Vintage Negro League Autographs
 

I collect Negro League related items, especially autographs. A particular area of interest are items that were signed back when the league was still active.

I imagine there are some remarkable pieces residing in member's collections.

Here is one of my coolest pieces. A paper signed by the 1946 Satchel Paige All-Stars who toured the country with the Bob Feller All-Stars.

Would love to see what others have from when the Negro Leagues were active.

Hi Jeff,
WOW! That is an impressive team sheet! :eek::cool:
Congrats on owning that, because that's such a cool piece of baseball and Negro League history...

Not autographs, but here is my ticket to the very 1st game of the 1946 Satchel Paige All-Stars vs. Bob Feller's All-Stars barnstorming tour that was played at Forbes Field on 9/30/46.

More of a question than a contribution, I apologize in advance

I understand why there aren't a whole lot of Josh Gibson signed pieces because of how he died so young. It surprises me more that there aren't more items signed by Oscar Charleston. He played organized ball, for a long time. He lived until the age of 57, not very old, but certainly a decent amount of time. He pretty much worked in baseball until his death. You would think more pieces of his would come up.

His lack of availability is not surprising whatsoever. He died far before the collector interest in the Negro Leagues.

front and back
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I'm not surprised that fan signatures are not common, but he also managed etc. and so I'm surprised there aren't more documents out there.

That is absolutely spectacular!! What year is it from?

[QUOTE=Topnotchsy;2292968]That is absolutely spectacular!! What year is it from?[/QUOTE
It probably wouldn't be that hard to figure out but I never took the time. Purchased awhile ago from Jim Stinson ⁶

Scott, that display is absolutely stunning! And the ticket is amazing.

What is the other ticket that is in the display?

To The Shleps :
Enjoy the piece !
It was originally in my collection for over 20 years from the mid 1990s when I purchased it from Ron Oser ( I'm sure some older collectors remember him ) when he auctioned off the Bill Yancey collection in the mid 1990s . I loved it because the Yancey collection had great stuff and wonderful provenance ; it was never sold before Ron sold it so all the winners were 1st generation holders of this material. Rumor was some of his material came from either Bill Wright or Webster McDonald. Jim Stinson sold it for me in 2016 when I began to downsize my HoFer , and Negro League , and baseball autograph collections. It was always one of my favorite pieces in my collection of over 3,000 autographs . It still looks great and well taken care of .

Wow, amazing stuff! I've always been a big fan of the negro leagues and have quite a few autos, but this First Day Cover is my favorite, mostly due to the rare Doc Sykes auto. The Paige is my 2nd favorite, love that auto as well!

Thanks Jeff!
It's an undated ticket from when Satchell Paige was with the KC Monarchs prior to coming to the Bigs. This ticket had them playing The House of David.

Oscar Johnson
 

Have a few autos left including this one...

Incredibly cool! Is there a way to date it? Maybe using newspapers.com?

That's a beauty!

I just want to add something here-be careful with all rare negro league cut autographs.

A former well known dealer in the past "supposedly" bought a rare collection from the South (Oklahoma/Texas)-all on cuts of big/rare names. I learned the history of this directly through Kevin Keating (who literally wrote the book on this stuff). I was nearly duped out of literally thousands, so caution is warranted on all cuts.

very nice pieces

Congrats

I have an old Pirates batting helmet, which I was told by the seller once belonged to Lino Donoso. I was intrigued by his story, including the anecdote that the famous scout Howie Hack signed him to a contract in a Mexican brothel. While I am always wary of player attributions, that led me on a quest to find his autograph. I googled the topic, and learned from a Net54 thread that's his signature is one of the toughest from the past WWII era. I settled for a baseball signed by the Hollywod Stars.

Sam Jethroe had a tryout with Boston in 1945 with Jackie. They never heard from the Red Sox again. AL Rookie of the year in 1950. Had a restaurant locally after he retired, plenty of stories to tell.

Here's Negro Leaguer and Hall of Famer Willard Brown on a 1953 Dallas Eagles team ball:

Attachment 549051

Directly above Willard Brown is Red Murff, which was the scout that signed HOF Nolan Ryan! ;)

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...Lipset%201.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...%20Johnson.jpg

Did you ever Google Jack Lohrke?(3rd down on the ball) He had an amazing run of good luck!

1980 Reunion Ball w Effa ManleyAttachment 549842

Attachment 549843
1932 Philadelphia Royal Giants w Mackey and Cooper.

These are remarkable! That photo is amazing! Are any of those signatures, or was it written in by someone else.

https://www.net54baseball.com/showth...ht=Andy+cooper

Interesting thread about Cooper and the origins of the photo.

For what it’s worth the photo has been with PSA since I dropped it off at the National. I spoke to PSA today and I am hoping to have it back in a week. It was being reviewed by both Henry and the autograph team. Based on the Sothersby auction is was previously authenticated.

At one time Keating was selling the Cooper from the collection himself, would be shocker if he failed yours.

Interesting, I did not know he was the person authenticating. Good to know.

I finally just heard from PSA today (spoke to someone for
NJ) that they in fact have authenticated the photo and deemed it type 1 (which I expected). They also informed me that my estimated value is 10x higher than what I wrote down, so there is that.

This was my first ever submission to PSA, so really was not sure what I was expecting. Should have the photo back next week and can’t wait to see it again.

Congrats! Never a doubt on its authenticity and I am sure it made its way up to Kevin for authentication.

That is fantastic! What a great photo!

Here's a cool one...
 

Rough, but never seen another. Mailed directly from henderson.

Pure coincidence but I was listening to a baseball podcast called the Outsider Baseball Notebook by Adam Darowski who has been doing tons of research on Negro leaguers and other non MLB greats. He had an author on that wrote about the Philadelphia Royal Giants, “The Gentle Black Giants” co-written by Bill Staples Jr. I reached out to him on Twitter and also bought the book. He had a chapter on the 1932 team and specifically discussed the photo collection. I, of course, bought the book and can’t wait to read it.

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