365 Days of Roberto Clemente

[JollyElm]

My best guess (not based on anything factual) is that the item may be some sort of layout, or proof, or whatever for the Arco card, but when they decided how the photograph would be cropped, they saw the signature was going to be much too close to the edge, so they repositioned it before finalizing it for printing.

[Jobu]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

The signature is part of the photo, not an actual signature. (Unfortunately!)

This is also not an actual photo, but is a printed photo, which makes me think proof as it resembles the Arco printing as far as I can tell from looking at fairly high res scans of them I have found online.

The back is blank.

What type of details are you after for the paper?

[hcv123]

Originally Posted by Jobu

Thanks for the feedback guys.

The signature is part of the photo, not an actual signature. (Unfortunately!)

This is also not an actual photo, but is a printed photo, which makes me think proof as it resembles the Arco printing as far as I can tell from looking at fairly high res scans of them I have found online.

The back is blank.

What type of details are you after for the paper?

The Arco issued Clemente is on a light to medium card stock. Wondering if yours is printed on the same type of material or photo paper, or?
I am 99% certain it is connected in some way to the Arco issue as I do not recall that image being used on anything else.

[Jobu]

On the medium side of light stock. It definitely isn't photo paper.

[hcv123]

It appears to be the exact same photo with a slightly different crop. Even the autograph looks exactly the same, just with different placement. Yours is larger,blank backed and doesn't have Clemete's name beneath the photo. It sounds like it may be printed on the same paper stock as the Arco as well. While it is improbable to ever have 100% certainty, I would feel safe to say - it is 100% tied to the Arco issue - possibly a preproduction proof. Possibly the only of its kind. Thanks for sharing it!

[Empty77]

I thought the same thing about the signature after comparing it to others I have (that are formally authenticated, at least ostensibly). They're all slightly different--how can they not be with as famously elaborate as his is--so if nothing else that unidentified piece seems designed incorporating the same version of signature captured and facsimiled in the Arco.

[Jobu]

Thank you all for the input, it is greatly appreciated. As much as I don't like to see this question posted on a thread, I am going to ask - how much is something like this worth? It seems like it would need to go to auction to really know, but I am curious if anyone has a ballpark guess.