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Willard Mullin Original Art Collection- Need Help

Hi Guys!

Last year, I bought a collection of Willard Mullin pieces from the son of an old newspaper man who worked for the N.Y. Telegraph in the 50's & 60's. Three of the pieces were large sized original drawings done by Mullin with editor's notes, They measure about 15" x 22". Two are baseball related and one is boxing.

Also in the collection was a pile of over 100 smaller pieces (most about 8" x 10"). They are of various subject matters including Baseball, Football, Basketball, Hockey, Horse Racing, Boxing, Tennis and Track. The printed side is a smooth texture while the back is rougher. There are no markings on either the front or back. I sent over scans to someone who's associated with a newspaper and he believes that they are printer's proof final copies before printing. According to him, before it went down to the printers, a graphic artist would crop and size it for printing.Usually only a few copies were made and he believes these may be final copies.

Below are some pictures of the large art (1st picture) and the other three are examples of the smaller copies. Since I am no expert on newspaper art (or any art for that matter), does anyone have any information they can share with me to validate this story? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Lou

Great acquisition! I have 25 or 30 original baseball cartoons, including a dozen Mullen's. My brother was a political cartoonist for 30+ years, so I am familiar with the genre. Artist proofs are the original drawing from which a number of copies or prints are made. These don't quite fit that category. They are best described as original drawing. I don't know whether Mullin had an office at his paper, the World Telegram, or whether he worked at home, so I don't know how the drawing made its way to the paper. His did many drawing for the Sporting News and as a weekly there was time to get the original drawing to St. Louis for publication. I am interested in the baseball cartoons. What do you collect that you would consider ion trade?