The 1952 Tip Top Bread labels were the company’s fourth hobby publication after using baseball cards as a promotional strategy as early as 1910. The comprehensive checklist in Tip Top’s latest issue consists of 48 unnumbered bread labels, measuring approximately 2-1/2” x 2-3/4”, and features two different images by Phil Rizzuto. A large star in the center of the label contains a player photo, name and team name. TIP TOP BREAD is written at the top of the label and their then slogan IT’S TIP-TOP WITH ME at the bottom, with four smaller stars around the edge, rounding out the label. A corresponding fold-out sheet was also available from Tip Top on which you can display your labels. The sheet was die-cut so the labels could slide in easily and pre-labeled with a space for each player, which also includes vital statistics.
Bread labels featuring baseball players weren’t exactly a new idea in 1952; Fisher had already done that the year before. However, Tip Top’s release was much more extensive and featured future Hall of Famers in Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Mickey Mantle, Phil Rizutto, Robin Roberts, Red Schoendienst, Enos Slaughter, Duke Snider and Warren Spahn. At the time of writing, PSA and SGC have only authenticated a combined 395 examples of 1952 Tip Top labels, 23 of which are Mantle’s card, one of his earliest. The highest PSA score is a 5, or excellent, and the SGC a 9, although that is an anomaly, while the next highest score is a 6. Most of these labels likely ended up in a landfill because of the way they were packaged, requiring consumers to make a little effort and physically remove the label from the rest of the plastic packaging. A few of these cards can usually be found on eBay for a few hundred dollars, but they are difficult to obtain. Mantle’s card sold in poor condition in 2014 for $6,500 and a nearly complete set sold by Goldin Auctions went for $32,000 (Mueller).
By 1952, Tip Top was well versed in publishing baseball cards. After the Pittsburgh Pirates won the World Series in 1909, the brand honored the team in 1910 with a set of 25 cards, which even included a card for Forbes Field and the Tip Top Boy Mascot. Unlike tobacco cards, which were common at the time, the Tip Top set was nearly square and measured 1-13/16” x 2-3/8”. The front of the cards features a pastel painting of the team member and the white border below has their name and WORLD CHAMPIONS written in it. The back features a litany of information, including the checklist for the set, an advertisement for the Ward-Mackey Company, and a mailed offer for the complete set in exchange for 50 bread labels. The Forbes Field and Boy Mascot cards are highly sought after, following Hall of Famers Honus Wagner, Fred Clarke, Vic Willis and team president Barney Dreyfuss. A complete set, in near mint condition, has a value of approximately $120,000.
Until recently, most of the card collecting community was unaware of the Tip Top set in partnership with White’s Bakery and issued in Tip Top loaves in 1921 for the minor league Baltimore Orioles. In fact, new information continues to come to light. As of now, the checklist stands at 22 maps, of which the map of Lefty Grove is considered the most valuable. Grove went 25-10 for the Orioles of the 1921 International League, who won seven consecutive pennants between 1919 and 1925. The 3-1/4” x 5-1/2” cards have a sepia-toned image of the player on the front, with their name, position and BALTIMORE ORIOLES 1921, slightly inside the white border. Historians have found an advertisement in the newspaper announcing that a different card will be issued every day, but the advertisement does not say how long the promotion lasted or how many cards were issued. The backs of the cards are blank and without the newspaper advertisement their association with Tip Top bread would be unknown.
Tip Top’s next attempt at sports and baseball in particular was a 1-1/4″ pin from 1939 featuring a black and white photo of Joe DiMaggio. The top of the pin reads: WINNERS EAT WARD’S and the bottom below the image reads: JOE DI MAGGIO EATS TIP-TOP BREAD. Boxer Billy Conn and hockey player Eddie Shore are two other well-known athletes who form a complete set of three pins. Although these pins are ridiculously scarce, they do not necessarily have much value. The standard catalog of vintage baseball cards lists DiMaggio’s pin for $500 in near mint condition, but a complete set of all three sold at auction in 2023 for $260 dollars with DiMaggio’s pin in poor condition and the other two in near mint condition.
The largest set of cards Tip Top and Ward’s ever released was their 163-card set from 1947, notable for being issued during World War II. Many of the players in the set played in the Major Leagues during wartime. That said, the set is valued at $20,000 in near mint condition and features a black and white player photo on the front, with a white strip at the bottom showing their name, position and team. The cards measure 2-1/4″ x 3″ and include a beautiful Tip Top ad on the back, stating at the top: TIP TOP IS A RUNNER WINNER EVERY DAY AT EVERY MEAL (there are several variations) and at the bottom: ENRICHED TIP TOP IS A BETTER BREAD. The Warren Spahn and Yogi Berra cards are considered their rookie cards, while Bobby Doerr, Ralph Kiner, Ernie Lombardi, Johnny Mize, Phil Rizzuto, Enos Slaughter and Pirates coach Honus Wagner round out the rest of the Hall of Famers pictured.
Robert B. Ward was born on November 11 in New York Citye1851, and baking was in the family blood. Ward’s father, Hugh, had emigrated from Ireland the year before and opened a small bakery on Broome Street in lower Manhattan. At the same time, Hugh’s father and Robert’s grandfather, James, also ran a bakery in Manhattan on Eighth Street. When Robert was 8 years old, he began helping his father in the bakery, but a few years later Hugh moved his family to Pittsburgh and continued his baking skills there (Robert B. Ward is dead at 64).
After graduating from business school in New York, Robert moved back to Pittsburgh to help his father. Not long after, Hugh urged Robert to go into business for himself, and with the $300 he had to his name, Robert bought a small grocery store. Realizing that baking was his calling, Robert sold his interest in the supermarket and borrowed another $100 to buy a small bakery in Pittsburgh for $400. With the success of his own bakery, Robert, together with his younger brother George, founded RB Ward & Co. on, later the Ward-Mackey Company. To develop the business, Robert and George came up with the idea of machine-made bread that could be delivered cleanly and without human influences. The idea caught on and soon Tip Top Bread became known across the country, with the brothers expanding to Cleveland, Providence, Boston and Chicago. In 1910, Tip Top Bread was also created in New York City and the company produced approximately 85,000,000 loaves of bread per year (Robert B. Ward is dead at 64).
The Federal League began to take shape in 1913, under the leadership of James Gilmore, a Chicago manufacturer, and in 1914 Ward was introduced to Gilmore through a friend of his son. Ward liked Gilmore’s straightforward business approach and decided to invest in the new professional league and run the Brooklyn franchise. Ward’s team moved to Washington Park, the former home of the Dodgers, before moving to Ebbets Field after the 1912 season. In the process, the team became known as the Tip Tops after being called that by newspaper reporters, and the name stuck. Ward pumped $300,000 into the field, including a 13-foot concrete wall encircling the entire park and lighting for night games.[1] Washington Park was demolished in 1926, but part of the clubhouse wall still stands on Third Avenue and is widely considered the oldest surviving baseball building in the United States (Kos and Evanosky). In 1914, the Tip Tops finished in fifth place and 11.5 games behind the Indianapolis Hoosiers after leading 77-77. The team fared no better in 1915, finishing with a 70-82 record and in seventh place. Ward and the Tip Tops employed future Hall of Famer Mordecai Brown in 1914, and he went 2-5 in nine appearances after being released by the St. Louis Terriers.
When Ward passed away on October 18theIn 1915, at the age of 63, due to heart failure, due to neuritis and rheumatism, he was said to be worth more than $5,000,000. Ward’s bakeries had expanded to 14 at the time, including two in New York and four in Chicago (Robert B. Ward is dead at 64). Robert’s grandson, William Ward, took over the company in 1921, and in 1924 he merged Ward Baking Company with Continental Bakery, effectively dissolving Ward Baking Co. The newly formed company now operated 103 bakeries and had approximately 3,500 delivery routes (The Buffalo News). Through a series of acquisitions and mergers, Continental Baking Company would eventually be merged into Hostess Brands in 2009.
This post is part of a collection from the upcoming book, “Tasty Baseball Collectibles: Cards, Stamps, Stickers and More from Food and Beverage Companies, 1950–1999”
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[1] Unfortunately, the lamps were never actually used.
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