T206 Billy Sullivan missing red ink variation? Your opinion

[steve B]

The process was more than 6 colors. Most of the ones I've looked closely at are at least 8 colors.

Red on most T206s is done a couple different ways. Typically the bright red is printed over pink.

I have normal examples of all three for comparison.

On Beck the pink is printed behind red on the hat and cuffs, but not behind the B on the sleeve.

For the cards I posted, Both Lobert and Downey have pink printed behind the bright red on the team name. On Downey, the bright red was not printed over the belt, an oddity I can't explain.


At the time the technology for ink colors was changing. The really bright reds are probably Cochineal, a really great colorant for bright red, but labor intensive and expensive. The pinks are probably one of the then fairly new synthetic dyes, usually called aniline dyes.

Cochineal gives a really brilliant red, but isn't great at holding color under exposure to light.
The old aniline dyes held color under light much better, but didn't generally produce a really nice red. They would have been a very good choice for pink.

Most of the other colors had available dyes or colorants that held up well under light.

The ink makeups were proprietary, but were usually a dye or colorant in some sort of oil based carrier that would dry and harden well. Hard to explain dyes, but they're a solid chemical color. Colorants would be physical particles added to the carrier. Black was usually carbon, either lampblack or carbonblack and won't fade. Some browns were rust, some blues were finely ground turquoise.
Many of those won't fade.

Someday I need to check the inks with the blacklight. Many aniline dyes react to UV, red often glowing orange red.


Steve B