1948-1955 Bowman series divisions and sheet layouts

[G1911]

And here is one showing #35 Veryl Switzer, allegedly the top row of sheet 2, is actually below Jack Simmons, allegedly in the bottom row of sheet 1.

So "sheet 1" actually has at least alleged series 1/2/3 all on it.

[G1911]

Now this is where it starts to get interesting. 34 HAner is the card to the left of Switzer, in the top row of "sheet 2". 39 Dick Flanagan is the second to last card in the same low.

With sheet 2 actually a panel printed below sheet 1, these cards would not have yellow cards above them at the top. Both these miscuts line up with the bottom rows of sheet 3, Tom Bettis and Breezy Reid.

It looks like we have, on one sheet on top of each other, panels representing:
1-32
33-64
65-96
33-64

[G1911]

I'm looking for 'series 1' now repeating below 'series 2', as those cards are quite common relatively. Looks like #59 Charlie Ane here shows him above the corresponding slot on the top of 'series 1', #3 John Olsewzki.

That puts us at this pattern of the blocks:
1-32 above
33-64 above
65-96 above
33-64 above
1-32

[G1911]

And this #32 Van Brocklin shows 1-32 above a blue card, which would b3 #72 Tittle (i.e., 1-32 above 65-96) or Nomellini (i.e., 1-32 is above 97-128). I strongly suspect it is Tittle.

1-32 above
33-64 above
65-96 above
33-64 above
1-32 above
65-96 (possibly 97-128)

[G1911]

These repeating patterns don't yet seem to fully align into two sheet layouts. This would be awfully big as a sheet to be one sheet, and particularly weird to only have 8 columns but this many rows. Presumably there would be more cards in either case, if this is one gigantic sheet or 2 sheet layouts. I suspect from miscuts after a gap, which could have a thin line in the gap.

This Nomellini (which is allegedly in Ted's rendition of Bowman cards the top right card of sheet 3) shows one of the sheet lines that would be this divider. Such a divider between panel sections on the sheet would make it very difficult to find a miscut so bad that it shows a card to the right of column 8.

[toppcat]

I wonder if Bowman slowly seeded in the higher numbers in successive press runs, while dropping earlier cards. Just a thought but it seems possible to me.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by toppcat

I wonder if Bowman slowly seeded in the higher numbers in successive press runs, while dropping earlier cards. Just a thought but it seems possible to me.

We know they did this in 1955 Baseball so that would make a lot of sense. One more reason there are probably sheet shenanigans and this sequence is not the whole story yet.

I believe that by 1955 Bowman was already wrapping up its card projects. I don't believe any of their non-sport issues are credited to 1955, and that year only saw the baseball and football sets (which I would presume, based on relative scarcities today, were their top sellers), neither of which were lazy releases. 1955 Baseball is notoriously bad for miscutting, the subsequent football set is a lot better cut and centered, especially 97-160. Thankfully only a tiny sliver of the next card is enough, with the design, to place which card is adjacent.

I'm trying to find further miscuts, in the high number cards that are top or bottom of "sheets" 4 and 5. I've found an Alex Langford showing "sheet" #4 had cards beneath it, but it's such a small sliver of the next card I can't make out which card it is. I am trying to do the 1954's as well as I am also confident the current theory there is wrong, but there are not many miscuts to play with.

Apologies if this is in your book and I don't recall it, but do you know the date or month the buyout of Bowman was finalized by Topps? It appears Bowman did a full print run of the football set in all its series (probably 2...) before ceasing operations, with some early designs of the next baseball set in progress. Topps seems to me to have been kind of a mess in 1956 with the buyout, releasing a lazy football set (I love it and it's one of my favorites, but it appears to be a quick meshing of the 55 Topps and 55 Bowman football designs using Bowman's contracted players), a lazy Presidents set copied and pasted from Bowman's work in 1952, and a small size Jets set that was pretty low effort alongside the effort sets of the Round Ups, Flags, Davy Crockett and Elvis issues that were mostly TV cash-ins, and the baseball series. I don't believe Topps copied a Bowman design again until 1966 for the Hockey and Football sets that basically copied the 1955 Bowman Baseball set.