Proto-Typical

Now that I've finished off my book and before I embark on my next major project, I've been mining my hard drive for images of interesting and oddball items that I saved a while back and never really got around to showing.  I also like to show some Bowman images every once in a while and today's subject qualifies in spades.

In 2009, Robert Edward Auctions listed a 3 card grouping of what they termed 1952 Bowman prototypes. These were black and white photographs of subjects that appeared in the 1952 Bowman Baseball set. The two on either end are the same size as the 52 Bowmans, the middle one of Bobby Thomson has dimensions that match the larger 1953 cards.  As you can see Alvin Dark's issued card in '52 differs in projection from the prototype and the Harry Brecheen photo was not based upon his 1952 card.  Thomson's projection is also slightly different and looks like someone retouched his face a bit for the prototype.

There are notations on the Thomson back that reference 1952 and it's worth noting he did not appear in the 1953 Bowman set so these certainly seem to be bridging the gap between sizes.  The prototypes were from the George Moll estate (Moll being head of their ad agency).