The reason I asked . . .

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Posted By: Bob Lemke

I've been in contact with a fellow who is interested in consigning this photo:

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to the premiere Collect.com auction. I believe this photo has bounced around the hobby a bit over the years. He theorizes that it is a young-ish Honus Wagner. Part of that supposition comes from the fact that on back there is a purple rubber-stamp that has the name "Wagner" in script, followed by a fairly long space, then "427 E. Baltimore St., near Gay / Baltimore, Md." I believe that Wagner is the name of the photo studio, rather than the person pictured, but my Google search of that address only turns up that it is now home to a nudie bar.

The fairly distinctive uniform on the chap in the picture is what I was hoping to confirm was circa 1897-99 Louisville livery, but I've had no luck finding an image of such.

I've created a comparison pair of the portrait in the picture with a known portrait of Wagner circa 1895 with the Warren team. I know how much some of the guys on here like to sleuth out photo ID's so, I thought I'd offer this . . .

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So, what's your opinion? Is it Honus, brother Al (Butts), neither or indeterminate?

Thanks much for any assistance you can offer!

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Definitely not Honus...I've not seen enough photos of Honus's brother to say one way or the other there, but I doubt that too.