One of the more surprisingly pricey original artwork piece sales from the 1989 Guernsey’s Topps Auction was lot C63, the original painted rendering used for both Jerrell Price’s 1952 Bowman Football Small and Large cards. The piece originally sold for $770 plus the 10% buyer’s premium.
The artwork later resurfaced in Mastro’s December 2007 catalog.
It was described as:
An original painted rendering measuring about 4″ x 6-1/8″, with adhered caption strip and Texas Tech logo: this is the one-of-a-kind design basis for the featured trading cards. A unique production piece, the item projects overall EX condition with standard paste-up residue on the unprinted reverse.
One thing I particularly appreciate is that the auction included examples of both the Small and Large cards alongside the artwork. That feels like a best practice for original artwork, proofs, and production pieces today too, especially when a single piece was used across multiple releases or formats.
What’s also great about this release is just how little changed from artwork to final card. In many cases, Bowman and Topps production pieces underwent noticeable design adjustments before release, but with the 1952 Bowman football cards, the artwork is essentially the card itself. Beyond the addition of borders, the final products remained remarkably faithful to the original painted pieces.
That’s why #art feels so appropriate for early Bowman cards; they’re basically smaller reproductions of the original paintings.
Happy collecting!
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