Let’s Look at the E91 American Caramel Poses — All 33 of Them

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Pre-War Cards

Here’s a look at all of the 33 poses used in the E91 American Caramel set

In all, there are a total of 99 cards with the E91 American Caramel designation. But in reality, there are three different sets, known as E91A (from 1908), E91B (1909), and E91C (1910). As I’ve written before, the sets are not easy to build and the E91A cards, in particular, are difficult to find.

Each set has a total of 33 cards and the unique (or, technically, not unique) thing about them is that each set uses the same 33 poses for the players. In other words, the same pose can in the E91, E91B, and E91C sets, usually assigned to different players. That leads to many collectors calling this a generic set.

But few sets have probably been put together and I doubt many people have ever seen all of these poses. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at all of them at one time.

In short, the set has a few different ‘types’ of photos. Collectors will naturally classify those types differently. But I’ve broken them up here in the following manner. I should also note that these pictures are all cards from the E91A set.

With Bat

There are two main types of bat cards in the set. Some have a player with the bat on the ground while others are holding it up int he air. None really look to be true action shots with a player preparing to hit the ball, though.

One notable mention here is that the card for Jimmy Sheckard does not actually show the bat. But it’s pretty clear that, based on how he’s standing, he’s likely got one in his right hand.

Here are the batting cards.

With Glove/Fielding

The most common cards in the set are those that show players either with a glove or fielding.

A more ambitious writer might try to separate the two and make clear distinctions on who is actually fielding and who is only pretending to do so. But since there are some questionable ones here, I sort of lumped them together.

Of note are the assortment of glove sizes here — even beyond the obvious ones that should be different, like catcher’s mitts or first baseman gloves. The sizing on the gloves looks to be a bit inconsistent, which isn’t shocking since the artwork is pretty basic. And considering the dimensions of some of the other equipment (i.e. the small size of the ball in Eddie Plank’s hand), that’s not too alarming.

No Equipment

The smallest grouping, unsurprisingly, are players with no real equipment. Other sets have more of these types of poses as they have often included portrait poses. But this set doesn’t have any of those and, if you’re going to show a good portion of a player’s body and his arms/hands, you might as well stick a glove on him or put a bat in his hands to make it more interesting.

Another note here is that I have lumped Rube Waddell’s pose in this group. He appears to be throwing and, given that the other players using this pose in E91B (Harry Krause) and E91C (Walter Johnson) are also pitchers, that seems even more likely. But since they could technically be throwing without a glove, I’ve grouped them here.