The E91 American Caramel Sets...Generic or Name Brand by Brian Parker

[tedzan]

Brian

Great article and analysis. I have 3 questions for you.......

1st
Certain players (e.g. Waddell with the A's, etc.) tell us that the E91-A was American Caramel's first BB card issue.
Followed by their E90-1 (1st series). So, do you have any idea why Burdick assigned the E91 set "E91"......rather
than "E90" ?


2nd
I'm not sure if you covered this....any thoughts regarding the Walter Johnson image portraying him as a Southpaw ?



My two favorite E91 cards

3rd
......however, is this supposed to be Wagner or Tinker. They printed this image for both. But, Tinker is in the A series
and the B series, while Wagner is in the last series (C) ?








Thanks,

TED Z

[calvindog]

[cfc1909]

here is Walter and a shared image

WJohnson91.jpg

[barrysloate]

Excellent article Brian.

While I don't think the E91's will be on anybody's list of all-time great sets, I also feel it is a bit underappreciated. Those with accurate likenesses are really pretty decent cards. But the repeated images, as well as that group of generic poses, is a disappointment. The question is why didn't the designers take the trouble to create real likenesses of all the players? Doesn't seem like it would have been that difficult to do.

[brianp-beme]

Thanks for all the input so far on my E91 article. Thanks Frank and Ted for the encouraging words, as well as Michael and Jeff for the comparision card scans. I think you can see with Michael's Harry Davis M116 as well as the Brown and Donlin that Jeff posted, the E91's are an exact match. I like how the E91 artists even duplicated the swath of hair coming beneath the cap on Brown. As far as the McGraw, if I remember correctly the Fan Craze is a perhaps more 'smiling' depiction of McGraw, and would perhaps show off the similiarities between the two better.

To answer some of Ted's questions, I believe that Burdick just didn't catch the fact that the E91A was issued in 1908, and stuck with it throughout the years. As far as the Walter Johnson as southpaw is concerned, the Johnson card is really the image of Waddell, as is seen in the E91A set. And finally the Tinker/Wagner cards are really images of Tinker...maybe someone can post the comparision cards I listed so as to show off the facial likenesses.

Keep the posts and comparision scans coming...I think it will be a nice revelation to all.

Brian

[brianp-beme]

To answer Barry's question about why the artists didn't produce accurate depictions on some of the E91B and all of the E91C set...laziness. Heck, it is why my article is posted here...I didn't feel like tracking down all the images of the comparision cards. Also budget issues could have come into play. Artists don't work for free. I imagine American Caramel thought they could get away with putting out inaccurate representations because, hey, these cards were produced for kids and what in the hell do they know anyway?

To me the E91C set is fairly worthless...just get one for your type collection. I would concentrate on the E91A issue and the E91B cards that have the same name designations as the E91A set.

Brian

[birdman42]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

To me the E91C set is fairly worthless...just get one for your type collection.
Brian

Brian, I couldn't agree more.

Jim, can you send me that fairly worthless WAJO? It'll work in my type collection. I'll even pay some toward postage.

Bill

[brianp-beme]

I have mentioned that most of the E91A cards share a facial likeness to the actual subject, which is then attached to a generic body, but 5 years or more ago I believe it was Runscott who shared a full-body pitching photo of Reulbach, either on the net54 site or for crying out loud the old Full Count board, that is exactly the same as pictured on his E91 cards. I didn't save the image (old computer crash go boom), but because of its existence I believe the artists used available photo sources to create these cards. As my article stresses it seems that most of these photos were portraits, but like in the case of Reulbach fuller body shots could have been used on a handful as well. Maybe someone can track down the Reulbach side action shot, or perhaps runscott could come out of the woodworks and help make my point.

Brian

[Robextend]

Sorry for bringing back this old thread, but for someone who is now collecting the E91 series this information was priceless.

Is there any more background info known about this set that anyone can share?

Brian - Can you please email me a copy of your E91 manuscript if possible?

Thanks so much - Rob

[brianp-beme]

Thanks Rob for bringing back this thread...I was planning on doing so myself, but now I don't have to. Not to be boastful, but I think this thread qualifies to be included in the Archives.

Rob-- glad you found all my efforts useful, and I will send out the article to you within the next few days. And if anyone else is interested I can send it out as well...just email.


Brian

[Robextend]

Thanks again Brian!! I knew some of the more basic info, but the detail was extremely helpful in getting a better understanding of the set.

Just a side note, I am pursuing the E91-C as well just because I wouldn't feel like my E91 series was complete without it. However, I totally understand how the majority of collectors would have little to no interest in it.

[benge610]

This thread stands as tribute to passion and hard work; a wealth of knowledge and invaluable resource; to an (IMHO) underrated set. Yes, there still can be those.

Leon, please consider adding this to the Archive; I know where to find it, but to many who have yet to realize; OK, the Ed Karger/Dummy Taylor folks know what I am talking about;
Heck, Maybe someday this "beater" may no longer be viewed as such.

[brianp-beme]

Thanks Ben. I posted a separate thread that included this same article, but had much more images of matching card scans and included some more matches I had found since I first posted.

https://net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=243920

Brian

[benge610]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

Thanks Ben. I posted a separate thread that included this same article, but had much more images of matching card scans and included some more matches I had found since I first posted.

https://net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=243920

Brian

Cool. Thanks Brian, I hadn't seen that thread; now added to a fantastic "E91" folder! Much appreciation.