Norm Van Brocklin’s 1952 Bowman Football card is a key card in the set for a simple reason: it’s card #1. That alone has always made the base card more desirable, even before factoring in Van Brocklin himself.
The original artwork used to produce the card appeared in Mastro and Steinbach’s November 1997 auction catalog. The piece is described there as measuring 4 x 6 inches.
What’s interesting is where this piece doesn’t show up. It doesn’t show up in Guernsey’s Topps Auction catalog, where a large group of 1952 Bowman original artwork first entered the hobby. On the same Mastro catalog page, another 1952 Bowman artwork is specifically noted as having a 1989 Topps Auction stamp on the back. No such stamp is mentioned for the Van Brocklin piece, which suggests it may have been distributed separately from that initial Guernsey’s release.
When you compare the artwork to the finished card, you can see a small but telling part of the production process. The original art shows a red-ish “check mark” and a white trace on the front. In the final issued card, that space is where Bowman placed the pennant with Van Brocklin’s name (you can see some glue residue where it was once attached) and the Los Angeles Rams logo.
Happy collecting!
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