T206 image creation

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Posted By: Dave Snyder

I'm sure this topic has been covered more than once over the years, but I can't seem to find any specific reference to it. Anyway, here's the question.....

A buddy of mine who has watched me collect the T206 set over the past couple years is an artist and a graphic designer and has become intrigued with how the set was made. Specifically, after an image was selected (say Nap Lajoie throwing), what was the next step? Did a full size painting have to be done first which was then reduced during the lithographic process? He's insisting that this had to be done, but I'm wondering why we've never seen any of these "original paintings" if that is in fact the case?

Any light that could be shed on this would be much appreciated.

-Dave

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Posted By: dennis

is this what you are looking for? http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell/online-exhibits/baseball/making-cards.html

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Posted By: Dave Snyder

....I saw this earlier in my research and from what I can tell, each image in the T206 was reproduced from a photograph. There were no artists impressions or anything of that sort. Obvioulsy background colors and uniform letters etc... were added, but no drawings were ever created from the photogrpah - it just went straight to the Lithograph process.

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Posted By: Denny Walsh

Dave, do you know how they used these(see link) in the Lithograph process?
Very Interesting,
Denny

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Posted By: Judson Hamlin

I believe that the cross hairs were used to ensure that the varius color prints were aligned as the card sheets went through production.

Dave - I think that you are right about there not being artist involvement for the most part, some cards really suggest it- Shannon and Hannifan come to mind. Also, I've always thought that one could detect the hand of different engravers in the set. If you look at the backgrounds, the more intracate designs (like stadium backdrops) come in the later issues, but the 150 and 150/350's have a more refined use of shading (e.g. Lobert)