On its 100th anniversary and now officially deemed an antique, Ranjodh Dillon, a dedicated card collector with a sharp eye, has discovered some new variations to add to one of the most historical hockey sets ever produced: the 1923–24 William Paterson V-145-1.
Before we get into this, let's quickly run through the chronological order of these antiquated cards for some semblance. The 1910s endured the archaic printing stone method of card production, and most of the trading cards produced in the 1920s would no longer endure this manner of primitive stone lithograph. With the advent of the offset press, the quality and ease of printing carried the industry forward for decades to come. Although any new process introduced to an industry will encounter some challenges, printing is no stranger to contending with the learning curve.
Furthermore, the method of sales and distribution of trading cards would also undergo a transition from being inserted in adult-related tobacco packs in the 1910s to being redirected into the hands and mouths of children by way of chocolate bars in the 1920s. Clearly, the appeal of collecting trading cards was certainly considered to be more of a childlike endeavor.
This being said, we would like to introduce some recently discovered variations of the infamous 1923–24 William Paterson set, also known as the "V145-1," which was taken from the early American Card Catalog cataloging system created by renowned trading card historian Jefferson Burdick.
These black and white images of hockey card players were inserted, one per Paterson's "Hockey League Bar," and are composed of half-tone dots that define the image when viewed under magnification. The players' photo is surrounded by a solid black border, and print script block letters in black text beneath it, which contain the card number, the players' names, the team name, and the Nation Hockey League, then revert back to traditional lowercase script.
Where the variations lie is on two of the most significant rookie cards of this 1923–24 William Paterson set, let alone the hobby, the #14 Aurele Joliat and #15 Howie Morenz cards! Some of the letters in the upper portion of their name were not completely registered properly on the paper. This is a consistent version that stands up to scads of comparisons but does vary mildly in the extent of the letters affected.
The Morenz and Joliat are not the only outliers in this set that were corrected; with Dillon's diligent digging, more errors would surface, but this time not in the same flawed format. A total of seven cards has a period missing after the player’s card number. These players were initially printed without a period but were later corrected; those affected are: #6 Geo. Boucher, #8 Lionel Hitchman, #13 Joe Malone, #22 W (Red) Stuart, #24 Jack Adams, #26 Reg. Noble, and #27 Stan. Jackson. One other card is missing a period after the W in his first name, #22 W. (Red) Stuart, again this card has a corrected version as well.
Lastly, there is an eighth victim in the omitted period gang, the short-printed #25 Bert Corbeau, although his card was the only one not to be corrected.
With the infamous short-printed Bert Corbeau card, guilty of being issued in limited numbers to stay the Paterson company from awarding too many pairs of skates in their promotion for the redemption of a 40-card set. It is also believed the Bert Corbeau cards would have been printed on their own separate sheet for sheer control of selective insertion.
Now if these errors were found in the 1922 Wm. Paterson V89 baseball card set, their community would have rumblings from this ground-breaking discovery that would ripple throughout the hobby. On the other hand, our hockey counterpart only occasionally seems to give these types of variations or correctional finds less attention or recognition, but we are slowly catching up.
Through the acquisition of many cards from this set led to the serendipitous nature of this discovery. Like anything new in hand, Ranjodh coveted the details of each and every card, which led him to this revelation. The first person Ranjodh contacted was hobby historian Bobby Burrell, who shared in his excitement and went forward to collaborating on this article to pay it forward to the collecting community.
A full list of the players cards with their newly noted error's, can be found on the recently released vintage hockey collector's website and app: http://needuum.com
Kommentare