1926 Exhibits Ruth Question

[glchen]

If no Exhibit experts have seen a 26 Ruth (or Gehrig) with no box, are we sure that these even exist? I don't know if anyone's ever tried to complete a 26 Exhibits set, and how close they came and whether all of the cards were no box. I guess I'm wondering if this can't be like the 21 Exhibits vs the 23-24 Exhibits where some cards in each set had borders while others had no borders.

On a side question, Scott, I noticed in some of your ebay auctions, some of your 21 Exhibits (and 23-24 Exhibits) are greenish tone. Is this a variation? I thought 21 Exhibits were all grayish.

[Exhibitman]

Well, here's another theory to screw with our heads. According to an old Beckett baseball collectibles book that I have the 1926 set consists of 70 'reruns' from 1925, 21 cards with the 1925 pictures but with the final line in the legend being "Ex. Sup. Co. U.S.A." and 37 entirely new cards. From what I can tell, the second grouping do not have boxes around their legends [Fewster is ID'd as one of the cards with a reused image and I've seen the 1926--it has no box around the legend]. According to the old Beckett. the only way to tell the reruns apart from the 1925s would be to compare the reruns to actual 1926s side by side for color differences. The 1925s are black and white, the 1926s are blue-gray, so the rerun 1925s should match the 1926 blue-grays. Now, whether that's correct or not I have no idea. I will have a look at what I have at home and see if there are discernable color differences with what I have.

[Exhibitman]

Well, I don't see any notable differences in tone between the 1925s and the 1926s I have.

One thing I've theorized in analyzing the 1920s boxing issues is that the company reprinted 1921-22 boxing cards into 1924. Perhaps the reality is that there is no 1926 Ruth or Gehrig, that they are really just reprinted 1925s, that there's no realistic way to tell them apart, and that the 1925s are really just DPs compared to the 1926 [no box] cards--which are the actual 1926 set? I wish they had copyright dates like the 1920s boxing cards or different croppings like the 1923 baseball reused images.

[smtjoy]

I have wondered about them for a while. One thing I though was interesting, is Jeff has the most 1926 exhibits of anybody I know and when I went over his list we are both missing the exact same ones, I just need more. Most of them I have never seen so there is a good possibilty that they are the same as the 1925. It would be nice to put together a list of which we have for sure confirmed as 1926 without the box to compare with the numbers Adam listed.

[Exhibitman]

This stuff is giving me a headache...

[smtjoy]

I just checked out the list I had of what he needed and he needs 71 1926 cards to complete, looking at your post that 70 cards were reruns, makes me think they are the reruns. I wonder how many of these needs also were issued in 1925? I know hes been looking for a long while, maybe he can comment if he has ever seen any of them and just been outbid.


1926 Exhibits (71/128)
Adams Bassler Bell
Bigbee Bishop Blates
Bleuge Bottomley Bressler
Carey Cobb E. Collins
Coveleski Critz Cuyler
Donohue Dauss Dressen
Dykes Falk Flagstead
Freigau Gehrig Gerber
Goslin Grantham Grimm
S. Harris Hartnett Heilmann
Hornsby Jacobson W. Johnson
Judge Kamm Kramer
Lutzke McManus McNeely
Miller Mueller Muesel
Myatt O'Rourke Perkins
Rixey Rommel Roush
Ruel Ruffing Ruth
J. Sewell Shalk Shawkey
Shelly Sherdell Shocker
Sissler E. Smith S. Smith
Speaker Summa Terry
Thurston Todt Torporcer
Traynor K. Williams Wingard
Wingo Wright

[glchen]

My opinion is that this lot from a Legendary auction are all 1926 Exhibits because they seem to have the same toning and most likely the same provenance. Link

In this lot, these cards have the box:

Sparky Adams
Max Bishop
Raymond Blates
Oswald Bluege
Max Carey
Hugh Critz
Charles Dressen
Wilson Fewster
Howard Freigau
George Grantham
Harry Heilmann
William Jacobson
Walter Johnson
Willie Kamm
Walter Lutzke
Clarence Mueller
Earl McNeely
Edwin Rommell
Ed Roush
Charles Ruffing
Ray Shalk
William Sherdell
Harold Traynor
Ernest Wingard

This seems to agree with Scott's list of what he is also missing in the 26 Exhibits set. If anyone has any of these cards without the box, if they could post this, that would be great.

I would think the toning in the 26 Exhibits would be slightly bluer while the 25 Exhibits would be grayer.