T206 SL Portraits

[Bigdaddy]

I'm not much of a T206 collector, just dabbling in them but mostly concentrating on post-war stuff. The one thread of my small T206 collection though is the SLers from the Virginia League - Richmond, Roanoke, Norfolk, Portsmouth, etc. As most of you probably know, there are two portraits of players from each of those cities (minus the Orth). And after spending much time perusing 'bay listings and BST threads, it hit me how similar the players from each city looked like each other in their portraits. Of course, the poses, backgrounds and uniforms are similar, but also the ballplayers look similar to the teammate from their city. McCauley looks like Guiheen (including red lips), Seitz looks like Otey, King like Westlake, etc. Below is a photo showing some of them side by side - is it just me or is there some artist bias when producing these portraits? Like they did a 'copy-paste' and just made a few changes.

You can also see this in some Topps cards from certain years using different photographers. Maybe the Yankee photographer from a certain year liked batting poses while the Royals photographer liked portraits. If you sort the cards by team, you can see the different styles of the photographers.

Thoughts?

[njdunkin1]

Whoa...this had legitimately never crossed my mind. Now that you mention it, the players per team do have a similar style/look. Pretty dang cool, actually. You can see the similar style here between the Shag/Ryan too. Good call!
NJ

[bobbvc]

The Norfolk guys look like they're wearing the same shirt. I don't mean same style of shirt, I mean "literally" the same shirt.

[sreader3]

This is a really good point Tom. I have routinely confused Otey/Seitz and Guiheen/McCauley over the years.

As a possible counterpoint, T206 artwork of Danville pitcher Fleet Mayberry in a pitching pose was prepared, but not issued.

(Although I suppose this could also be understood as consistent with your thesis about favoritism toward portraits).

http://t206resource.com/Olbermann%20Proofs.html

[mrvster]

observation!

[Cozumeleno]

Great comparisons - the only one I've ever noticed/mixed up is Otey/Seitz and Guiheen/McCauley. But those others are close as well.