How Baseball Cards Were Made in the 19th Century

maniac_73 · #1 06-02-2020, 07:22 PM

Wow what a fantastic read! Thank you!

wdwfan · #2 06-02-2020, 09:12 PM

Awesome read. I am a history buff (was my major in college), and I love baseball history so much. I can't afford anything of the 1800s stuff and can barely afford much of the 1900s stuff. But I enjoy looking at it. Love the history of this game.

Phil68 · #3 06-02-2020, 09:50 PM

Superb!

BeanTown · #4 06-02-2020, 10:47 PM

Grade post and let's all hope that one day TPGs will learn that most 19th century cards were hand collated.

mouschi · #5 06-02-2020, 11:33 PM

Thank you all for the comments so far! Specific responses below ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by ocjack

Thanks. Interesting read and appreciate the pictures. And may I say that those are some of the best Grade 10 Allen and Ginter I have ever seen.

Thank you! Getting the entire set was a big deal for me (they came with the 40 others as well, but I sold them because I only care about baseball) - and they were all beautiful. The only real damage was to the backs!

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaryPassamonte

I enjoyed your post very much. I share your passion for 19th century baseball. It's also nice to see mention of Ross Barnes. He's one of my main collecting interests, having been born in my hometown. Here's one of the teams he played on. It's too bad his career ended before baseball cards flourished in the late 1880s. I can see him on an N162 or N28, N29.

I agree! There are so many guys I would have loved to have seen in N28/N162/N172 form. Thanks for posting that pic - that piece is truly remarkable!

Quote:

Originally Posted by egbeachley

Fantastic post!

I didn�t realize that they used several stones for each card. I assume one for each color but I see several shades of brown on a baseball bat, for example. A different stone for each shade as well?

There is a publication named "Prang's Prize Babies - How this picture is made." Here is a link to show the steps: https://gigi.mwa.org/netpub/server.n...ing=1&offset=0 - it shows there being 19 colors ... and in the text that they have even used 45 stones to create one lithograph. I always thought it was 4 or so. I'd love to know how many were used for the cards. As for the term "shade", I know I read it somewhere, but cannot place it. The link above does help illustrate how cumbersome it must have been.

KCRfan1 · #6 06-03-2020, 12:09 AM

What a great read Tanner!

I love your custom cards and I'll never forget reading about your trip to meet Canseco at his home!

Classic stuff!

mouschi · #7 06-04-2020, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KCRfan1

What a great read Tanner!

I love your custom cards and I'll never forget reading about your trip to meet Canseco at his home!

Classic stuff!

Thank you Lou! It is crazy to think that the 5 year anniversary mark just passed from going to Jose's house. I love thinking back to what all happened

steve B · #8 06-04-2020, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mouschi

There is a publication named "Prang's Prize Babies - How this picture is made." Here is a link to show the steps: https://gigi.mwa.org/netpub/server.n...ing=1&offset=0 - it shows there being 19 colors ... and in the text that they have even used 45 stones to create one lithograph. I always thought it was 4 or so. I'd love to know how many were used for the cards. As for the term "shade", I know I read it somewhere, but cannot place it. The link above does help illustrate how cumbersome it must have been.

Great post!

They used as many colors as they needed, or as many as the customer would pay for. Many areas were patches of solid color. The dots similar to our modern halftones were done by hand, so the person doing that had a lot of control over the way it looked. Dark brown fading to light could be simply light brown with a tighter then looser pattern of dots that got smaller and farther apart. Or it could be Something similar over 2-4 patches of brown that get lighter.

You can usually pick out the colors looking with a good magnifier.

Most stuff I see was 6-8 colors, maybe a bit more or a bit less. (I sort of collect tradecards too) 45 would be a piece made to show off what the printer could do. Keeping that many colors all in registration was work for a real master. I don't think the art places still doing lithography that way even get close to that.

ejharrington · #9 06-05-2020, 05:27 AM

Thanks for sharing. I still have your website on Canseco on my cell phone. Every now and then I scroll through. 5,177 Canseco cards. Amazing!

slantycouch · #10 06-05-2020, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve B

Great post!
Most stuff I see was 6-8 colors, maybe a bit more or a bit less. (I sort of collect tradecards too) 45 would be a piece made to show off what the printer could do. Keeping that many colors all in registration was work for a real master. I don't think the art places still doing lithography that way even get close to that.

I can't fathom keeping that many colors in registration.

Different printing process, but there are still screen shops testing their limits to create fine art. Here's a modern 21 screen print that is widely praised by collectors of this genre.

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