Christie’s East offered these 14 original 1952 Bowman paintings of never-issued cards in its October 1992 Sports Memorabilia Auction.
They were offered as Lot 93 with the following description:
14 original Bowman paintings of cards that were never issued. Players depicted include C. Lavagetto, M. Martin, J Hopp, C. Van Cuyk, G. Shuba, J. Merson, V Trucks, B Thorpe, T. Moore, B. Addis, J. Wilson, B. McCoskey, R. Gumpert, and J. Dobson. Each card measures 5 x 7 in.
The estimated value was $8,000-10,000.
Christie’s reference to R. Gumpert should have been Bill Henry, the second-to-last card on the bottom. Randy Gumpert has a 1952 Bowman card.
Bowman scrapped more than 14 players from their 1952 set; I previously shared Bill Dickey’s unissued original artwork that Ron Oser Enterprises sold in April 2000, REA sold artwork of an unidentified Detroit Tiger, and The Topps Archives has a post that shares Gelman’s find of 29 original Bowman art pieces including 15 who did not appear in the issued set. Those 15 (the 14 from Christie’s plus Bob Kennedy) were re-printed by TCMA in 1982 as a 1952 Bowman Supplement set (no Bill Dickey or unidentified Detroit Tiger in the supplement set).
Beckett describes the 1952 Bowman extension set as follows:
In 1980, 15 unissued pieces of artwork initially intended to be used by Bowman Gum in their 1952 baseball card set were discovered. This set consists of 15 cards made from this original artwork. The backs have been created to resemble the original 1952 series, and the set has been numbered 253-267 (the next 15 cards in the 1952 Bowman sequence). The facsimile autograph on the original 1952 Bowmans has been omitted from the cards in this set. This set was originally available from the producer for $3 per set.
For completeness, Heritage sold the original art for the 1952 Bowman Bob Kennedy card in May 2020 for $1,110. I’ve also included photos of the unidentified Detroit Tiger and Bill Dickey cards.
Also, check out my earlier post, 1952 Bowman Baseball Original Artwork, Proofs, And Retouched Cards, for more about the Willard Ramsdell and Cliff Mapes cards.