In the 1950's La Patrie Newspaper came out with hockey posters as part of a few poster sets. The players and leagues in the sets varied from Junior to Semi Pro all the way to the NHL. The posters included up and coming stars like Henri Richard and Jean Beliveau (in his aces uniform) to established NHL stars like Maurice Richard and Elmer Lach. Many of us have seen "poster sets" in the newspaper that our grandfathers have kept for us to hang up as kids. This set however really is on a level of its own, Vivid colors and a real vintage hockey feel makes these a true collectable. My first encounter with this set was looking through ebay for a upcoming Elmer Lach signing. I got one of my rare bargains on eBay. Obtaining this specific poster in great condition for about three dollars shipped. After getting it autographed by Mr.Lach I looked for more information on these sets of posters finding prices up to 1200$ for the complete set. Certain individual posters ranging in the 50-100$ range. I was pleasantly informed by a local card shop owner that my Elmer Lach poster was valued in and around 90+ dollars as is with no autograph. I'm to assume that with most things of value autographs make them lose value. However being one of my favorite pieces in my collection I'm not losing sleep over it.
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| Elmer Lach La Patrie Poster Signed and Framed |
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I brought the piece to my framer and am really happy with the result. Simple keeping with the vintage feel of the piece. I also attended the Montreal card expo where I was able to purchase one of the pieces on my wishlist for a very long time. The La Patrie Jean Beliveau Quebec Aces poster. Originally the seller at the booth wanted more then I was willing to pay. However I was pleased to have my girlfriend A.K.A "negotiator" with me to get this at a price I was comfortable with.
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| La Patrie Jean Beliveau Quebec Aces Poster |
Being a huge fan of Jean Beliveau and my entire collection revolving around his collectables I'm very pleased to have this. Also what I enjoy about this poster given that this was made during his Aces years his pre-print autograph is completely different to the one he signs with today. I found this extremely interesting and one of the main reasons I wanted this for my collection.
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| Close up look at Jean Beliveau's autograph in the early years. |
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After initially being able to obtain the Jean Beliveau La Patrie poster I was able to have it sent for a private signing with Mr Beliveau himself. As you can see he added #9 to his autograph for this piece to go
along with the number he wore at the time with the Quebec Aces.In the photo below you can see the finshed project which was recently returned to me from my framer. Very happy with the piece and quickly becoming one of my favorites.
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| Take note of the change in Jean Beliveau's autograph from the time this poster was made and his now everyday autograph. |
As I have explained in the past this has really become one of my favorite things to collect. However the living members left of this poster set have become much more of a select group. When I first started to collect these I was sure that I had seen one of Henri Richard. After extensive internet research I had yet to rediscover this poster of Mr.Richard. After going to a small collectors show outside of Montreal to meet Henri Richard to autograph my monopoly project I finally found what I had been looking for! The Henri Richard La Patrie poster!
Now, the asking price of the piece was much more then I had planned on paying however this was so rare I could not pass it up. After all I couldn't even find a photo of its existence online! Once purchased I ran over to the autograph table to complete the piece. This was a nice surprise and validation for my travels to this show. After the dealer had explained to me he doesn't do the Montreal Collectors show that I usually attend.
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| La Patrie Henri Richard Poster |
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Another bonus to this was the condition it is in. Most posters (given their publication in 1954) are in much poorer condition. Aside from small holes on the left side this looks like it had been pulled from the newspaper yesterday. I hope to get this piece framed in the very near future.
Scavenging eBay is another way for me to obtain some of the posters I can't find locally at shows. Once in a while I will punch in "La Patrie" into eBay's search engine in hopes of finding a deal on a poster that I want. This was the case for the Dickie Moore poster I was able to find. Although in rather good condition it seems to have been cut a little short making this poster look slightly different from my others. Never the less once this piece is autographed and framed it should come out like the others in my collection.
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Dickie Moore La Patrie Poster
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