Henry Gruber OJs - Fat Bottom Border
 

There are several uncut sheets of Old Judge cards known but all dating to 1887. Some of these examples show sheets dedicated to a single team, other times the players/teams appear to be somewhat mixed/random. With more and more teams introduced each year it is likely that team sheets were less common although the presented cards of Henry Gruber, all dating to 1889, suggest at least three of his five poses were on the bottom row of a sheet; perhaps a dedicated Cleveland sheet. If these cards were anything but the bottom row the neighboring card would be visible at bottom border.

I can only claim 2 of the 4 cards as belonging to my collection.

I know this is only of interest to a few, but post worthy to me :). This may not prove team sheets remained throughout the production run of Old Judge cards, but at least suggests individual player's poses were grouped together.

Joe--as usual, a great observation. I would point out that these poses were probably not always at the bottom of a sheet. If you look in the book, 202-4 also comes with a normal bottom border.

i have always been...
 

a fan of o.j.s and own 12 or so....

most of my flow goes to T206.....but I am an OJ lover also:)

great observation Joe;)

Here are 2 of mine
 

One has a much wider bottom border than the other. One is oddly narrow.

Angyale

I have found that top row cards are more likely to have a large top border, bottom row have large bottom border etc. A little less common are the large left or right border cards that were far left or right on a sheet. Some of this could be due to having six cards across a sheet and only four cards tall.

There are far more examples of Gruber in which the bottom border appears normal. The four examples I posted could and should have also been cut with a normal bottom border but relaxed quality control allowed these oversize cards to circulate and, in turn, give us a clue as to how the sheets may have been arranged. It is possible that all Gruber cards could have been bottom row cards even though most of them have a normal border size. They also could have moved around the sheet as updates were made. We know the card moved around the sheet if one of the poses I posted turns up with a large bottom border that reveals a card below it.

Back to the original post, I believe these cards suggest Gruber cards resided in the bottom row of a sheet (at least some of the poses) possibly on a Cleveland team sheet.

Joe G, You have too much time on your hands. :D



Joe M.