Historical Hockey and Sports Memorabilia Auction Spring 2023
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/3/2023
A pre-war hockey card issue with an intriguing uniqueness is offered here, with a formidable who's who of prominent hockey personalities from the mid-1930s featured. The outstanding roster boasts close to three dozen famous players, coaches and managers now enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Issued by Montreal’s World Wide Gum Company, the set also features players who skated for “senior” teams, notably the Montreal Royals and Quebec Aces, with the vast majority of those being rookie cards and oftentimes the player’s only cardboard appearance. Paced by sixteen (16) freshly graded PSA slabs that includes the quartet of Eddie Shore, Howie Morenz, King Clancy and Aurel Joliat, the Shore and Morenz cards have earned marks of EX 5 and VG 3 respectively while the offerings of Clancy and Joliat have both garnered VG-EX 4 designations after inspection. For the rest of the PSA graded examples, the final twelve (12) include NM 7’s of Syd Howe (POP 1 – Highest Graded) and Connie Smythe (2nd Highest Graded), EX-MT 6’s of Roy Worters, Dit Clapper (2nd Highest Graded), Cooney Weiland (2nd Highest Graded) and Lester Patrick, EX 5’s of Busher Jackson, Neil Colville (2nd Highest Graded), Art Ross and Buddy O’Connor (RC) and lastly, VG-EX 4’s of Lionel Conacher and Syl Apps. Moving on to the raw cards, those found in the grade range of EX to EX-MT total six (6) and include the examples of 66-Voss (RC), 78-Lepine, 79-McManus (RC), 97-Hart (RC), 106-Brennan (RC) and 133-Mahaffey (RC).
Cards found to be in the scope of EX condition include sixteen (16) of the 135-cards that make up the checklist with the cardboard of 13-March (RC), 61-Levinsky, 63-O’Neil (RC), 64-Lewis (RC), 80-Watson (RC), 85-Robinson, 93-McVeigh, 98-Gainor (RC), 101-Mundy (RC), 103-Croghan (RC), 107-O’Connell (RC), 109-Murray (RC), 113-Murray (RC), 116-Taugher (RC), 121-McIntyre (RC) and 125-St. Denis (RC) falling into this category with most showing just light toning and corner/edge wear with clean surfaces both front and back and clear images.
Cards presenting in the vicinity of VG-EX to EX make up the largest group of raw offerings with fifty (50) such examples present in the category in our opinion including numbers 4-Barry, 6, 8-Horner, 12-Thompson, 15, 26 (RC), 32 (RC), 34, 35, 37, 42-Chapman, 43, 45-Mantha, 49 (RC), 50 (RC), 53-Kerr, 55-Gottselig, 56, 58-Schriner, 59-Emms, 60, 67, 68-Cook, 71 (RC), 72, 81, 82, 83, 84 (RC), 88-Murdoch, 90, 99-Adams, 100-Morenz Jr., 102 (RC), 104 (RC), 105 (RC), 108 (RC), 110 (RC), 111 (RC), 112 (RC), 120 (RC), 122 (RC), 126 (RC), 127 (RC), 128 (RC), 129 (RC), 130 (RC), 131 (RC), 132 (RC) and 134 (RC), with most showing a slightly more obvious variation of the flaws noted in the group above.
Cards presenting in the vicinity of VG to VG-EX condition total thirty-eight (38) and include the numbers; 3-Siebert, 11-Goodfellow, 14-Dutton, 16-Boucher (RC), 21-Johnson, 22, 24-Kilrea, 25, 27, 28-Metz, 30-Blinco, 31 (RC), 33, 38, 39, 40 (Small Crease), 41, 44, 46-Cain, 47 (RC), 48, 52-Day, 54, 62, 70, 73, 74 (RC), 76 (RC), 77, 86-Kelly, 87, 89 (RC), 115 (RC), 117 (RC), 118 (RC), 119 (RC), 123 and 124.
For cards on the lower end of the spectrum, eight (8) cards are present including those of 2-Ward, 9-Cude, 17-Gorman (RC - Off-Center), 19-Wentworth (Small top left corner crease and rounded corners), 20-Smith (edge and corner wear with creases at bottom right), 57-Patrick (stain and paper loss on the reverse, edge and corner wear on the front), 92-Hines (corner and edge wear plus surface wear on reverse) and 135-Stewart (front and reverse stains plus crease) while one (1) card is seen as being in the scope of FR (Fair), card #1 of Charlie Conacher that shows stains, pen marks and toning. Additionally, two extra cards are included, G (Good) condition copies of Dit Clapper and Bill Stewart with both showing toning and staining along with edge and corner wear while the Clapper example also sports surface dents on the reverse.
*Challenging to piece together, the big 135-card set, also called “Ice Kings” like World Wide’s initial hockey card effort of 1933-34, was long believed to have been released during the 1936-37 season, but extensive research years ago points to the following campaign. The Howie Morenz card speaks of his tragic death, which occurred in March of 1937, helping to date the thick cardboard treasures.
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