Lot # 1050: 1917 E135 Collins-McCarthy #190 Lefty Williams (Black Stockings) - SGC PR 1

Category: 1900-1948

Starting Bid: $150.00

Bids: 51 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed


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Item was in Auction "Summer, 2024 Premier Auction",
which ran from 9/12/2024 4:00 AM to
9/28/2024 9:00 PM



From Collins-McCarthy, the company which offered the long run of Zeenuts cards, this 1917 set now known as E135 offered 200 new subjects. While the company had been known for producing cards featuring players of the Pacific Coast League, the E135 set switched their focus to the National and American Leagues. Produced at a time when few sets were being issued, it gave collectors and baseball fans on the West Coast a look at players they had only read about in the newspapers or  in the annual Spading guides. While this set shares many photos with the later E121 set and the much-later E126 issue (both from American Caramel), this E135 set came first.

White Sox pitcher Claude "Lefty" Williams is appropriately wearing black stockings in this example, which is centered beautifully. Lots of creasing and surface wear pair with rounded corners and soft edges to explain this card's grade. Regardless of the number, the importance and scarcity of this issue far outweighs any cosmetic flaws on this example.

Williams helped lead the White Sox to the World Series this year over the New York Giants, which many people forget about as they only remember the "Black Sox" who threw the Series two years later. While Lefty was one of the participants in that fix, he was an integral part of the 1917 team winning it all.

SGC has only ever graded 6 total examples of this 1917 E135, with only TWO receiving a higher grade than the Poor 1 offered here of Claude "Lefty" Williams in black stockings.

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