uncatalogues Mendelsohn M101 ruth-type

[nolemmings]

Hi Leon,

I've never held one of those, although I have seen the Hofman posted by another board member and thought I had a scan of a third (Cole?). I am leaning against it being a Mendelsohn product, but admit my reasoning is not overly strong.

I suspect that Mendelsohn had a hand in the rather muddy looking M-UNCs or W-Uncs from circa 1915, of which you own a few. We know that he also then produced m101-5/4 the next year, where he was somewhat of a perfectionist changing poses, captions and players to be as current as possible. In 1917 he made at least a prototype of a larger and clearer version of m101, of which three are known. Later that same year he went even larger and gave us the wonderful m101-6s that are nearly all new photos.

My point is that he was always seeking to improve and get both bigger and better with his sets. That card you show, if truly from 1911, would seem to already fit the bill-- it seems at least as advanced as the several Mendelsohn issues that followed. Why regress to smaller, less clear cards, and wait four years to begin doing it if you've already hit upon something you like? I realize this argument is far from infallible and that there may be several explanations, but that's where I am coming from now.

Frankly, the card looks a bit too advanced, if that makes sense, which has always made me wonder if it was produced somewhat period but later, perhaps as a commemorative issue (although there was nothing overly memorable about the 1911 Cubs). Alternatively, perhaps it was not cost effective at the time, and was shelved, although in that event you might think that Mendelsohn would revive it at the proper time rather than trying new and again smaller designs.

Finally, the only true "card" sets I recall from that era with the year of issue stated on the front (except for some E-104) are the Zeenuts, which coincidentally began circulating in 1911 also. Since Zeenuts had ties to Collins-McCarthy and yours almost bears more resemblance to that issue than Mendelsohn's, maybe the same folks are behind your card, although that does not begin to explain how it ended up with a Midwest advertiser, unless it turns out that the E135 cards really started in Chicago as a Boston Store release before heading west. See how all this thinking can get a guy's head messed up?