The Gallery Gallery - A Look at Gallery Over the Years Part 1

 The first Gallery set was released in 1996.  It continued yearly through 2003 and returned in 2005.  It was then dormant until 2017 and had been issued each year since then.

For the most part, the brand has remained true to the name "Gallery" and has had an art theme.  Many years saw original artwork used instead of photographs.  Over the next two days I'll go through the set year by year so you can see how it has evolved.  Today I have the initial run, from 1996 - 2005.

1996

Set Size 180 cards.  

Subsets: Classics (1-90), New Editions (91-108), Modernists (109-126), Futurists (127-144) and Masters (145-180) and each subset has it own unique design.  

The Cubs had cards in just the Classics, Futurists, and Masters.  Though the subsets had artistic names, photographs were used instead of artwork.

 

1997

Set Size 180 cards.  

Subsets: Veterans (1-45), Young Stars (46-90), Rising Stars (91-135), and Prospects (136-180). Each has its own unique design, though the differences are pretty subtle.  All the designs have a gold frame, in keeping with the artwork theme.  Photographs were used.  

There are Cubs cards with three of the different design, Veterans, Young Stars, and Rising Stars.

 

1998

Set Size 150 cards.  

Subsets: Portraits(1-20), Permanent Collection (21-80), Impressions (81-104), Exhibitions (105-134), and Expressionists (134-150).  This time black frames were used on all of the cards and each card has its subset name on the front, too.

Once again there are Cubs in just three of the subsets.

 

1999

Set Size 150 cards. Short prints, #101-150, were included for the first time 

Subsets: Base (1- 100), Masters (101-115), Artisans (116-127), and Apprentices (127-150).

And four the fourth consecutive year, there are Cubs in three of the subsets.

 

2000

Set Size 150 cards. Short prints are #101-150.

Subsets: Base (1- 100), Masters of the Game (101-120), and Students of the Game (121-150).  The designs really seem to have gotten away from the artwork theme and none of the cards have any real frame on them.

There are Cubs in all three of the subsets.

 

2001

Set Size 151 cards. Short prints are #50 and #102-150.  Topps issued two different versions of #50, Willie Mays.

Subsets: Base (1- 101), Prospects (102-121), Rookies (122-141) and Legends (142-150).  The big design news is that all of the cards in the set feature original artwork.  Gallery has finally become Gallery. However, there is only a minimal design difference between the subsets.  Base has gold lettering, the Prospects lettering in silver, Rookies have "Rookie Card" written on the front, and the Legends had a Gold name box instead of blue.

Of course there are Cubs in three of the subsets (they have no Legends).

 

2002

Set Size 200 cards, which is the biggest Gallery set yet. Not only did the set grow, but the short prints disappeared!

Subsets: Base (1- 150), Prospects (151-170), First Year Prospects (171-190) and Retired Players (191-200).  All of the subsets have the same design except the first year prospects have a red band across the name.  No Cubs were in that subset so I don't have a card with that to show you.

SInce there are no Cubs in the First Year Prospects, that means there are Cubs in the usual three subsets. I'll show the three, but you won't see any design difference.

 

2003

Set Size 200 cards.  Unfortunately, short prints returned (#151-200)

Subsets: Base (1- 150), First Year Players (151-167),  Prospects (168-190) and Retired Players (191-200).   The cards all have original artwork and the card design is the same throughout the set.

Topps didn't include any retired Cubs, so we have Cubs in... you guessed it... three subsets.

 

2004 - There was no Gallery set in 2004.  I did some digging around but couldn't find a reason for the exclusion anywhere.  If I had to guess, I'd go with cost since each card needed original artwork. That had to be more expensive than using photographs.

2005 - it's back!

Set Size 195 cards including 45 short prints (#151-195).  All of the cards use the same design and have that expensive original artwork.

Subsets: Base (1- 150), First Year Players (151-170),  Prospects (171-185) and Retired Players (186-195). 

This year there were no Cubs in the Prospects subset but we do have a Retired Player, so, as it has been through the entire run thus far, Cubs are in three subsets!

 

After skipping 2004, Gallery was back in 2005 but it was a short lived return.  The set must not have sold well because it was put on the shelf for a dozen years.  Tomorrow I'll look and the modern reincarnation of Gallery.