T206 Factories

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by SetBuilder

Ted,

I found an excerpt from the book "The Card: Collectors, Con Men, and the True Story of History's Most Desired Baseball Card" by Michael O'Keeffe (don't know who that is): "The Cards were printed at seven factories in New York, Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina...The Gretzky 206 Wagner was imprinted with "Factory 25, 24 Dist. VA.,"

This information also carries over to the Wikipedia entry for the Wagner card.

I have read the book "The Card"; and, there are some flaws in it.....and, this is one of the most glaring flaws by the author. And, Wikipedia repeated this myth.

The various Factory's were in business to produce Tobacco products and their machinery was designed for this task. The various Factory's did not employ lithographers
and did not have printing presses. The design and the printing of most T-cards from 1886 - 1919 were the result of specialized craftsmen who were very professional in
the art of lithography. In the 19th Century, George Harris & Sons (Philadelphia) was one of the big producer's of T-cards (N162, etc). At the start of the 20th Century
American Litho. on the East coast and Schmidt Litho. on the West coast were the big Lithographic Company's that produced T-cards.


TED Z