86-7 is a messy, slightly atypical, very early Willie Davis. He changed his autograph numerous times, so you'd never know it was him if you were comparing to later examples.
It's hilarious how I figured this one out. It's the only one I had to use my exemplar files for, and we can be glad it came to that.
I was looking at the thing, and started to wonder if it may be a messy Willard Hunter. I'm just not used to Hunter ever being messy, but that's as close to a player's name as I could make out by staring at it. Hunter debuted with the 1962 Dodgers, so the first thing I did was pull up my 1962 Dodgers team-signed items. In scrolling through them, I found an autograph strikingly similar (especially the "W" in Willie and the "a" in Davis). Almost as messy as your cut in question. It took me a few seconds...it was Davis. It's not a style he employed very long or that is encountered very often, so no wonder I was thrown for a loop. Also, yours has an inconvenient pen skip in the D, making it indiscernable as that letter! How odd that my erroneously reading that scribble as possibly being one player ended up leading me to his teammate and the eventual solution!
Last edited by BillyCoxDodgers3B; 10-30-2024 at 04:27 PM.
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