Another 1940 Play Ball Color Proof?

[Chris Counts]

I've posted before about 1940 Play Ball Color Proofs because I acquired a group of them at a San Francisco card show a couple years ago. My brother just picked up this 1940 Play Ball card of Bill McKechnie off eBay, and he's looking for opinions about it. I realize there is some controversy about these, but I did get one of mine graded by SGC, which has graded others as well. The artwork on the McKechnie looks similar to that on my proofs, a little bit on the sloppy side, but no worse than 1949 Leafs and quite a few other sets. Curiously, every one of these I've seen is a National League player ...

[canjond]

First, let me issue a disclaimer... while I've seen the proofs before, I have never owned one. However, the one above does look a little too handcolored to me...

A few observations:

- The colors on the proofs seem to be most pastel, and not so vibrant as the reds in the card

- The proofs seem to have some skin coloration, the one above does not appear to have that

- The coloration above looks a little too sloppy.

[Brian Van Horn]

A little offshoot here with one that was definitely handcolored (not by me) from the 1939 Play Ball set:

[Chris Counts]

Jon,

Thanks for your reply. I agree the coloration is sloppy, But I have an observation I believe is worth mentioning. I have owned a total of seven of these (Frey, White, McCormick, Phelps, Hassett, Demaree and Stengel) and I have seen four others (Coscarart, Ott, Hubbell and Dean). Of the four I didn't own, none featured the color red. Of the group I acquired, all but the Demaree and Phelps had red on them, because each played for the Reds or the Bees, both of which featured red on both their caps and jerseys. To varying degrees, all the cards exhibit at least some subtle use of pastels. They all have some skin coloration (see the scan of McKechnie's face) thats done in subtle pastels, and some have the grass tinted a subtle shade of green as well. When blue is used on a player's cap or jersey, its application is very precise in each case (see Demaree). And whenever Red is used, it's much less subtle and somewhat sloppy. The red on all six cards I've seen looks like it was done in watercolor. Yes it looks sloppy, but I believe it would look much worse if it had truly been applied to the card after it was printed. It's my belief the artist did his original work on a larger photo, See how precise the blue is on Demaree's sock. There's no way such precise detail could have been added after it was printed. The Demaree, by the way, was graded by SGC after the company caught flack for grading these cards. They were hesitant to grade it, so I said to one of their graders, "Please take this card back to your lab and destroy it if you have to in some mad science experiment, but I'm convinced the color is part of the card. A month later they sent it back in an SGC 60 holder, so apparently they agreed. I can't confirm it, but I recall hearing that the McCormick (which I sold) is now in an SGC holder, which would be interesting, because it also features the sloppy and vibrant red you can see on the McKechnie card ...

[Leon]

To me that bottom picture (right above this post), that is enlarged, shows great detail and certainly helps the argument of them being factory colored. The color pixels would be very difficult to do after the fact. Neat stuff.....

[paul]

For anyone else who missed that auction, the buyer got an unbelievable deal.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1940-Playball-Wi...item1e5ad9b6ee

Right now, the Standard Catalog lists the actual price that each card sold for. I wonder if the McKechnie will be reported the same way.

[fkw]

SGC.... what kind of proof do they have that shows these are factory proofs made by Gum Inc.???

On the graded "proofs" are they "handcolored" after the original B&W printing process?

If so why couldnt anyone do that now to a common 1940 B&W card and say its one of these so called "proofs"?

To me they all look handcolored (solid watercolor paint/ink), even the '39

under McKechnies hat is even red in the dark area

[paul]

I don't think they were handcolored. I believe the coloring was part of the printing process.