FS: Frank Bowerman - 1906 Signature

[T206Collector]

I’m not sure there is a more beautiful signature by a T206 subject than Frank Bowerman’s. Here we have Bowerman’s elaborate autograph on a real photo postcard (RPPC) of NY Giants teammate George Browne, sent by Bowerman from Spring Training in Memphis on March 12, 1906. I think it is likely that Bowerman sent this postcard home to his wife — to Mrs. Frank Bowerman — and later an enterprising autograph collector then cut down the postcard by almost half to cut off the “Mrs.” so that an autograph remained.
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T206 player autographs from any period are extremely scarce, but in this case we have Bowerman’s signature from three years before he was featured in the T206 set! This item may have come from the Bowerman estate in Michigan (Romeo and vicinity), as it is said that his family sold certain artifacts from his collection.
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An interesting aside is that the picture of Browne seen on the front of the card is also in the Ernie Harwell Collection at the Detroit Public Library. In fact, it is a second-generation image of the very same RPPC, which shows the postal cancellations near Browne's head that were originally stamped onto this RPPC.
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Finally, I suppose it is possible that George Browne's own signature is featured on the front, but that is pretty unlikely. Not only doesn't it match the signature on his draft card, but Browne died in 1920 and the reference to “Old Giants” suggests that the name identification occurred well after that date.

$815 is what I paid for it. And it is what I am asking in return. I would also take T206s of equal value in trade. This is an exceptionally rare and wonderful piece of baseball history.

[Bridwell]

I have an autograph of Frank Bowerman in my collection and it looks very similar to this, so I'd say it is authentic. No idea on the Geo Browne, though.