I feel this area of collecting is significantly distinct from cards to merit its own page. I define a premium as an item issued by a product or service provider using a boxer's name or image to promote a service or product. Some are photographs, others are more 'unique' in nature. Many would be considered part of the card collecting world; some have ACC numbers.
Ephemera is more generalized and covers items that are related or similar to cards in concept, or that are separate collectible classes but that routinely cross over with card collecting.
Date(s): March 3, 2012. Album by Adam Warshaw. 1 - 174 of 174 Total. 963 Visits.
1 Pierce Egan's Boxiana books from the first part of the 19th century included copper plate engravings of notable boxers.
2 The images in Egan's work are about as close as you are going to get to contemporary images of the fighters who toiled before the advent of photography.
3 Even so, some of them are based on still-older etchings and prints. The fact that they are etchings on what must be a rag or cotton paper makes for astounding clarity and relatively good condition of the paper.
4 The images are direct prints from the copper plates, which is how they had to reproduce art in the old days. The plate impressions are just visible in the photos around some of the images but are clear in person.
5 Every print shown here has at least one IBHOFer on it. They date to roughly 1829-1839.
6 I will close with Jem Ward.
7 This engraving of Tom Molineaux was issued in 1812 but reprinted around 1900 as part of a collection of plates for The Sporting Repository. Shown here is the 1900 version.
8 This 19th century catalog of premiums from Duke has among its offerings a stylized portrait of the Mitchell-Corbett battle, which makes the booklet itself desirable.
9 Closer view of the center page of the booklet.
10 1905 advertising broadside for a fight card featuring two HOFer, The Dixie Kid and Leo Houck.
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13 This image and the next show a flip book made with images of the Jeffries-Johnson fight
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15 A 1914 souvenir booklet from Jim Jeffries bar in Los Angeles, and a postcard of the bar.
16 A trade stimulator token from one iteration of the Jeffries bar
17 This premium was a mail response card sent by the studio to fans who wrote in about Jack Dempsey's serial "Daredevil Jack."
18 A page from a Pathe distributors book touting Gene Tunney's movie.
19 This large format [approx. 14 inches tall] handbill was issued to movie theaters to promote Gene Tunney's film.
20 An advertising piece from one of Benny Leonard's theatrical efforts.
21 a 1927 premium of Gene Tunney issued by Fro Joy in redemption for its 6 card set. It measures about 9 x 12 and is a photogravure with really nice clarity. There is also a Babe Ruth corresponding with his set.
22 1929 premium of McGovern's Gym, this one signed by McGovern.
23 Cuban tobacco issuer Trinidad y Hnos is known for some fantastic baseball and entertainment cards from the 1920s.
24 Here is the Sharkey-Risko weigh-in card. According to a smaller advertising piece that recently surfaced, the 8 x 10s were available as a redemption for 30 empty packs.
25 1936 Rippled Wheat booklet featuring Jack Dempsey, with the original envelope
26 1936 Rippled Wheat Dempsey. Same size as the booklet. Variations in the facsimile signature location are known.
27 1936 Rippled Wheat cardboard "button" with a tab for wearing it in a buttonhole.
28 Another premium, a thick cardboard die cut figure, about the height of a postcard.
29 1936 RC Cola Jack Dempsey premium booklet. The next two images are the inside front and inside back covers with first and last inside pages.
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32 Joe Louis Wittone premium.
33 Don't know the ID of the issuer of this Louis piece.
34 a 1930s Jim Braddock premium
35 Souvenir photo cover from Jack Dempsey's restaurant.
36 An interesting multisport display premium from a NY clothier in 1932 has four heavyweight champs on it and a stout fellow from that other sport, Babe Ruth.
37 The next 18 images are premiums issued by Everlast during the 1930s, in various sizes.
38 The premiums were offered for sale through Everlast's annual boxing record book.
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56 Just in case you didn't believe me about the origin of the issue, here is an ad from an Everlast annual offering the 5 x 7 version of the photos.
57 Everlast premium of Sugar Ray Robinson
58 A 1950s version of an Everlast premium
59 Max Baer for Quaker during his year as champ.
60 Fighter-manager letterhead was made with images and great graphics of the fighters.
61 A stunning Art-Deco motif for Young Jack Thompson's mamagement letterhead
62 An interesting piece circa 1937 made by an Oakland photogravure artist purportedly for a Louis appearance.
63 1935 Detroit newspaper premium.
64 In 1935 Louis started working as a pitchman for Fletcher's Castoria, a laxative. This premium is ca. 1935-36 and is one the earliest Louis endorsement pieces I've seen
65 A ticket from one of the light rail systems in Los Angeles, from December 1936, depicting Joe Louis [red trunks]
66 A Joe Louis souvenir booklet from the 1930s.
67 A handbill for a Joe Louis fight film.
68 This fantastic premium is a full newspaper page in size but printed on glossier paper with a blank back, for insertion into several papers that served the black community in the 1930s.
69 A newspaper premium before the Baer-Louis fight.
70 A Joe Louis printed premium that is a full page in a magazine I have yet to ID.
71 In the late 1940s Louis lent his name to a ring novelty item. This premium/advertising piece is from that endeavor.
72 Issued in conjunction with a French-Canadian radio show at various times from 1943-47, the Parade Sportive issue is known for its hockey cards but there were boxers issued as well. The premiums are usually blank backed, paper stock.
73 Parade Sportive Dempsey
74 Parade Sportive Cerdan
75 Parade Sportive Carnera
76 Ticket envelopes and correspondence envelopes were commonly made for fights.
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82 1940s or 1950s Max Baer premium for dog food. The mike is from a Sacramento radio station where Baer had a show.
83 A PC sized premium from Sugar Ray's Harlem NY restaurant.
84 I really liked this restaurant premium when I stumbled across it even though it is rough because it has a hell of a lineup, including both Louis and Marciano, and references a venerated but long gone boxing venue in NYC.
85 Ben Lee equipment premium of the Rock.
86 Marciano would shill for anything, even an accountant.
87 Joe Louis shilling for Canadian Ace beer. The company was long a front for organized crime and was trying to go legit when this was issued in the 1950s.
88 1950s Joe Louis Milk Co. premium. PC sized.
89 1950s Joe Louis Milk Co. premium. PC sized.
90 A magnificent 1950s Chesterfield Joe Louis piece, roughly 2 feet square, that includes hanging hardware on its back.
91 1959 Eagles Hall of Fame Jim Jeffries.
92 Both this card and this product are an interesting story. The card shown here is a promotional issue of Cuban brandy maker 3 Toneles. The card dates to 1959 and carries the three year boxing record [1956-1959] of Florentino “The Ox” Fernandez, a Cuban middleweight contender with a blank space to write in the result of his December 1959 fight. Now, in 1959 Fidel Castro took over Cuba in his communist revolution. It took a while, though, for things to gel.
93 This color card of Fernandez dates a bit later than the black and white one because it reports a December 1959 bout as scheduled but with no result. Fernandez fought a bout in Cuba in April 1960 then fled to the USA. My suspicion is that the card had a very short issue life since the Cuban government rapidly outlawed professional boxing and Fernandez ended up in Miami in mid-1960. I suppose he did hit like an ox; he was voted #57 on The Ring’s list of alltime greatest punchers. He lost a split decision to Gene Fullmer for the middleweight title, lost fights to Emile Griffith and Ruben Carter, beat Gaspar Ortega twice and KO’d Jose Torres. Overall he was 50-16-1 in a career that ran from 1956-1972.
94 A third 3 Toneles premium. This one is the earliest and is posctcard-sized.
95 The next 15 images are part of a set of premiums issued by NY Weekly Boxing News. This image shows the masthead for the weekly and the advertisement for the set. Note that since Floyd Patterson lost then won the title, they actually included two of the same pictures of FP in the set. Weird, right?
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111 1950s broadside for a fight made using Slidewell Bows' artwork. I have seen another for a different bout.
112 Jack Dempsey shilling for DeVry from the late 1950s or early 1960s
113 The next few images are the press kit from Ali-Frazier I. This is the cover, Frazier signed.
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115 Frazier-Ali I program
116 Frazier v. Foreman press kit cover
117 A standee measuring approximately 18 inches die cut around the fighters' silhouettes.
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125 An Apeda Studio Jack Dempsey premium from the 1940s.
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135 Cover to a 1980 press kit for Cuevas-Hearns bout
136 Cuevas and Hearns, from the press kit.
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153 A large-scale printed image of Primo Carnera often identified as part of a premium set issued by the makers of the 1947 Homogenized Bond Bread set. I believe that the same art was used but that the images are from a mixed sport picture pack that was retailed in the era.
154 A Cerdan from the picture pack.
155 A Graziano from the picture pack. Not known as a Homogenized Bond Bread card.
156 A cut from a Joe Louis broadside or other promotional item.
157 A GPC invitation to a night of champions dinner by the CA state athletic commission, with two tickets from the dinner, to show each side of the ticket
158 This is some kind of printed flyer with a picture of Jeffries and his mother. I have no idea what it is for or from
159 A business card from the manager of Jeffries Barn
160 ticket and rain check from a bout night at the Barn
161 Promo card for a Jeffries book on fishing
162 Additional Jeffries mailing reply cards.
163 Letterhead from Jeffries Barn, with signature of Barn manager and ex-MLB player G.W. "Bill" Aiton.
164 Business card of George Stewert. Ontario is a town east of Los Angeles with a rich tradition of boxing events.
165 Inside of the cover from a 1941 edition of The Knockout advertising the tribute dinner.
166 Jeffries Barn published a weekly newsletter/program and also held annual events celebrating its famous owner. This and the next few images are pages from the Barn News from those events.
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170 1944 Castle Films advertising brochure.
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174 Fan Fotos issued a series of 8 x 10 photos in the 1960s. The earliest runs can be distinguished by their lack of zip codes in the address for the company. Sold in packets by mail order.
