Calling all Milwaukee baseball fans! Feast your eyes on this nostalgic lot of vintage 1950’s era Braves memorabilia that will make you want to close your eyes and picture Aaron and Mathews hitting towering shots at County Stadium, or Spahn and Burdette hurling complete game gems at the most critical times. The Bravos' 1957 World Series victory over a stacked Yankees squad remains one of the biggest upsets from any Fall Classic.
First we have a highly collectible pair of Native American Brave (male) and Squaw (female) chalk ware wall plaques dating to the 1950's. The headbands spell out "Milwaukee" and "Braves" in embossed lettering. The 4.5" tall (3-4" wide) artistic pieces of fragile porcelain-like material remain in outstanding condition compared to most examples.
Next is s small 4.5" by 6" autograph album that contains 14 signatures including Hall of Famers Ed Mathews (2, album page and cut) and Warren Spahn (cut) plus Johnny Logan (album page) all in around 7/10 blue ballpoint. The rest of the album has glued-on newspaper clippings and artistic images of several 1950's era Braves players, plus some rather politically incorrect Native American caricature cartoon cut-outs. A 1954 Braves Broadcast pocket schedule from Hank Aaron's rookie season is a nice little bonus.
For vintage photograph collectors, the 34 original negatives of the 1950's era Braves are certainly the highlight of the lot. These include: (22) assorted 1954 game 5x7 shots; (6) 1954 players dinner 4x5 shots; (2) 1957 World Champion Braves 4x5 team photos; (2) bat boy 4x5 shots; 8/27/1954 Warren Spahn PictSweet orange juice ad 4x5 shot; and 5/7/1954 “Murder at the Stadium” newspaper headline 5x7 shot with clipping.
The two multi-signed baseballs included are the 1953 Braves and 1982 Brewers/Tigers combined. The former marked the Braves first season in Milwaukee, preceding Aaron's arrival by one year, and comes on a very soiled (perhaps game-used) OAL ball dated "Sept. 8, 1953" with a total of 29 signatures in 5-8/10 ranging blue ink. Notables are Mathews (HOF), Spahn (HOF), Adcock, Burdette, Buhl, Pafko, Logan and Crandall. The '82 Brew Crew were A.L. Champions and lost in the World Series to the Cardinals. Several Brewers and Tigers signed the well-soiled OAL (MacPhail) ball, leading us to believe it game-used from a Milwaukee vs. Detroit contest during the '82 season. There are 24 blue penned autographs (mostly 5-7/10) including Sparky Anderson (HOF), Trammell (HOF), Yount (HOF), Molitor (HOF), Kuenn, etc.
Everything was sourced through the son of a Milwaukee Braves usher (and unofficial team babysitter for several players’ kids) during the 1950’s. Autographs pre-certifed by PSA/DNA.