T206 Claude Ritchey & The Doves

[Abravefan11]

When I first began collecting Boston National T206's I didn't notice any difference in the Claude Ritchey backgrounds. Then while buying a Ritchey the seller pointed out to me that the one being offered was the tougher "Dove" variation. That caused me to immediately check all of my cards for this background. I ended up having a couple but it didn't seem like a definitive variation to me and that began my search for what made them different.

I have read several different theories but in the end I think it's simply a matter of print quality.

The T206 consists of a 6 color printing process. These colors are layered creating the multicolored backgrounds.

1)Yellow 2)Black 3)Brown 4)Blue 5)Dark Green 6)Red

The bottom of the Ritchey background was first a layer of yellow, then blue, creating the light green. Look at the arms or the body in several of the pictures below where the registration is off slightly and you will see either yellow on top or blue on the bottom or the reverse where the colors don't overlap exactly.



Then a layer of dark green was added on top of that. This I believe this is also the color that when layered on top of the blue sky gives the dark blue appearance of clouds that form the Dove.

If you look at the progression of cards below you will see that the cards lacking in dark clouds also have far less dark green on the bottom of the background. The dark green layer stops at or just above Ritchey's elbow on the lighter cards and covers the entire light green layer on the darker examples. The darker the bottom the darker the clouds on top.



Most 150 series don't appear to have the Dove image and most 350 series do. As you will see from looking at the Piedmont 150 the Dove image is faint but it is there. I believe the printing process or quality control was improved between the two series bringing out what was already there.

If this is redundant in anyway I apologize. I would love to hear anyone else's thoughts or opinions.