Autograph Book Featuring Gehrig, Ruth & Dozens Of Others...Opinions Needed/Welcomed
 

Autograph Book Featuring Gehrig, Ruth & Dozens Of Others...Opinions Needed/Welcomed

This autograph book was shown to me today and while I am fairly certain on good or bad for many of these autos, I would like your opinion on any/all you have knowledge on - this is not a gotcha thread, this book is supposedly from 1933-34.

I think they are great, but I want to qualify that I am not an expert. What a find!

Genuine.

Very nice and authentic.

That's a beaut! Potential purchase or someone showing off?

100% good!

That is one serious collection!

Hello,
1933-1934 is an pretty good guess on date because of the presence of Russ Van Atta on one of the sheets. Van Atta's rookie season was 1933 so this sheet could not have been from any earlier. All the others present on the sheet were definitely players from this exact era, FWIW.

Nice looking sheets!!

Gorgeous signatures!

Hi all, just to clarify, as much as I wish this was an item for me or a pickup I scored, it's a piece a colleague of mine was shown and wanted an opinion on before sending it off to be authenticated and he wanted to get a gauge on if the signatures were good.

Many of them looked good to me so I took some photos of the book to get the opinions of many far more versed vintage autograph collectors and experts here.

The current owner is unsure if they want to sell the book as a whole, break it up into cuts, slab full pages (as not to ruin any signatures) etc. Once I have a better idea on what they are doing with it I will surely let you all know as it seems there is substantial interest from some members.

Kevin

Depending on whether or not the book was used for the contest or not, what you have is a 1932 Watermans autograph book. Kids were issued the book in Spring 1932 and by the Fall the books were "due" at Watermans for a contest. Now that does not mean it was not used later but that was the intent of these books.

FYI, the most valuable autograph in that book is neither Ruth or Gehrig. Its Eddie Bennett the mascot. I'm guessing whoever you send it to would know that, but you never know.

Rhys

Who is Eddie Bennett?

Are the Ruth and Gehrig on the opposite side of Bennett and Lazzeri? If so, it seems like cuts are not an option. I hate to see waterman albums sliced up.

Eddie Bennett was a hunchbacked young man who served as the team mascot in the late twenties early thirties. He can be seen in many film clips of Ruth crossing the plate after a home run--Bennett picks up his bat and shakes his hand.

Thanks. I love to learn new things like this.

It would be a shame to break up a book that's been complete for 80 years. I would advise the owner against it.

+1

+2

Totally agree. We can only hope a true collector who appreciates the history behind it gets it.

But the sad reality is that maximizing return almost always trumps history. If a flipper gets it, it's as good as sliced and diced and mounted in manufactured 1 of 1 cards.

That is a beautiful book.

+10,000

That would be unfortunate.

This book I would buy and definitely NOT cut up or separate. I would buy it to insure it would be preserved as is....it is a treasure!
It should, if it is sold be sold with a contract/ proviso that it must remain intact.
However that is not likely in this era of the fast buck and insert cards.

Thanks for sharing the article. What an interesting life.