Rube was good but...

[glchen]

Originally Posted by aelefson

Hi-
I am a frequent attendee of antique paper and ephemera shows. At these shows, this style of stamp is known as a "poster stamp". Within the poster stamp world, this is considered to be Ruth because of a contract that is signed by Ruth with the Youth Companion magazine. Supposedly, this contract is at the baseball hall of fame. I have heard this from multiple poster stamp dealers. Interestingly, these can be had in beautiful condition at paper shows for less than 100.00, and usually less than 50.00, so the identification of Ruth does not mean much to these dealers.
I have two, one in my Red Sox collection for Marquard and the other in my Hall of Fame collection (also Marquard). One I found in a scrapbook, but the other (in really nice shape) I got for 40.00 at the Hartford paper show about a year and a half ago.
I have never seen the contract, and for all I know it could have been for something that was not produced. I only want to clarify why at least some dealers label it as Ruth.

Alan

Just wanted to update this thread per this comment. After seeing this, I emailed the Baseball Hall of Fame (research@baseballhall.org), and asked them the following question:

"I have an usual question. I am trying to determine who is on the picture of a 1917 poster stamp from Youth Companion magazine, a publication in Boston. Originally, the cartoon image player on the stamp was thought to be Babe Ruth. However, it has been found that there is a match for that image from one for Rube Marquard. There is a thread from a hobby forum on this issue here: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=169653
Because there was a match for this image for Rube Marquard, it was thought that this was definitively Marqard on the poster stamp. However, one of the posters in that thread has stated that Babe Ruth signed a contract with Youth Companion magazine, and that this contract is currently at the Baseball Hall of Fame. If this is true, then this brings back the possibility that the image on the poster stamp is intended to be Ruth, and that the artist modified the original Marquard image to make it appear more like Ruth.
Therefore my question is, does this contract for Babe Ruth with Youth Companion magazine indeed exist at the Baseball Hall of Fame, or was this just an unfounded rumor? I realize that this is an unusual request and do appreciate any assistance here."

Today, Bill Francis from the Baseball Hall of Fame replied, and stated that the Hall of Fame does not have a copy of this contract.