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1909 Honus Wagner Colgan Chip Display

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1909 Honus Wagner Colgan's Chip Display

The 1909 Honus Wagner Colgan's Chip advertising display is one of the most extraordinary and beautiful of all baseball display pieces. Measuring 20 inches wide and 26 inches tall, this extremely large and colorful store display advertises the popular E254 Colgan's Chip cards of 1909 and features a huge portrait of Honus Wagner about to chew a piece of Colgan's Chip gum (Wagner was very happy to endorse many products – just not tobacco). To the left is pictured a giant Colgan's Chip card of Wagner and a Colgan's Chip container. This advertising display was designed to fit in the corner of the window of the candy store, facing out to the streets for all passersby to see, and hopefully find inviting enough to come in and buy Colgan's Chips ("The Gum That's Round") and perhaps other goods as well. The unique design and gorgeous colors of this sign make it one of the very best advertising display pieces in the hobby. This is one of only approximately five examples known to exist. This piece is especially familiar to card collectors as it has appeared in many books, and even graces the cover of The Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards Volume 2 (which is devoted to Early Gum and Candy cards such as E254 Colgan's Chips). This Colgan's display is one of the earliest advertising signs associated with any set of cards, and is the very earliest which features a single particular player. This is one piece that "has it all" – rarity, beauty, size, graphics, association with a popular card issue, and featuring one of the greatest and most popular players of all time, Honus Wagner. The last example offered at auction appeared as lot #489 in Robert Edward Auctions July 2000 sale, where it sold for a record $32,816. Beautifully custom framed (frame measures 36 inches tall). This is one of the finest of the very few known examples of this early advertising treasure, which by any measure is universally recognized as one of the most striking and desirable of all baseball advertising pieces. Extremely close examination reveals two insignificant tiny border tears (one in lower right, another in the top corner) and a tiny chip in left corner, of absolutely no consequence to display value, but mentioned strictly for the sake of extreme accuracy. Excellent to Mint condition. Reserve $5,000. Estimate $10,000/$20,000.

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