Baseball Player Printing Plate

[drc]

Odds are it's from a magazine or newspaper. As newspapers and magazines were printing new stuff regularly, daily for newspapers, much of these types of plates are from them.

I've seen other baseball printing plates, and your's is a nicer example. More detailed graphics than usual.

I once had a circa 1940 complete set of Red Sox player printing plates in the original box-- Red Sox return address and newspaper editor foreword address. The only problem was they were cardboard not metal and not terribly attractive.

[FrankWakefield]

Looks like something from a newspaper composition room... There'd have been a linotype machine, a pot to melt the metal (lead, antimony and tin), and drawers and trays with lots of type and objects, such as that ballplayer.

Originally Posted by drc

I once had a circa 1940 complete set of Red Sox player printing plates in the original box-- The only problem was they were cardboard not metal........

Could this be the case for the missing plates that cant be found for the tobacco cards??

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Pup6913

Could this be the case for the missing plates that cant be found for the tobacco cards??

Short answer - No.

Long answer - No, because the sort of plate and type of printing were completely different. The one shown is a block for typography, making that block took enough time that the blocks were usually kept. Especially nice detailed ones.

The T206/205 and others were lithographed. Either from a plate or from a stone. The plate would have been thin aluminum, and likely got recycled after use. The stones were expensive, and thick. Typically after the press run they were resurfaced and used to print something else. The only exceptions would have been stuff like letterheads for customers who ordered regularly.

I'm very curious about DRCs Red Sox plates. I've never seen cardboard plates. Maybe masters to make the blocks from? A very odd item. Any idea where it is now?

Steve B

[aquarius31]

That's a very neat piece. Is there any writing at all on the printing block or other indicators? Perhaps it is a generic representation of a baseball player and may have come from some publication or calendar as others have suggested. Not to be the master of the obvious but what appears to be the sun in the background may be a big clue to it's origins/what they were advertising.

[T206Collector]

No writing, except maybe perhaps on the shoe. The funny thing is that the picture makes the plate glow bronze, but it is almost entirely black in my hand!