A few weeks back, I wrote an article about T206 cards from the same sheet. In it, I talked about a few examples of scrapped sheets, including the amazing Lash’s Bitters Printers Scrap group. Though I may have danced around the subject, what I neglected to mention is to date, a complete uncut T206 sheet has not been found.
I’d been planning to write an article about the Lash’s Bitters cards for awhile. As luck would have it, a recent purchase jogged my memory on the subject of uncut sheets. Last week’s article about the Lash’s Bitters group can be read by clicking the link below.
The Incredible T206 Lash’s Bitters Printer’s Scrap Sheet
This group of 11 hand-cut e97 Briggs Lozenge cards sold a couple years back. I missed them when they were sold, but a friend got them, so at least I knew where they were. Ever since I saw them, I’ve hoped to be able to acquire them at some point in the future. Last week, those hopes finally came to fruition.
If you’ve read all of the articles on this site, you know that I love hand-cut cards. The bigger the borders, and crazier the cuts, the better. As you can see from looking at this group, they are some pretty unique looking cards. When I first saw them, I assumed they all came from the same sheet. The friend who sold them to me confirmed it by copying the layout of the uncut sheet below.
This is not the first time a group of e97s from the same sheet have surfaced. Just last Spring, REA auctioned off this group of three panels of an uncut e97 sheet:
This brings me to the central question of the article. Why aren’t there any uncut T206 sheets out there? On the surface, it seems very strange. Here we have this beautiful e97 sheet that has survived all these years (albeit in three pieces), but no such T206 sheet is known to exist. T206 sheets must have outnumbered e97 sheets by a ratio of 1000:1 (or some similar huge number)*.
On one hand, I do find it surprising that there aren’t any uncut T206 sheets. On the other hand, it makes some sense that uncut sheets from other sets, such as e97, might make for a more attractive display piece. The e97 sheet above is undeniably beautiful. The pastel colors are vivid and striking, and the variety of poses and colors are very pleasing to the eye. From what we know about T206 sheets, I think it’s fair to say they would not be as attractive a display item. The Briggs Lozenge sheet above features one of each pose in the 30-card set. T206 sheets were laid out differently. A single pose was typically repeated vertically multiple times. Thanks to the research of Pat Romolo, we know what some of the sheets from the 150-350 series looked like. The sheet below was recreated by Pat using Plate Scratches found on the backs of Piedmont 150 cards. As you can see, this sheet looks a lot different than the e97 sheet. The e97 sheet lends itself to display a lot more than this T206 sheet.
The repetitive nature of the T206 sheet makes for a less attractive presentation, at least in my opinion. Still, I would expect that there would be a few strips or partial strips of T206s out there somewhere. This group of cards below is known as the “T206 Test Strip”. Clearly, these poses were located next to each other on a sheet, but because they were cut into individual cards they don’t qualify as an uncut strip.
The only strip that I know of is the “Wagner Proof” strip. This incredible item deserves it’s own article, which you can look forward to next Sunday. Legend has it this strip of cards was given to Honus Wagner by someone associated with either the American Tobacco Company or American Lithographic Company and the strip was found in the back pocket of a pair of Wagner’s Pirates uniform pants.
To date, this is the only uncut T206 strip that I am aware of. It would not shock me if there is another short strip out there somewhere. If any of you know of such an item, please let me know via email or the “Contact” button at the top of the page. Likewise, I wouldn’t be shocked to see a partial strip come to market in the future. Judging by the Lucky 7 Ty Cobb back find and the Broad Leaf 460 Cobb that recently hit eBay, there are still some amazing T206s out there hidden in attics, desks and old time collections.