1948 & 1949 BOWMAN printing trivia

[tedzan]

1948

Printing of the 1948 BOWMAN set is quite interesting, as the printer took their 36-card production sheet and produced a 48-card set. In their 1st press runs
they printed cards #1 - 36. Then in their 2nd press runs they modified their printing plates by replacing 12 cards in the first group of 36 with cards #37 - 48.
The uncut 36-card sheet shown here is from the 2nd press runs where cards #37 - 48 are interspersed among the lower number cards.

Thereby, this process created Double-Prints of 24 low numbers....Single-Prints of 12 low numbers....and, another set of Single-Prints of the 12 high numbers.







1949

The 1949 Bowman set was quite puzzling to collectors of these cards in the 1950's - 1960's - 1970's - and early 1980's. The mystery involved 12 redundant
Low # cards that confused anyone trying to complete what was advertised as a 240-card set.

1st scan here depicts an uncut 36-card sheet....typical of the 7 sheets that were printed in the production of this set.





Now, consider this....7 x 36 cards = 252 cards. But, aren't there only 240 numbered subjects in this set ?

The Bowman printers filled in the additional 12 slots in the printing of their 7th sheet by including 12 subjects from their lower # sheets. The first 6 (36-card)
sheets of the 1949 Bowman set have been found. An uncut 7th sheet has yet to be found; therefore, I have diagrammed its card arrangement here. The 12
cards enclosed in red are the "re-printed" cards. Furthermore, these D-P cards were modified to conform to the design of the other 24 cards on this sheet.






One of the most popular cards in the 1949 BOWMAN set is this card of "Satchell" Paige. Trust me, when us "dinosaurs" (as kids) opened up a 5-cent Bowman
waxpack in the Fall of '49 and found this Paige card, it generated some really great excitement.




Rookie cards of Gerry Coleman, Larry Doby, Bob Lemon, Ed Lopat and Duke Snider were also printed on this 7th sheet.



Hey guys....If you have any 1949 Bowman High #'s (#145 - 240) with OVERPRINTED backs....please show or tell us of them.

Thanks,

TED Z

[Volod]

Ted: Fascinating info. Even though I started much later with the 1952 Bowmans, I greatly enjoy reading any first-hand accounts of collecting lore involving earlier sets. One thing that puzzled me, since I have not collected the '49 set: "Furthermore, these D-P cards were modified to conform to the design of the other 24 cards on this sheet..." Just how does the design of the cards on the 7th sheet differ?

[tedzan]

Scheffing, Mize, Rizzuto, Priddy, Salkeld, and Zoldak cards in the earlier series did not have their Names On the Front (NNOF). When these 6 cards were re-printed
on the 7th sheet, their names were on the front (NOF).....as seen in the Rizzuto card in the scan.

Evans, Majeski, Brazle, Murtaugh, Dillinger, and Fitzgerald cards had their facsimile autographs on the backs (SCRIPT) in the earlier series. When these 6 cards were
re-printed on the 7th sheet, their autographs were replaced by their printed names.

Furthermore, 7 of these cards had their background color changed in the 7th sheet printing.





There....aren't you sorry you asked


TED Z

[Volod]

Thanks for taking the time to scan those, Ted. Interesting stuff.

[JRO$!(]

Mr. Ted Z. Thanks much. Your knowledge on this and many subjects deserves more appreciation and discourse! .jt

[ALR-bishop]

Ted---you may be erudite and all, but William Hayes says dinosaurs never really existed

Great info. I finished the 48 and 49 Bowman sets just last year, including the variations you mention. I was born in 1950 and did not start collecting until 1957, and so grew up with Topps and finished out those sets before starting on Bowmans.

Have you seen George Vrechek's recent two part article in SCD on the print process for the 53 Topps sets ? It has several mysteries similar to those of the 49 Bowman set

[Volod]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

Ted---you may be erudite and all, but William Hayes says dinosaurs never really existed

Great info. I finished the 48 and 49 Bowman sets just last year, including the variations you mention. I was born in 1950 and did not start collecting until 1957, and so grew up with Topps and finished out those sets before starting on Bowmans.

Have you seen George Vrechek's recent two part article in SCD on the print process for the 53 Topps sets ? It has several mysteries similar to those of the 49 Bowman set

Al - Do you think you could possibly scan and post a copy of the Vrechek article? My SCD subscription lapsed about twenty years ago. Or is it just a rehash of the Lipset and Zanadakis articles on the 1953 Topps set that were published in BBC mag about 30 years ago?

[ALR-bishop]

Steve, posted the articles in separate thread

[Volod]

Thanks, buddy, you're a good man.