April 3, 2025: Spring Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/3/2025
Presented is an amazing artifact from one of the coveted and difficult food issues from the giddy decade of the 1950s, a complete set of the 1954 Wilson Franks Baseball card set in the form of an uncut sheet. With a lineup featuring seven Hall of Famers and many of the great stars of the period, the set boasts a remarkably attractive design, with bold, vivid color background colors in a design suspiciously like the 1954 Topps design. The cards are the same 2 5/8-by-3 ¾-inch size as early Topps issues with the principal design difference being the floating package of wieners in the background. The incomparable Ted Williams headlines, along with fellow Cooperstown inductees Roy Campanella, Bob Feller, Gil Hodges, Nellie Fox, Enos Slaughter and Red Schoendienst, plus key stars like Carl Erskine, Hank Sauer, Del Ennis, Ferris Fain, Andy Pafko and Harvey Kuenn. The 20-card sheet is 18 ¾-by-10 ½ inches and is affixed to a standee bringing the total dimensions to 24 ½-by-12 inches, with advertising information and title at the top. The card sheet, technically Poor because of a hole in the Gil Hodges card in the bottom row, presents better, with light staining mostly confined to the upper-right corner touching only a couple of card surfaces, along with some fading from sunlight. The corners of the sheet are very nice, with some slight wear to the upper right. The standee itself has upper-left corner wear; the back has damage from the standee apparatus being removed, which in turn produced the wound to Gil Hodges on the front. This is simply put a stunning piece that is as rare and unique as it is highly coveted.
1954 Wilson Franks Uncut Sheet Standee with Ted Williams, Roy Campanella
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