Vintage Undervalued Roookies

h2oya311 · #1 02-06-2021, 03:18 PM

So I’ve been selling a few of my 1950s Topps rookies to take some chips off the table. Might never get some of these back if prices continue to rise. The number of people who have reached out to me post sale on some of these cards shows me that there is still room for growth.

Anyway, can anyone explain the background of the 1951 Bowman Mays? Is that a sheet trying to hide the background, which appears to be a Midwestern barn?

Seriously, what the heck is it? A green barn? Here’s the one I sold:

ronniehatesjazz · #2 02-06-2021, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by h2oya311

So I�ve been selling a few of my 1950s Topps rookies to take some chips off the table. Might never get some of these back if prices continue to rise. The number of people who have reached out to me post sale on some of these cards shows me that there is still room for growth.

Anyway, can anyone explain the background of the 1951 Bowman Mays? Is that a sheet trying to hide the background, which appears to be a Midwestern barn?

Seriously, what the heck is it? A green barn? Here�s the one I sold:

Haha, I've always wondered the same thing. The actual picture was sold in an auction (I think Lelands) several years ago and it's in a stadium. Not sure what the artist was going for here but I always thought it was supposed to be a spring training shot and that odd looking tarp being used as a bp backstop off the field.

Casey2296 · #3 02-06-2021, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by h2oya311

So I’ve been selling a few of my 1950s Topps rookies to take some chips off the table. Might never get some of these back if prices continue to rise. The number of people who have reached out to me post sale on some of these cards shows me that there is still room for growth.

Anyway, can anyone explain the background of the 1951 Bowman Mays? Is that a sheet trying to hide the background, which appears to be a Midwestern barn?

Seriously, what the heck is it? A green barn? Here’s the one I sold:

Artistic license.
Here's the photo used for the card (not my photo). The background is a canvas backstop (see grommet), the barn or equipment shed serves a few purposes. It establishes depth perspective for the viewer, balances a hard vertical edge against the soft flowing canvas edge to keep your eye from exiting to the right, the dark roof-line is important to the image also as it forces your eye back to the subject matter. The shed also ties in the green of the underside of his cap with the color of the siding, the gold canvas is also tied in to the small dirt patch at the base of the shed. You can see five layers of depth. The name, the batter, the canvas, the shed, and the sky. Arguably there are 3 more subtle layers, the grommet, the patch of dirt at the base of the shed, and the peak of the roof.

The blue sky is left open so the viewers eye can exit the painting. The artist also removed the shoulder patch and painted the shoulder the brightest white to guide your eyes from that spot up to Willies eyes, down his right shoulder to his hands, then up the bat to the top, then across the painting and out the blue sky patch. Interesting to note, his left shoulder sits squarely in what is known as the golden mean or golden ratio which is used in architecture and painting.

IMHO, one of the most beautiful cards ever made.

JollyElm · #4 02-06-2021, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Casey2296

Artistic license.
Here's the photo used for the card (not my photo). The background is a canvas backstop (see grommet), the barn or equipment shed serves a few purposes. It establishes depth perspective for the viewer, balances a hard vertical edge against the soft flowing canvas edge to keep your eye from exiting to the right, the dark roof-line is important to the image also as it forces your eye back to the subject matter. The shed also ties in the green of the underside of his cap with the color of the siding, the gold canvas is also tied in to the small dirt patch at the base of the shed. You can see five layers of depth. The name, the batter, the canvas, the shed, and the sky. Arguably there are 3 more subtle layers, the grommet, the patch of dirt at the base of the shed, and the peak of the roof.

The blue sky is left open so the viewers eye can exit the painting. The artist also removed the shoulder patch and painted the shoulder the brightest white to guide your eyes from that spot up to Willies eyes, down his right shoulder to his hands, then up the bat to the top then across the painting and out the blue sky patch. Interesting to note, his left shoulder sits squarely in what is known as the golden mean or golden ratio which is used used in architecture and painting.

IMHO, one of the most beautiful cards ever made.

And you successfully sent everyone scurrying off to wikipedia to look up the "golden ratio," and we all wound up reading about the Ace of Base album. Well done.

jbhofmann · #5 02-06-2021, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Casey2296

Artistic license.
Here's the photo used for the card (not my photo). The background is a canvas backstop (see grommet), the barn or equipment shed serves a few purposes. It establishes depth perspective for the viewer, balances a hard vertical edge against the soft flowing canvas edge to keep your eye from exiting to the right, the dark roof-line is important to the image also as it forces your eye back to the subject matter. The shed also ties in the green of the underside of his cap with the color of the siding, the gold canvas is also tied in to the small dirt patch at the base of the shed. You can see five layers of depth. The name, the batter, the canvas, the shed, and the sky. Arguably there are 3 more subtle layers, the grommet, the patch of dirt at the base of the shed, and the peak of the roof.

The blue sky is left open so the viewers eye can exit the painting. The artist also removed the shoulder patch and painted the shoulder the brightest white to guide your eyes from that spot up to Willies eyes, down his right shoulder to his hands, then up the bat to the top then across the painting and out the blue sky patch. Interesting to note, his left shoulder sits squarely in what is known as the golden mean or golden ratio which is used used in architecture and painting.

IMHO, one of the most beautiful cards ever made.

Most visually stunning card in the hobby. The colors are tremendous.

Casey2296 · #6 02-06-2021, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbhofmann

Most visually stunning card in the hobby. The colors are tremendous.

It's interesting that the 51 bowman set hit all the marks on a lot of cards in that set. The Mantle runs a close second behind Mays for perfect balance and beauty. But there's also Spahn, Williams, Snider, Campy, Rizzuto, and Doby to name a few. They missed the mark on Feller & Berra though, their 1950 cards are perfect, in 51 they went to head shots. The elephant in the room though is how much better that set would have been with a 51 Robinson and Paige but that's just fantasy talk.

Now let's talk Topps. 52 Mantle, great design. 52 Mays? Horrible. If you've ever seen the photo that card was based on it's a design nightmare. Dark subject on a dark background and no flow. 53 Mantle? Even better design than 52. Mays? He looks like my 13 year old son on little league picture day. Shameful.

Topps for the most part had no idea what they were doing when it came to the nuance of black skin from 1952 thru 1956. They got Aaron right for the most part but if you look at their Mays and Clemente cards they printed their skin color way too dark. Missed opportunity in my opinion.

skelly423 · #7 02-07-2021, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Casey2296

It's interesting that the 51 bowman set hit all the marks on a lot of cards in that set. The Mantle runs a close second behind Mays for perfect balance and beauty. But there's also Spahn, Williams, Snider, Campy, Rizzuto, and Doby to name a few. They missed the mark on Feller & Berra though, their 1950 cards are perfect, in 51 they went to head shots. The elephant in the room though is how much better that set would have been with a 51 Robinson and Paige but that's just fantasy talk.

Now let's talk Topps. 52 Mantle, great design. 52 Mays? Horrible. If you've ever seen the photo that card was based on it's a design nightmare. Dark subject on a dark background and no flow. 53 Mantle? Even better design than 52. Mays? He looks like my 13 year old son on little league picture day. Shameful.

Topps for the most part had no idea what they were doing when it came to the nuance of black skin from 1952 thru 1956. They got Aaron right for the most part but if you look at their Mays and Clemente cards they printed their skin color way too dark. Missed opportunity in my opinion.

I've branched out from rookie cards (for obvious financial reasons) and started picking up visually appealing early cards of stars. Between the 1951 and 1953 set, Bowman has the best looking cards in the hobby (minus the bizarre 1951 Paul Richards). Topps doesn't make a nice Mays card until 1954. IMO Bowman doesn't get anywhere near the hobby love it should for what they produced.

h2oya311 · #8 02-07-2021, 08:47 AM

Interesting that you mentioned Paul Richards. I�ve found that his 1950s JD McCarthy postcard doesn�t conform to the typical look of other JD McCarthy postcards. Most notably, it�s the only horizontal one I�ve seen for an individual player. All other single-player postcards are oriented vertically. I wonder if there is something further that could be explored here with respect to this particular player... maybe he wanted to �be different�.

h2oya311 · #9 02-07-2021, 12:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Casey2296

Artistic license.
Here's the photo used for the card (not my photo). The background is a canvas backstop (see grommet), the barn or equipment shed serves a few purposes. It establishes depth perspective for the viewer, balances a hard vertical edge against the soft flowing canvas edge to keep your eye from exiting to the right, the dark roof-line is important to the image also as it forces your eye back to the subject matter. The shed also ties in the green of the underside of his cap with the color of the siding, the gold canvas is also tied in to the small dirt patch at the base of the shed. You can see five layers of depth. The name, the batter, the canvas, the shed, and the sky. Arguably there are 3 more subtle layers, the grommet, the patch of dirt at the base of the shed, and the peak of the roof.

The blue sky is left open so the viewers eye can exit the painting. The artist also removed the shoulder patch and painted the shoulder the brightest white to guide your eyes from that spot up to Willies eyes, down his right shoulder to his hands, then up the bat to the top, then across the painting and out the blue sky patch. Interesting to note, his left shoulder sits squarely in what is known as the golden mean or golden ratio which is used in architecture and painting.

IMHO, one of the most beautiful cards ever made.

Thank you Phil. That is one of the best explanations of the artistry of a card (any card) of all time! Thank you for that. Are there other cards you�ve studied that would receive the same (or greater) reverence from you?

I�m blown away by your thorough response. I don�t know why I hadn�t noticed the background before. I always loved the look of the card, but didn�t know why. I guess the artist did his job!!! And Mays did his!!

Jstottlemire1 · #10 02-07-2021, 02:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Unfortunately not a rookie, but this is in our current auction:

I�m not a fan but Pete Rose is super tough to find with good eye appeal and inexpensive for being all time hits leader. I can also see the Speaker in that same category. Bench I agree also. Mays certainly was I had bought his true rc at 4500 and sold for 18500 in less than 6 months owning it. Finally getting the respect it deserves.

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