Author’s note: The 1909-11 American Tobacco Company “White Borders” (T206) set has been no stranger to exhaustive study and research. As a result, it may be that nothing I present here is truly new. Still, I’ll call it “new to me,” and perhaps new to many of you. Certainly let me know in the Comments if this really has been covered before.
Background
While most collectors have some familiarity with the different T206 card backs, Piedmont and Sweet Caporal being the most plentiful, the topic of “print groups” is more typically reserved for the die-hards. Still, for collectors interested in the deeper structure and evolution of the T206 checklist, print groups are not just useful but essential.
If you are not yet familiar with the T206 print groups, I encourage you to review these pages from the excellent T206 Resource website.
Alternatively, you can simply think of the T206 set as one that came out in waves rather than all at once. Apart from tiny details, you can view Print Groups 1-4 as sequential releases of 155, 200, 60, and 46 subjects respectively and ignore the other two, at least for the purposes of this article.
A Closer Look
What I hope to do here is characterize the second and third T206 print groups in a way that is far from a random Monster mash and should prove useful in understanding the set’s evolution. To keep things from getting too abstract, I’ll start with this arrangement of the Brooklyn team set, organized by print group.
Or if you prefer the Washington Senators, be my guest!
One thing to notice about the Brooklyn and Washington team sets is that all of their Print Group 1 cards are of different players. As it turns out, however, a similar statement can only be made for half of the sixteen major league teams.
On the other hand, three other features of the Brooklyn and Washington diagrams really do extend across the entire set, or at least nearly so.
- Print Group 2 adds new players but no new images of earlier players.
- Print Group 3 adds new images of earlier players but no new players.
- No (studio) portraits appear in Print Groups 3 or 4
While the first two of these characterizations have exceptions across the larger set, the exceptions are relatively few. Focusing on the first, there are five teams of the sixteen that break the rule and repeat players from the initial print group. Even then, however, all but one (Detroit) does so only minimally.
Print Group 2 by Team
Moving onto the second observation, despite the addition of 60 new subjects, Print Group 3 introduces only four new players to the set: Frank Baker, Heinie Berger, Joe Doyle, and Jeff Sweeney.
Everyone else in the print group is making (at least) their second appearance in the set. Before wrapping things up, here is two more team layouts, which unlike Brooklyn and Washington will break the rules a little bit.
Philadelphia Athletics by Print Group
First, note that Bender (far left), who had a card in Print Group 1, gets another in Print Group 2. Second, note that Baker (far right) enters as a new player in Print Group 3. Finally, while two different Harry Krause cards in Print Group 2 don’t break any rules, they are certainly different from the Brooklyn and Washington pictures. Regardless, I think the most reasonable interpretation of the diagram is that Print Group 2 primarily introduces new players and Print Group 3 primarily introduces new poses.
The busiest diagram of all belongs to the New York Giants even as only a single card, Rube Marquard’s portrait from Print Group 2, breaks any of the rules.
New York Giants by Print Group
Of note are the many non-studio portraits in Print Group 4. The die-hards and photo buffs may recognize their common origin in a New York Giants team photo from 1909.
Having seen four of the sixteen major league teams you might wonder about the other twelve, so here are the data. A catch-all row covering the sixteen (non-Southern) minor league teams has also been added.
New and Repeated Players by Print Group
This same chart as well as detailed visual layouts for all sixteen major league teams are available here.
Conclusions
Apart from the so called Super Prints (Print Group 5) and Southern Leaguers (Print Group 6), which I’m deliberately ignoring, the evolution of the Monster might most simply be understood in this manner:
Following its initial batch of subjects (Print Group 1), the main strategy for expanding the set was to add new players (Print Group 2). With that accomplished, the next stage of growth (Print Group 3) primarily involved adding new cards of existing players. The final push (Print Group 4) did a little of each.
As simple and useful as this explanation seems (i.e., PG2 as more players, PG3 as more poses), it’s not one I’ve run across thus far in my reading on the set.
Optional Addendum
Just in case you were wondering whether or how the two print groups I avoided play into all of this, it’s actually quite simple. (The only thing tricky about them is their timing, depending who you ask, but their structure is as simple as it gets.)
- Print Group 5, dubbed the Super Prints by T206 researcher Scot Reader, consisted solely of six cards. All were repeats of players already introduced. In that sense, the print group functioned much like Print Group 3 (i.e., new poses rather than new players).
- Print Group 6, the Southern Leaguers, consisted of 48 subjects from six different minor leagues across the American South. All were making their first appearance in the set. In that sense, the print group functioned similarly to Print Group 2 (i.e., adding rather than repeating players).
Finally, as a reminder, terrific detail on not just these two groups but all six is available at T206Resource.com.
