The Original Artwork Behind 16 1931 W517 Baseball Cards

I mentioned a long time ago that I’d eventually get around to sharing these, so here we go.

In April 2000, Ron Oser Enterprises offered an extraordinary collection of 1931 W517 material assembled by a hobby veteran over 25 years. It included the regular large-size cards, the much scarcer smaller “type” cards, an extensive group of uncut strips and, most interesting to me, a hoard of original W517 baseball card artwork.

And since I maintain the Original Artwork Archive here on PostWarCards, those are what I want to concentrate on (and sure, “production mockups” might be more accurate, but I’m not splitting hairs here).

Spread across three lots were 16 one-of-a-kind photographic production artworks, each framed alongside an example of the corresponding W517 card. The first group contained Rogers Hornsby, Hack Wilson, Frankie Frisch and Kiki Cuyler. The second included Earl Averill, Bucky Harris, Edd Roush, Freddie Lindstrom and Ted Lyons. The final seven were Rube Walberg, Joe Judge, George Earnshaw, Chalmer Cissell, Jack Quinn, Lu Blue and Bob Meusel.

1931 W517 Original Artwork Lot – Ron Oser Enterprises

A few have resurfaced over the years. Ted Lyons, Earl Averill, and Hack Wilson were later offered by Christie’s.

1931 W517 Ted Lyons Production Photo – Christie’s

1931 W517 Earl Averill Production Photo – Christie’s

1931 W517 Hack Wilson Production Photo – Christie’s

The Averill piece surfaced yet again at ⁠Huggins & Scott in August 2021, where it sold for $197.

There are other W517 production pieces out there, too. Most notably, ⁠REA sold the Babe Ruth original production artwork in 2004 for $2,185. That example had previously belonged to Barry Halper and sold in his famous 1999 auction for $3,162.