is evidence that they were used elsewhere and often?
It would be nice if someone were to track the five year span when Colgans were made, i.e. 1909-1913, for each player in the square card set. From there it could be determined the first year a particular square could have been printed, not counting for errors (and there are some–Jeremy, did you know the two B’Ham players on e254, who you wondered about as not having squares, NEVER played for Birmingham; so too Egan apparently lists Parent for Pittsburgh where he never played) I do this for some sets I collect but have no stake here. Jeremy, wanna step up?
