Posted By:
Frank WakefieldI don't know this, but I think that by 1909 JB Duke has all of the various cigarette brands we see in the white border cards in his American Tobacco Trust. Someone could try to figure out when Duke bought Piedmont, Sweet Caporal, and the rest... I believe he had them all by mid 1909.
The white border cards didn't appear in all brands at once. Ted has offered reasons why 3 brands had cards initially, they came out sequentially, and Piedmont was first. I believe he's right. Either executives with the other brands, or ATT executives decided to offer the cards in other brands. Evidently Piedmont sales increased with the inclusion of the cards. Same for Sovereign... so American Beauty wanted or needed cards, too.
I think that is reasonable speculation... they didn't add cards to decrease sales, did they?
So I can envision a pile of Piedmont back sheets initially. They'd print the front sides on some, and save some of the back printed stock for later, maybe. Or they'd wait and print backs as they needed them, but print backs first.
As for this sheet lacking most of its color, someone had to make a conscious decision to quit printing the remaining colors, but to move the sheet over to the cutting process (unless close inspection suggests the cards were hand cut, which doesn't appear the case from a superficial look at the scans). And then there's the question of whether, after the cards were cut, did they actually go out to be inserted into cigarette packages, or did the guy the cut them (he had to know they lacked color) and pocket them...
What a find it would be to locate a small shipping box, with stamps and postmark, mailed from American Lithograph to Hindu's factory, with the original contents, several thousand white border cards neatly stacked, cards that never got to the cigarette packages...