That was one of the reservations I had about the machine theory. I can only think of a few reasons why a factory would have one particular machine that required different inserts. None of those reasons make much sense considering how industry worked at the time.
The only halfway sensible thought is that they were testing a new machine that had potential to be faster. I don't think that's the case. If it was there would be a population of some other brands cards that were narrow like the ABs. And there would more than likely be a population of ABs that were normally sized. The same would go for a change during production. Since there isn't any evidence of either, I think that can be set aside for now.
Nice to see more Fords. A sample of two isn't all that much, 5 is a bit better.
My main point with the ford was that if they made a new plate for the AB cards to fit more across the row they would have probably taken new halftone pictures, and they'd be different. The consistency between all the Fords leaves me convinced that all were printed from the same plate.
I've looked at a few different t206s that I have two of,(11, more than I thought) and there aren't really any screening differences on any of them. There are a few differences, but nothing I can really say isn't just due to the variable inking. The Absteins I have show a difference on the hat that is close, but not enough to say it's different. And there's a mark on the left frame line of Beck. And Abbattichio blue sleeves has a difference near the neck. All of these could be merely from over or underinking, or even just how fluid the ink was that day.
It has also occurred to me that if you were doing several of the same player on a sheet you could take multiple images of the same halftone, so the different positions wouldn't absolutely be different.
I was thinking that it would also be a nuisance to trim the extra bit off the AB cards in production, but it's probably possible to cut the sheet normally and still make the narrow cards.
Fascinating stuff, the more I think and try to prove/disprove a theory, the more It looks like it might just be possible.
Steve B
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