How many colors in a 19th century lithograph?

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Posted By: davidcycleback

The average Mickey Mantle Topps card was made with four different color inks (black, yellow, cyan and magenta).

The 1880s color lithographs could well have been made with more color inks, though I've never counted. Murcerfan is correct that for those 1800s cards a very large number of different inks could be used. However, as each different ink required its own printing plate, there would practical/time limitations.

Someone recently contacted me concerning the authenticity of early 1900s color lithograph item, as he thought it might be modern reprint. He said that one of the inks used appeared to be peach. I said if the ink is genuinely peach that's a good sign, as I've never heard of a modern computer or similar printer that uses peach colored ink.

You can also identify some reprints and forgeries by the colors of the inks, as certain color inks were only used in modern times. In painting, experts have identified forgeries as the forgery used a color paint that had not been invented when the original artist was alive.