ID help- 1940's-50's Virgil Trucks ink blotter

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Posted By: leon

One of the better things about this board is the help in identifying things and dating them. Here is a recent acquisition of an ink blotter. I do feel they are "cards" in a sense, much like the Stevens Firearms blotters, that are very neat. This one is about 4"x10"...and has the normal blue, clay coated?, back. Any help on a date would be appreciated. Virgil played from 1941-1958, mostly with the Tigers. Btw, I have searched the "Latta Insurance" part of the equation and have not made much headway. Maybe the fact that there are only 4 numbers in the phone # could help date it....Thanks in advance.....

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

Well, I agree that it is a card, and blotters sure died out when ball point pens came in - so that eliminates the last portion of Trucks career.

Would a blotted imprint of Trucks signature be an autograph? Or is that just in the Bizarro World?

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Posted By: joe

Leon, here is mine. Only difference is another phone number stamped above the others. No zip code is a clue also. Not sure of the year though.

Joe

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

Joe, exchange dialing, AV2- for example, was fully operational throughout the country by 1950. This was "new" in Wyandotte - I don't know when, but the overall transition took the phone company 20 years (it began in 1930).

So this card is pre-1950.

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Posted By: leon

Very nice deduction on your part. Thanks a bunch...and Joe- very cool...I have never seen another before. If anyone else has any ink blotter cards, and would like to post them, I would enjoy seeing them too. Watch those sizes though...this sucker is longer than almost any card I have. It sticks out of my largest top loader on hand.... regards all

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Of note, Virgil threw two no hitters in 1952.

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Posted By: Bob Pomilla

Would think that the cut of "Fire's" sporty suit and the tie, along with the fact that blotters pretty much dried up (pun intended) by the fifties, would make this from the late 40's