Here is a 1906 card by Walter Wellman, showing an unexpected tender side to the normally wacky humor I associate with him. The card is copyrighted to Charles Rose, but as I am slowly coming to understand, Mr. Rose was generally the publisher, and the card printing was done by others. This one offers no clue to the printer, but it is R. Kaplan that is most often associated with him.
A lot of cards were licensed by a local printer. Syndicated, you might say. This is most commonly seen in view cards, where a local outfit woul have a big company run off x number of cards using their ready to go images, with the name of the local merchant/tourist trap that commissioned it.
in this card the small "COPYRIGHT 1906" in the artwork probably means that Wellman owned the image, and it was licensed out to Chas. Rose.