1952 In View

Friend o'the Archive Pete Putman recently sent along some very cool and interesting things related to the 1952 Topps Baseball set. With Spring Training kicking off for real right about now, what better time to take a look?

This first one is a bit of a question mark actually, although it was attributed to the 1952 set by Jim Fleck, who was Levi Bleam's (707 Sportscards) business partner until he passed away in 2020. This obviously never came to pass but it would have been something had it been manufactured:

It's unlike the plainly covered small albums Topps offered as premiums for their 1948-49 Hocus Focus (aka Magic Photo) and X-Ray Roundup (aka Pixie) cards and certainly not the same beast as their circa 1958-62 larger premium albums. If anyone knows more about this, I'd love to hear from you.

Pete sent along some print oddities as well.  Here's Gus Zernial, with no black ink on the back:

This is the ghostly reverse:

The star looks like it was hand drawn, doesn't it? Here's a Spahn as well, just for high-kickin' fun:

Finally, here are two very noticeable color variants for Ray Boone.  The first is from the black back run:

While his red back has turned orange!

There can be gradations in these colors on each Boone as well.

There are many, many print anomalies in first series of the 1952 set; it almost seems like the color separations were redone as Topps flipped the backs from black to red. I'm hoping that one of the larger, in-depth projects I understand are presently being worked on by some hobbyists will eventually get around to showing them all, plus all the other variants within. If you study the 1952 Baseball set in depth, the colors and designs used on the fronts, especially in the first three series, it's a pretty wild ride.

Fours Field

The last time I took a peek at the "1960" Topps Venezuelan Tattoo set, I was marveling at a page from the 1989 Topps Auction at Guernsey's, where a number of potential subjects were included in a lot of original tattoo art, finally noticed by yours truly only 35 years later. Well since then four additional subjects have turned up and expanded the checklist to 25 players.  One of the new subjects hails from the Guernsey's sheet and three appear in the U.S. Baseball Tattoo set, including a real barnburner.

Tony Taylor is our new Venezuelan-only subject, once inferred and now confirmed:

Taylor, a Cuban National, brings the number of possible subjects from the Guernsey's artwork that were likely produced down to nine.

Here is a wrecked Glen Hobbie:

Vernon Law, a key member of the 1960 Pirates squad that shocked the mighty Yankees has survived in far better shape than ol' Glen:

Those three were offered on eBay, along with a couple other previously known subjects.  Heritage Auctions ended up with the big fish though, as the Mick has finally been found:

Mantle was another subject that was previously theorized to be included due to his widespread fame. It's not in great shape but I'll bet it goes for some crazy money when the auction concludes three weeks hence.

Here's the current checklist.  Since the set was produced in such a way that the final count should be divisible by 4/8/24, and factoring in the nine Venezuelan only subjects still lurking to presently land us at 33, it's clear more subjects are out there, and, as I suspect the divisor is likely to be 24, we could get all the way to 48 players.

Bob Allison
Ruben Amaro (Venezuelan only)
Luis Arroyo (Venezuelan only)
Orlando Cepeda (US subject but redrawn for Venezuala)
Bob Clemente (Venezuelan only)
Rocky Colavito
Don Drysdale
Nellie Fox
Tony Gonzales (Venezuelan only)
Dick Groat
Glen Hobbie
Harmon Killebrew
Juan Marichal  (Venezuelan only)
Frank Lary
Vernon Law
Mickey Mantle
Ed Mathews
Stan Musial
Juan Pizzaro (Venezuelan only)
Vic Power (Venezuelan only)
Pedro Ramos (Venezuelan only)
Tony Taylor (Venezuelan only)
Zoilo Versalles (Venezuelan only) inferred from a sliver on a miscut, not yet confirmed but it's somebody
Gene Woodling
Early Wynn

Here's the likely Venezuelan players not yet found:

Matty Alou
Luis Aparicio (previously surmised as a possible subject)
Chico Fernandez
Felipe Alou
"Clio" (Elio) Chacon
Felix Mantilla
O. "Cepida"
Jose Pagan
Chico Cardenas

If we could confirm the US version print group includes all the non-exclusive players found so far in the Venezuelan set, it might help finding the resting point. In fact, the redrawn Cepeda could indicate he was not in the same print group as other known US subjects. Right now we know of eleven Venezuelan only subjects with another nine possible from the Guernsey's sheet. Four more gets us to 24.

The "US" subjects presently total fourteen, so another ten of those could be out there. If I'm correct in my guesstimating, of course.

Woody Gelman

 

As per my last post, I've been working on a biography of Topps executive, Nostalgia Press publisher and card collector extraordinaire Woody Gelman for the last five years. I'm about 75% of the way through the initial draft and looking to fill in some gaps beyond the documentation I've found so far, which is fairly widespread and pretty deep at this point. 

If anyone has access to the following, essentially physical documents or facsimiles of them, well outside what's commonly seen on the web (forums, blogs, sites, etc.), please e-mail me at cfireside at Gmail dot com. I don't need the originals but will need good copies. 

1. Correspondence to/from Gelman, especially related to the 1953 and 1960/1967 ACC's and also Nostalgia Press.
2. Anything related to Solomon & Gelman art service other than small ads.
3. Original art by Gelman.
4. Card Collectors Bulletin, Hobbies or other Hobby Pub references to (or articles/letters by) Gelman that are NOT from SCD, TTS, BCN, BHN or The Wrapper. (I have some CCB and Hobbies bits, but they are scattershot).
5. Correspondence to/from Bhob Stewart concerning Topps and/or Nostalgia Press (not necessarily with Gelman).
6. Card Collectors Co. Price Lists: 1966, 1969, 1970, and 1973 through 1987.
7. Card Collectors Co. Supplemental Price Lists: any through 1987.
8. Sam Rosen Catalogs and Price Lists: any.
9. The Card Collector Newsletter issues: 12,13,14,15,36,38. 
10. Topps items specific to Gelman (NOT issued cards or the Topps reference binders), more like oddball mockups, sketches or cartoons.
11. Fleischer Studios and Famous Studios related ephemera concerning Gelman or Ben Solomon (1938-45). (I have what I believe is 99% of it, but you never know.)
12. Interviews or audio with Gelman, possibly/likely unpublished (I believe I have the only published interviews in existence, but no audio of anything).
13. Foreign interviews or articles about Gelman, especially from France and the UK.
14. Unpublished interviews with or correspondence by Len Brown concerning Gelman.
15. Ephemera from Nostalgia Press and Card Collectors Company (letterheads, ads, mailers etc.), especially ones that show illustrations.
16. Any Woody Gelman business cards.

Thanks one and all!