[Archive]

Posted By: Jay Miller

Julie and David are right---N173's were made from glass plate negatives; N172's were made by rephotographing 6x4 sheets of N173-size photographs. The words "10,000 Kelly" were scratched into the glass plate negative used to make the photos, they were never printed on the cards. Other words seen on Old Judge cards (other than what was scratched into the glass plate negatives) were attached to the N173-size photos before they were rephotographed to make the N172's. For example, the player's name, position and team on an N172 was just a strip of paper with this info on it pinned or similarily attached below the N173-size photo. If you look at some N172's under a loop you can see the marks where the wording was attached. A photo and some pieces of paper with wording, when rephotographed, became a card.