Vintage Rarities VI | April 2012 Sports Memorabilia Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on:
4/26/2012
Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Walter Johnson and more Autographed Baseball | 1920's Hall of Fame Multi Signed Bsaeball
Whether a novice or a serious collector of vintage baseball autographs, you've probably run across one of those great Hall of Fame multi-signed balls from the 70's. The ones with Ole Satch, Mantle, and maybe a few more great players. As you work back through the decades, these type of signed items become increasingly more difficult. Most tend to stop around the 1950's era with Cobb, Foxx or other players of the like. Well, lets rewind to the mid 1920's.
In this lot we find one of the earliest "Hall of Fame" signed baseballs one could imagine. A truly unbelievable grouping of signatures are presented on this Bancroft (Ban) Johnson Official American League ball. Seven autographs are found on the ball and every single one of them is a member of the baseball Hall of Fame. They include: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Walter Johnson, Tris Speaker, Joe McCarthy, Rogers Hornsby and Stan Coveleski. Are you kidding me? Does another ball like this exist? Highly doubtful. Aside from team signed balls from this era, we've never seen another mutli-signed baseball that has anywhere near the quality of players as this one. The original owner knew exactly what he/she was doing when acquiring these special names on the ball.
We know this baseball dates to the 1926-1928 era based on the stampings, and while there is some writing in what we can assume is the original owners hand, its hard to say exactly what year this ball was signed. And, there is a good chance that these signatures were acquired over a period of time. McCarthy was the manager of the Cubs and Hornsby was a perennial all-star on the same team while Coveleski, Johnson and Speaker played from the Senators. We all know about Ruth and Gehrig.
The signatures of these star players range in strength as you will see in the images below, but one can hardly begin to be picky on such a piece like this. If you have been following our previous sales, by now you might have become accustomed to finding yourself looking at items that simply have never seen the public eye. Here is another one of those examples. Don't miss this opportunity.
Accompanied by a Full Letter of Authenticity (LOA) from James Spence Authentication (JSA).
1920's Hall of Fame Ball | Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Walter Johnson Signed Baseball ~ Incredible!
Click above for larger image.