1874 Baseball Pictures

[chlankf]

I have an opportunity to purchase 2 1874 player photographs. This is a bit earlier than I feel comfortable pulling the trigger on without the opinions of the extensive knowledge base on the board. I have been doing quite a bit of searching for info regarding images of this era, the equipment used, etc. Great article from cycleback found that has helped.

www.cycleback/photoguide/uni.htm

Questions are:
- Do these appear to actually be from 1874?
- What is a fair price for both the seller and myself?

Thanks in advance
Craig

[Jason19th]

To me they look like later photographed of the originals -real type 1 images from this time are actually incredibly crisp

Compare to this 1889 image- even with poor contrast the image is more crisp

[slidekellyslide]

They do have a Xerox like quality to them. I'd be careful with that purchase.

[drcy]

Agree that the photos look questionable, but the 1870s dating of the images looks right. The rectangular images should be pasted on top of the cardboard backing, not be a direct part of it.

I'm just looking at small pics, so don't know.

[oldjudge]

If you have the photos in hand you can loop them and know if they are period. I agree with David that they look questionable, but unless you see them in person it is tough to know for sure.

[BeanTown]

Id pass. The even rounding corners on both cabinets is not good. Then the white showing on the bottom left side on the card(left side) would scare me away. My guess is there is another exact cabinet with same image out there that is larger in size and you are looking at a smaller version which is more modern. What size are the cards you are looking at?

[jpop43]

They eerily resemble these two images that were recently posted to ebay out of the UK...marked in exactly the same manner...they make me squeamish.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-19th-c...kAAOSwlpZaU1~m

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-19th-c...0AAOSwmSdaU1hg

I'm not an image expert, but I'd steer clear.

Jon
www.dugouttreasures.com

[chlankf]

Not sure of exact size yet. Am heading out of town and will be stopping by to see than in person. I have a few 1888 team cabinets and N173s but that is as old as my collection goes.

What things could I look for other than what is mentioned above? What would I be looking for with a loop, I'll take mine with me?

[dbrown]

These aren't real — the originals are in the New York Public Library, which has published a lot of high-res images from their collection. Looks like someone traced the original 19th c. handwriting to make it readable, on top of a digital print. (Originals from the collection of A.G. Spalding, no less.)

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/...0-e00a18064a99

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/...0-e00a18064a99

(Tineye.com reverse image search is a great tool)

David