Everyone is surprised when he or she first finds out that a large portion of 19th century baseball cards were not lithographs, photoengravings or other mechencial prints-- but actual photographs. To modern sensibilites, photography seems a strange way to make a baseball card, but it was a standard process way back when. Many of the most popular and expensive cards in the hobby are photographs. 'Real photo' baseball card issues include the Old Judge and Old Judge Cabinets, Four Base Hits, Gypsy Queens, Newsboy Cabinets, Kalamazoo Bats, Lone Jack and 1860s-70s Peck & Snyders. Each card has a photographic image on very thin paper and pasted to a cardboard backing. Though it would ruin the card's value, the paper photograph can be pealed from the backing.
Real examples of these cards are quickly identified by using you microscope to examine the photographic image. Nearly all counterfeits are a snap to identify in person.
NO DOTS
Mechanical prints, like lithographs and woodcuts and etchings, create a printed ink pattern that is visiable under a microscope. The pattern and texture will vary from printing process to printing process, but there will always be an identifiable ink pattern. In the previous two pages, we looked at the distinct ink pattern of different types of printing. Under the microscope, the Barry Bonds card's ink pattern was all those colored dots. The photoengraving's ink pattern a different type of dot pattern.
Photographs have no ink pattern. Mechanical prints involve pressing an inked printing plate against the paper or cardboard. With photographs, there is no ink and there is no printing plate. Photographic images are made by a chemical reaction-- the interaction between light sensitive chemicals on the photographic paper and sunlight. Sometimes the tones of photograph are so subtle that it seems as if you can't get the microscope into focus.
REPRINTS = PRINTED DOT PATTERN
Nearly all reprints of Old Judges, Gypsy Queens and such are simple to identify. All known reprints have the multi-colored dot pattern similar to the Barry Bonds card shown two pages ago. Home computer print reprints will have a similar multi-color dot pattern (each dot itself will look different than a lithograph dot, but the general dot pattern will be the same.) Often times the dot pattern can be seen with just a normal around the home magnifying glass.
Can't get much easier than that.
End of 'The Secret Lives of Baseball Cards.' The tips offered in this online essay come from,Guide to Judging the Authenticity of Early American Trading Cards, which comes with a handheld microcope and blacklight, and a variety of samples of prints and cards for in person examination.
