1939 Play Ball Color "Proof"

[toppcat]

These remind me a bit of the Topps in house creations used to pitch new sets to the brass by the Creative Department. Topps would take an existing card sometimes and then add elements to it to give a rough approximation of what the proposed set would look like. I could see Gum Inc taking finished cards and overprinting them with color highlights to come up with the examples shown above.

Too bad they never issued a set like either of these. I assume the combined cost of photography and color was too expensive, hence the color illustrations used in 1941.