Anyone familiar with Harry Evans Collection?
 

Hi all. As a kid, my father used to tell me about a relative named Harry Evans - "Uncle Harry" to my Dad - and his extensive memorabilia collection. Not sure if Harry gave himself the name or if it was earned, but he was "Baseball's #1 fan". His collection included a number of 1 of 1 type items because he was collecting long before the masses - many single signed baseballs that may be one of a kind, game used bats, etc. I haven't had much luck tracking down any information about the collection but I've always been interested in seeing what he had, how large the collection was, etc. I have a few of Harry's autographs - literally, HIS autograph - some pictures/advertisements featuring him, and facsimiles of some of his items, so it seems odd to me that he'd be practically invisible online.

There have been a number of items sold through various online auction houses dating back to about 2003, but they simply reference the "famous" or "esteemed" Harry Evans Collection. There doesn't seem to be any online presence other than those. Fellow forum member ATP suggested that any mass movement or sale of his stuff may have predated the internet, so maybe what I'm seeing are just trickles of stuff moving out of the collector's hands that initially obtained their items from the larger Harry Evans collection.

Is anyone familiar with him and have any detailed information about the collection? ATP mentioned that there may be physical auction catalogs out there with more exhaustive information - if, for example, most of his collection was sold through a single auction event or even a single auction house.

Thanks in advance.

Jim

One more try on this... I found the following item sold at Lelands that provides the most extensive explanation of the type of stuff he had, but it's still fairly limited:

https://lelands.com/bids/the-1939-ce...of-harry-evans

There's a handful of other auctions but nothing that expands beyond the specific item for sale. I'm still hoping that there's someone with information out there about the kinds of things he had in his collection, if his name holds any "value" in the hobby (in other words, does "Harry Evans Collection" carry any kind of premium compared to similar items that might be from an unknown source), etc. Thanks.

Wow!
 

Hi Jim,

Sadly I cannot help you in your quest, just wanted to chime in and say based on the Lelands lot you found, it would make sense that Harry had a world class collection! I would be shocked if someone here couldn't help to some extent. Good luck.

Howard

Actually just found this as well and seeing as Lelands auctioned at least 2 items from the collection - it may be worth a phone call to Josh

https://lelands.com/bids/1923-ty-cob...-psa-graded-10

Also found that Hunt auctions sold some items:

https://huntauctions.com/live/view_l...ast_number=800