Identifying Gehrig M114 Baseball Magazine Posters/Premiums?

[GehrigFan]

In creating my Gehrig master want list, I have become curious if anyone has any tips on specifically identifying the 1933 and 1942 Gehrig M114 Baseball Magazine Posters/Premiums? Theoretically, there are:

1925 Portrait
1933 Batting
1942 Batting

Are the 1933 and 1942 identical batting poses (i.e. 1942 was a reissue), or are they unique poses? If the latter, how do you tell the difference between the two?

Thanks!
Mark

[Oldtix]

Mark, I picked up this one with several other premiums still in the mailing envelope from Baseball Magazine. the envelope is postmarked 1948, so I assume this must be the 1942 version.

[drc]

I'm not at all an expert on these, so take my cursory observation with due grain of sale. But I noticed that the 1910s-20s versions tended to have solid backgrounds (all filled in solid brown), while the later ones circa 1940s-50s tended to have picture backgrounds. I had some M114s of Ted Williams, Stan Musial and other contemporaries (obviously dating them to 1940s-50s), and they had full picture backgrounds like the above pictured Gerhig.

[sprtsmn667]

Just fininshed reading a interesting article on these. It stated that the premiums with the dark backgrounds were pre 1930 and post 1930 pics were taken at spring training camps - hence the palm trees in the backgrounds, etc.

[sprtsmn667]

I just bought one on Ebay and paid $27.00. It's a 1942 issue.