[BobC]

Hi Patrick,

Don't forget that in addition to the backround silk colors, the images themselves came in any of three specific colors; brown, blue and a reddish-rust shade. I think your scans include an example of each. So to get all the different color combinations you'd have to multiply the number of different backround silk colors by three. Andy's list of additional colors is good but, I don't think that is anywhere near all inclusive. For example, when you put different yellow colored S74s side by side you start to notice very distinct variations amongst them. Some are a bright yellow, others a darker yellow or even goldenrod color, and so on. The sometimes subtle differences could be caused by fabric coming from different material lots with imperfect or inconsistent dyeing applications being used to create them. Or it could also possibly be from age, exposure to elements or even sunlight that has caused fading and other changes to the silk colors over the years. I just think that they used whatever colors they may have had available and felt that the more variations in colors, the better, since the silks were primarily to be used in the making of quilts and pillows. We may never really know how many different colors/shades they actually used over the production run of the colored silks but, it would be an interesting project to attempt. The biggest problem would be deciding whether slight color/shade variations actually constitute different colors or not. Not everyone will always agree and you'll never get a consensus on the true number of different colors produced. Still would be an interesting project to attempt. Oh, and Andy is right, the real darkish red silks are one of the rarer background colors out there. There's also a light lime or chartreuse color that I think is pretty rare too. (My theory for the darkish reds ones being so rare is that you can hardly make out the image of the players on those silks and therefore they just weren't kept or used.)

Bob