Mammoth 1920's-30's Original Owner Baseball Autograph Collection with 223 Signatures

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Posted By: barrysloate

Offered is one of the largest and rarest collections of 1930’s era baseball autographs that has ever reached the marketplace. This remarkably unique assemblage of 223 autographs, 217 baseball and 6 boxing, is a veritable who’s who of the 1930’s sports scene. The original owner was a New York City kid, who amassed this collection between the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. He had a special access to all the New York stadiums that other boys his age did not. His father was a legal bookmaker who actually lent money to Tim Mara to purchase the football New York Giants! This young boy (dubbed “The Kid” by his son, who is the current owner of the collection), painstakingly got all of the signatures one at a time, then mounted most of them into three composition albums, in some cases with newspaper clippings of the respective ballplayers. The result is a wonderfully authentic, visual time capsule look back at the golden era of baseball.

Among the luminaries included are: Babe Ruth (twice), Lou Gehrig (twice), Walter Johnson (twice), Pie Traynor (twice), Rogers Hornsby, Mel Ott, Mickey Cochrane, Paul Waner, Lloyd Waner, Fred Lindstrom (twice), Chick Hafey (twice), Lefty Gomez (twice), Al Lopez (three times), Travis Jackson (twice), Red Ruffing (three times), Carl Hubbell (twice), Joe Sewell, Earle Combs, Waite Hoyt, Bill Terry, Frank Frisch, Goose Goslin, and Ernie Lombardi. There are a total of 36 Hall of Fame signatures, as well as managers, trainers, umpires, and other cult figures of the game, such as: Wilcy Moore, the star reliever for the 1927 Yankees; Al Schact, the clown prince of baseball; Len Koenecke, who was killed in mid-air by a pilot after getting into an altercation; Sam Byrd, who often pinch ran for Babe Ruth and then had a second career as a champion golfer; and several famous boxers of the era, including Benny Leonard, World Lightweight Boxing Champ, and Art Lasky, who lost a match to Jimmy Braddock and appeared as a character in the film “Cinderella Man. Also among the incredible finds within is an autograph sheet containing Babe Ruth along with Tom Zachary, who famously served up Ruth’s 60th home run in 1927.

As stated, this collection has been in the possession of the same family for over 75 years. The son of the original owner has decided it is now time to sell it. In the past year, it has developed quite a pedigree. In the Sunday Sports section of the April 13, 2008 Los Angeles Times, noted sportswriter Bill Dwyre wrote a beautiful piece extolling the wonders of the collection. And recently, noted sports historian John Thorn had an opportunity to view it, subsequently offering a laudatory overview. Both of these articles accompany the collection.

Most of the autographs were signed in pencil, although a fair number are in fountain pen. There is some visible wear to the albums, with a few of the interior pages loose. Some of the signatures have faded a bit, which can be expected. All in all, given this collection was assembled over several years by a young boy, it is remarkably well-preserved. And as previously stated, this is the very first time that this wonderful archive of baseball history will be changing hands. The entire collection has been painstakingly reviewed by James Spence/JSA Authentication and is accompanied by four LOA’s (one for each album, and a fourth for the loose sheets and cuts).

The entire collection is being made available for $25,000.

For a more detailed description as well as additional pictures e-mail Barry Sloate at bsloate@att.net or call 718.855.7513. Thank you.