Historical Hockey and Sports Memorabilia Auction Winter 2023
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/28/2023
Featuring stirring images and tantalizing rookie cards of all-time greats is William Paterson’s first of two hockey card sets, issued the season that young stars Howie Morenz and Aurele Joliat led the Canadiens to the franchise’s second Stanley Cup championship. One of the most coveted pre-war rookie cards is that of Morenz, with the example here recently returning from PSA where it received a mark of VG+ 3.5. The alluring crease-free specimen is joined by the rookie cards of icons 3-King Clancy (VG 3 (MK)) and 14-Aurele Joliat (VG-EX 4 (MK)), their qualifiers due to “utility” and “forward” penned to their respective backs. Pre-war card enthusiasts will also be intrigued by the punch hole in Georges Vezina’s card (PR 1), along with the “CANCELLED FEB 19 1924” stamped to its reverse. For the uninformed, a complete 40-card set could be exchanged back in the day for a pair of skates, with Bert Corbeau’s card produced in far lesser quantities than the others to limit the number of prizes awarded. Interesting is the thought that a former, likely original owner of the Vezina also scored the rare Corbeau card, (which is the lone card not present here), redeemed his set and received them back with punch holes and the stamping. The Vezina here is just one of two “cancelled” cards of the goalie to have ever been submitted to PSA, the other being slabbed “AUTH.” And now, the lowdown on the raw cards, many of them (20) with similar or additional writing on the back as Joliat and Clancy. Eleven have one word; either the player’s position or “retired”, while nine include the position and updated status, like “sold to New York” or “traded to Montreal” and the like. Condition is similar to the (15) without writing; a strong majority throughout mirror the graded foursome, with crease-free cards in the VG to VG-EX range and minor back damage to three (with writing). Leading the without-writing contingent are Hall of Famers 2-Nighbor, 4-Darragh, 7-Benedict, 9-Broadbent, 10-Denneny RC and 30-S. Green. View our images – groups of attractive, desirable cards like this come to auction extremely infrequently – and seriously contemplate adding these treasures to the museum-caliber section of your vintage card shrine – we rate this a tremendous opportunity.
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