Vintage Sports Cards – Baseball – Basketball – Football – Hockey
I’ve previously shared the original artwork for the 1953 Topps Willie Mays and Whitey Ford cards that Guernsey’s sold in its famous 1989 Topps Auction. But other examples have also tricked out over the years, including this one of Ken Heintzelman.
Mastro offered this example in its April 2004 Sports Premier Catalog Auction. The hand-painted piece was described as 3-1/2” x 5” in near-mint condition and, obviously, one-of-a-kind.
Here’s the artwork next to the final card.
I ran across an item in Ron Oser Enterprises’ December 2000 catalog that perplexes me. It was described as a 3 1/2” x 5 1/2” flexichrome artwork for Darrell Johnson’s 1957 Topps card, but I always thought flexi’s were used to color black and white images.
I reached out to The Topps Archives, and he pointed out that flexi’s can look different but also thought they were only used to color black-and-white images. He also wondered if Topps just cut out the image with an Xacto knife as it would have already been in color. He pointed out that it sort of looks like an alternate for Johnson’s 1958 Topps card, which has a slightly different pose.
Any ideas? Did Topps have other plans for the 1957 Topps set? Were they going to use the cutout for another set?
In July, I shared the original artwork used for Whitey Ford’s 1953 Topps baseball card; today, the details for Willie Mays.
Again, the original full-color paintings of Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Bob Feller, Jackie Robinson, and Roy Campanella’s 1953 Topps baseball cards were first made available to the hobby in Guernsey’s Topps Auction in 1989.
Here’s the section’s description in the catalog and the details for the 3 1/2″ x 5″ VG conditioned 1953 Willie Mays original color artwork. It sold for $80k (+10% Buyers Premium).
I’m curious if the owner of the original artwork has managed to pick up a copy of the original news photograph that inspired the piece. REA sold this circa 1951 PSA/DNA Type 1 example for $16,800 in the Spring of 2020.
And finally, here’s a fantastic example of the 1953 Topps #244 Willie Mays card.
In May 2024, I shared the original football card artwork for Chuck Hunsinger’s 1952 Bowman card and mentioned that the original art was first sold to the hobby in Guernsey’s Topps Auction in 1989, so I wanted to share all the pages from the catalog with every B&W photo.
Not including the 10% buyers premium, the four priciest 1952 Bowman football card original art pieces were $6k for Doak Walker (note: my list says E61A was $6k, which could be Sammy Baugh rather than Doak Walker), $5k for Frank Gifford, $3,750 for Otto Graham, and $3,750 for George Halas.
It would be impossible to track down each piece of original artwork for a single collection today, but I may try to find pictures of them for a page here on the site as a future project. Happy collecting!
Here’s the original artwork for the 1966 Topps, Red Bat puzzle-back series, Batman #19A “Leap for Life” card.
Mastro offered it in their April 2004 Americana Premier Catalog Auction. Here’s the complete description:
Presented is the 4-3/4” x 3-3/8” original artwork for the 1966 Topps Red Bat puzzle-back series, card number 19A. The larger-sized, painted version of “Leap for Life” graphically illustrates the crimefighter’s daring and determination as he bounds from the top of a moving railroad car in pursuit of a villain. Here is an incredibly finely detailed painting, one that delivers the essence of a set which, for many, helped to define the youthful “formative years” A breathtaking artwork! It is an absolutely unique and one-of-a-kind item, and a rare foundation artifact from the second series of Topps’ immortal Batman cards. The artwork displays at a bright EX/MT level, and an EX (o/c) example of the finished card, as issued, accompanies. Minimum Bid $500.
Many other original Norm Saunders-painted Topps Batman cards have been sold over the years, many for well over $10k.
I ran across the original color artwork used for Whitey Ford’s 1953 Topps baseball card while flipping through Sotheby’s February 1992 Important Baseball Cards and Sports Memorabilia Catalog. It represented a quick flip from its sale in Guernsey’s 1989 Topps Auction.
First, Sotheby’s included few details, just that it was a full-color original artwork and that the lot included an example card in near-mint to mint condition. They described the original artwork as being 3 1/2 by 5 in.
But like I said, Sotheby’s wasn’t the first auction house to offer this Topps original artwork. It was first made available to the hobby in Guernsey’s Topps Auction in 1989, along with the original full-color paintings of Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Bob Feller, Jackie Robinson, and Roy Campanella’s 1953 Topps baseball cards.
Guernseys included cropped color photos of all six art pieces in the front (page 17) of the catalog; here’s a scan of the Ford.
The specific auction lots were found later in the catalog. Ford shared page 72 with Jackie Robinson. Notice the expected $2,000-3000 price.
The Ford did a little better than that; it sold for $35,200. Interestingly, less than three years later, Sotheby’s expected the Ford to be sold for only $20,000-25,000.
To round things out, here’s the original news photograph from the early 1950s that inspired Ford’s 1953 (and 1954) Topps baseball card. Heritage sold this PSA/DNA Type 1 example for $1,920 in November 2017.
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.