Brockelman Spring 2018 Auction

1909 Piedmont Cigarettes card of HOFer Clark Griffith with a unique underprint on the back, from a printers test run from another printing being ran at the same time. The Black print on the back was originally part of a puzzle that when put together displays an ad for Oaks Tobacco. On this example, you can see part of a hand, 2 sets of acorns and another symbol that were underprinted on the card’s back before the actual card back was printed over the top of it. When louped the Blue Piedmont back is without a doubt on top of the black ink. There are a few other examples out there however, this sort of an "underprint" does not come up too often. The 1909 tobacco ad for "Oaks Tobacco" was originally printed while t206's where printed at American lithograph in NYC. Handcut printers scarp, the sheet used to test the print run or perhaps inadvertently used after the test run of the other sheet and discarded when discovered. Fortunately for collectors 100 years later, someone at the printers cut them up and took them home.