Let's See Some Awesome Boxing Cards!

[G1911]

I'll add one of my favorites for the day. I like the old-man Donovan image for some reason, (62 according to the card back but he had to have turned 63 before it was issued, based on his birthdate, the text on the Joe Gans card, and the ledger) and he is, I think, one of the more interesting 19th century fighters. Also the only boxer to get 2 solo cards in the T220 issue. His 'Print Group 1' card is here in most of its guises.

Donovan was included with the Silver's and quickly pulled from some reason (You'd think a problem with the plate would be corrected or the card just pulled and left out, but they went ahead and repainted the entire background for some reason between the card's removal and the issue of the T220-2 White Border print run). His Mecca 30 and Mecca 649 backs are next to it from the White Border run.

Below it are 3 oddities I have alongside my near-master set but aren't actual variations. At left is one without red ink or faded (I am always suspicious of red-to-orange 'errors' nowadays; they are easily faked, easily happen naturally with aging and sun, and commonly faked for issues people care about, like T206). Second is a miscut (hard to see in photo at the resolution Net54 allows) showing the card above him on the sheet was also Mike Donovan of-today for at least part of the way up the column, as expected for American Lithographic cards. Last is the yellow smear, whether this was accidental defect was printed early on and fixed or happened part way through I don't know, but it seems to only come with the F649 reverse, which indicate it may have been an early recurring issue at the very beginning.

At bottom is the T223 Dixie Queen version of the same card, which uses the same artwork and so was presumably done with American Lithography, though I suspect and can not prove it was put out several years after the T220's were in early 1911 (possibly very late in 1910). The Tolstoi T220 is missing, one of 3 Tolstoi's I am still looking for. A shameless plug that I would like to buy one goes here.