The dating argument still fails for lack of evidence. Unless you have some sort of extrinsic proof of date, like a mailing envelope, you can't conclude to enough of a certainty that the photo was printed in any specific time period, or how long it was printed for. Of course, you can narrow it down somewhat when it comes to identified items, e.g., if you know that a company made an item and then went down the toilet in a specific year, their products are pretty much capped at that year at the latest. But with an active company trying to make money, not cater to us nerds, anything else is speculation and is very likely wrong because they used their intellectual property as long as it paid. I'll give you a concrete example: the designation of Salutations Exhibit cards as a 1939-1946 issue.
The truth is that some Salutations designs were issued in 1939 but some were issued as late as 1960. ESCO re-used the same art for a decade or more, retiring a design when the player retired. Ted Williams, for example, retired after the 1960 season and his Salutations card (the no #9 showing version) can be found on uncut sheets of Exhibit cards with Rocky Colavito as a Tiger. Colavito was traded from Cleveland to Detroit on April 17, 1960. The Colavito card in the Detroit uni cannot predate the trade, so the Williams card on the same sheet was made after April 17, 1960. The Williams card was reprinted for at least 14 years after the purported end of its print run, which is why it is easy to find a high-grade example. That does not stop sellers from offering the card as a 1939-46 card. They, and many of the public, assume that all Salutations Williams cards were made in the 1939-46 timeframe because some Salutations Williams cards were made between 1939 and 1946 and someone, somewhere, sometime (possibly Woody Scharf when he was doing his first work on the classification of these cards) decided on those dates, the guides picked it up, the TPGs then followed suit, etc. This plagues a lot of what we researchers do. Look at the kerfluffle over the definitive dating of the 1947 Bond Bread Robinson portrait. People with vested interests in that not being his first MLB card (like those with massive $ into the 1949 Leaf) tried their best to ignore facts.
Your Robinson photo is freakin' awesome but from where I sit, there isn't convincing proof of when it was made. And just to prove I have skin in this game, here's my Musial:
I'd love to get a date on it, but I don't have the evidence. I do know that it came out of a collection with a Ruben Gomez in the same format. Gomez pitched for the Giants starting in 1953, so that sets the baseline on when his photo could have been made. The Musial has the same image as the 1947 Bond Bread but no proof it was printed in 1947.
04-05-2025, 11:39 AM
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