For these unfamiliar with 1909-11 Obak (T212) cards, they’re basically the West Coast counterpart of the T206 set. Launched over the identical three-year interval, the set consists of 426 completely different playing cards comprising 271 completely different topics throughout the Pacific Coast League and Northwestern League.
For essentially the most half, art work was similar to T206 when it comes to the everyday poses and backgrounds discovered, although my very own West Coast roots require me to claim heretically and maybe with out foundation that T212 is total the extra enticing set.
Among the many highlights of my previous article (and Google Sheet) on the T212 Obak set was this breakdown of the set’s topics.
- 1909 – Introduction of 76 new topics
- 1910 – Introduction of 119 new topics and reuse of 56 topics from 1909
- 1911 – Introduction of 76 new topics and reuse of 99 topics from prior years
On this present article, my focus will likely be on the art work used to depict these topics.
1909
From what I can inform, the 76 playing cards within the 1909 launch mirrored solely authentic art work. Contrasting with each the T206 playing cards launched the identical yr and the T212 playing cards of subsequent years, the 1909 T212 playing cards have a dreamy high quality about them that means, at the very least to me, that the artist(s) concerned didn’t contribute to those different units.
1910
Of the 175 playing cards added to the set in 1910, 119 depicted model new topics, therefore required new art work. As for the 56 topics repeated from 1909 to 1910, there was actually the potential for a recycling of art work, give or take the ten gamers who had modified groups from one yr to the subsequent.
Regardless, no such efficiencies had been enacted, the end result being that the set launched new art work for all 175 topics within the 1910 concern. These 1909 and 1910 playing cards of Walter Nagle supply nearly as good an instance as any.
1911
It was lastly in 1911 that the scenario bought slightly extra fascinating. Right here the discharge included 99 topics from earlier years, 96 of which had beforehand appeared in 1910 and three of which had beforehand appeared in 1909 solely.
The smaller of those two teams, the three topics with prior playing cards in 1909 solely, noticed new art work throughout the board. Amongst different issues this meant that every one 76 pictures from the set’s debut yr had been basically “one and achieved.”
As for the 96 topics that had playing cards in 1910 as nicely, a key think about picture reuse was whether or not or not topics modified groups. For the 74 topics who remained on the identical group in 1911 as in 1910, the set merely recycled prior pictures, presumably to avoid wasting time, cash, or each. The 1910 (left) and 1911 (proper) playing cards of John Bassey illustrate this.
As for the remaining 22 topics (i.e., those on new groups), an efficiency-minded method would have concerned little greater than a fancy dress change, as is seen right here with Royal Castleton in transit from Los Angeles to Vernon.
Maybe surprisingly, such an method was solely taken 3 times, with Pug Bennett and Emil Frisk being the 2 DIGO (completely different in garb solely) gamers aside from Castleton.
That left 19 new-teamers for whom the cardboard makers splurged on complete makeovers.
The 1910 (left) and 1911 (proper) playing cards of Harry Stewart present a pleasant instance.
Ice Cream Paint Job
The 1911 Stewart card additionally showcases an inventive model new to the 1911 set, marked by what resembles dripping paint or maybe melting ice cream. Although it’s doable there’s a technical identify for this within the artwork world, I’ll go along with “ice cream paint job,” paying tribute to the catchy 2009 Dorrough song of the identical identify.
There are practically two dozen such playing cards within the 1911 launch, together with two of the units most coveted playing cards, Buck Weaver and Ten Million.
Whether or not they’re the work of a single (most likely new) artist added to the group or a number of artists is unknown to me. There are sufficient variations in model to make me suppose a number of, however then once more what are the possibilities of two avant-gardes taking the job the identical yr?
1911 Obak Cupboards
In 1911, collectors might commerce coupons from 50 packs of Obak cigarettes to acquire giant cupboard photographs of any of the set’s 175 gamers. In every case, the cupboard featured the supply picture for the participant’s tobacco card, although generally the picture was rotated, maybe to create the phantasm of motion. For instance, John Kane of the Vernon Tigers was essentially upright in his portrait however has a ahead tilt on his card suggestive of working in to catch a fly ball.
Amongst different issues, the cupboard photographs function a reminder that any on subject or outside imagery (sunsets, grass, and so forth.) within the T212 set got here solely from the creativeness of the artists because the photographs themselves had been taken indoors by studio photographers.
As a enjoyable aspect word, the variety of packs of cigarettes one needed to smoke (or at the very least buy) to acquire sufficient coupons for an entire Cupboard set was 8,750. Dividing by 365, that works out to simply underneath 24 packs a day! Given the maths, it’s no surprise the overall PSA inhabitants for this set is 3. And that’s not 3 full units; that’s 3 playing cards complete!
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