April 3, 2025: Spring Auction
This is a spectacular piece linking the National Pastime to the civilian war effort to raise money through the fabled War Bonds Program, showcased in an elegantly matted and framed piece featuring 27 of the great MLB stars of the era. The 21-by-13-inch certificate boasts the contributor’s name written in fountain pen with recognition of their contribution to the War Bonds Program to support the war effort against the Axis powers. The certificate is printed on a heavy, coated stock and is neatly matted and framed to 27 ½-by-19 ½-inch dimensions; the black wood frame is in the same outstanding condition as the certificate, nudged only by a visible chip to the plexiglass in one corner. The 27 black-and-white images of the baseball stars, bordered in gold, flank the certificate, headlined by a 2 ½-by-6-inch image of the deceased Lou Gehrig and 2 ½-by-3 ¼-inch photographs of some of his compatriots: DiMaggio, Foxx, Feller, Grove, McCarthy, Greenberg, Gehringer, Dickey, Cronin, Ruffing, Averill, York, Gomez, Rolfe, Newsom, Cramer, Travis, Rick Ferrell and Lewis. Pretty good selection committee: fully 13 of the 27 ballplayers wound up with a plaque in Cooperstown. It is truly an extraordinary artifact showcasing the greatest ballplayers of the period in a World War II memorabilia item of enormous import.
1943 War Bond Certificate Poster with Lou Gehrig
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