A collection of vintage baseball advertising displays, some from more than 100 years ago and featuring some memorable names from the distant past, are on the block in the 2022 SCP Auctions Fall Premier closing on Saturday night.
The rare display ads are all part of a one-owner collection that was consigned to the auction.
In the early years of the 20th century all the way through the 1950s, baseball’s most famous players graced everything from trolley cars to window displays as they served as spokesmen for products.
The most common product for players to promote was tobacco, as evidenced by the vast array of baseball cards issued inside packs of tobacco products. While those cards were issued en masse for the most part, the players’ advertising displays promoting those same goods are far rarer. Many were tossed aside as new ads were distributed by salesmen.
Among the 14 advertising displays offered in the auction are a pair of large, three-panel signs. One is a circa 1910 Sure Shot Chewing Tobacco piece and the other a circa 1915-1920 Winchester Baseball Goods display.
Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson is featured on a 1910 Tuxedo Tobacco display that’s expected to sell for a five-figure price.
“We have only found one other example of the Mathewson sign ever offered at auction, and it was in poorer condition than the one offered in this sale,” says SCP Auctions President David Kohler.
You’ll need some decent wall space for a 1928 Harry Heilmann Lucky Strike Cigarettes advertising banner that measures 36 x 69.
There are also nine Lucky Strike Trolley Car signs from the same era from various sports, including all five baseball examples: Lefty Gove, Tony Lazzeri, the Waner Brothers and Heilmann as well as a large 1934 die-cut ad for Grape Nuts Cereal, endorsed by Dizzy Dean.
All the pieces presented have been professionally framed and mounted.
Kohler says the pieces were consigned to his company by a long time collector who appreciated the history and artistic quality of the ads. SCP sold ad earlier this year.
The auction, which also includes the CSG 8 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle and Aaron Judge’s jersey from Opening Day of his 2017 rookie season, is set to close Saturday night at SCPAuctions.com. 
Judge, who just became a Yankee for life when he signed a new nine-year contract with the team on Wednesday, made his MLB debut in 2016. The jersey offered in the auction is the first jersey he wore in 2017, when he smashed 52 home runs and tallied 114 RBIs en route to winning the Rookie of the Year.
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