To date, 23 brown LENOX cards are confirmed. If my theory proves true, we can predict that 13 (or 14) more T206 cards will eventually be discovered with brown LENOX backs.
Six subjects of the 23 brown LENOX cards are from the
460-only series, and 17 subjects are from the
350/460 series......
Group B
350/460 series subjects confirmed with brown LENOX backs
Bradley (bat)
Burch (fielding)
Cobb (bat off shoulder)
Conroy (bat)
Jordan (bat)
Lajoie (bat)
Lake (no ball)
Leach (cap)
Leifield (bat)
Manning (pitching)
McQuillan (bat)
Overall (yellow sky)
Pfeister (throwing)
F. Smith (Chicago & Boston)
Wagner (bat on right shoulder)
Willetts
Willis (bat)
The timeline of the printing of these Group B subjects with AMERICAN BEAUTY 460, LENOX, PIEDMONT 460 Factory #42, and UZIT back was Jan-Feb 1911. This exact timeline
coincides with the printing of the T80 (Military Men) cards, which were printed with CAIRO MONOPOL, LENOX, OLD MILL, TOLSTOI. and UZIT backs.
T80 cards
So, here is my hypothesis....the printer at American Lithographic inadvertently forgot to switch from the brown ink after press runs of T80 CAIRO MONOPOL cards to black ink
prior to starting a press run of T206 LENOX cards. Furthermore, my guess is he caught his mistake quickly, which would explain why very few brown LENOX examples exist.
Instead of dis-carding these brown LENOX cards, these mistakes were shipped along with the black LENOX cards to Factory #30. And, were inserted into LENOX packs.
Regarding the 6 subjects from the 460-only series with brown LENOX backs......they appear to be from the same group of 9 subjects which were printed with PIEDMONT 460
Factory #42 backs.
460-only series subjects confirmed with brown LENOX backs
Chase (trophy)
Latham
Marquard (pitching)
Merkle (throwing)
Schlei (portrait)
Wiltse (portrait-cap)
I expect these 3 subjects will be found with brown LENOX backs......
Schlei (batting)
Schaefer (Washington)
Seymour (portrait)
Would love to hear from some of you on this forum with your responses to this theory ?
TED Z
.