1948-1955 Bowman series divisions and sheet layouts

[toppcat]

Some old speculation on the large 52's here:

[G1911]

Here's part of a sheet (in Ted's version, a whole sheet or half-sheet, with other sheets replacing the right column with the missing 4 cards on the left, 1, 10, etc.) of the 1952 Bowman Larges. He claimed that the ratio of the right column SP'd columns was 5:1 and the left most SP column was 2.5:1. A look at much larger sampler sizes than 1,200 or 3,000 cards of Bowman Larges will reveal some interesting populations that do not come even close to these claims and call the SP'ing into question. I note that none of these 'complete uncut football sheets' show any of the indica of a sheet edge that is normally seen.

There is quite a large gap between what has been stated and what can actually be shown. Ted was the parent source for pretty much all of the current claims about the Bowman football sheets/series of each year, which are difficult to reconcile with a miscut such as the one shown and uncut sheets of non-football Bowman's. He cited private conversations with Howard Moll as the source for the press sizes and the sheets. His claims and stated memories have not infrequently been found to contradict later discovered direct evidence.

We know non-football sets like the 1954 Navy and the 1955 Baseball issue used sheets that were quite large. It's rather difficult to believe that miscuts are wrong and that a special small sheet was consistently used for football and only for football.

I am hopeful there is more direct evidence out there to flesh out what was, instead of just identify previous falsehoods though. One day we will get there

[toppcat]

Ted talked with Moll late in the ad man's life, who knows what his recall was at that point. Ted had many theories, not all were fact-based.

Zabel was printing the Bowman cards from at least 1950 I believe, not sure/can't recall if they were used earlier. I blogged about them a few times, most pertinently here (make sure to read the comments):

https://www.thetoppsarchives.com/201...-contents.html

Two comments of note thereon:

From Doug Hall, who worked there in 1962 and was grandson of William Zabel. He commented regarding about Zabel's presses:

"The Bowman cards were printed on a German-made multi-color press (I think it was a Heidelberg)from zinc plates, one for each of 4 ink colors. Before printing actually began. the press ran a sheet through each color, one at a time. I once had a full set of sheets of the 1953 Bowman cards of 1 color each (yellow, blue, magenta and black I think)."

An anonymous commenter stated: "I think the two 58” 2-color Harris presses at Zabel came from the Topps plant in CT. For a time, Topps May have printed the backs and LBP the fronts. Zabel bought their 60” 5-color Miehle to print Topps fronts."

That Connecticut Topps plant closed around 1971.

[G1911]

And here are some examples of the Navy Victories (credited to 1954, but I'm not sure if that's researched or just a conventional date. Lots of the claimed dates for 50's non-sport are not quite correct) and a 1955 baseball. Both are not full sheets, just panels.

I could have sworn a full 55 Bowman Baseball sheet appeared a couple years ago and we had a thread about it but I cannot find it now....



1953 Bowman football is almost certainly a 1 series release. I suspect there may be DP sequences, not random SP's. This Cross miscut has the third group of 65-96 printed above the first group of 1-32, if these conventional print sequences are correct. PSA populations clearly trend higher for 1-32.

[G1911]

And here's a debunking for 1955. 1955 is allegedly the same 8x4 32 card sheets, with 5 series and the first two being more common than the last 3.

#62 Blanda is allegedly a second sheet (33-64) card, in the bottom row of the alleged 8x4 layout. He's actually above a yellow card, which is probably #70 Jim Ringo, who is allegedly in the top row of the 3rd series 8x4 sheet.

Other examples proving the same can be found

[G1911]

And here is one showing #35 Veryl Switzer, allegedly the top row of sheet 2, is actually below Jack Simmons, allegedly in the bottom row of sheet 1.

So "sheet 1" actually has at least alleged series 1/2/3 all on it.

[G1911]

Now this is where it starts to get interesting. 34 HAner is the card to the left of Switzer, in the top row of "sheet 2". 39 Dick Flanagan is the second to last card in the same low.

With sheet 2 actually a panel printed below sheet 1, these cards would not have yellow cards above them at the top. Both these miscuts line up with the bottom rows of sheet 3, Tom Bettis and Breezy Reid.

It looks like we have, on one sheet on top of each other, panels representing:
1-32
33-64
65-96
33-64