1880's Detroit Wolverines Paper Dolls

[walnutts]

Just got what appears to be a partial set of 7 Victorian Baseball Paper Dolls. They came to us with a fantastic collection of 1870's and 1880's Chromolithograph Paper Dolls (most by McLoughlin Bros.). These Baseball Paper Dolls however are the only Dolls in the collection that are not your typical "Girl's" Paper Dressing Dolls and they have thrown us for a loop.



They are blank backed and printed on a very light weight card stock. My first thought looking at them was that they were from the 1910's but the uniforms and the fact that none of the players are wearing gloves is more consistent with the 1880's. The uniforms all say "Detroit" and the uniforms are identical in style to those worn by the 1887 Detroit Wolverines of the National League. There was a note with the group in the collection that seems to imply that there may have been 23 Paper Dolls in the original set but there are only 7 present. These are not die cut but have been hand cut like all 19th century paper Dolls.
Has anyone ever seen these before or have a clue what they might be?

Thanks,
Tom

[aquarius31]

Yes, there are several different team examples. See the recent discussion on below thread.

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=174760

[1880nonsports]

a few different times. My friend Glenn has had some at his table - although they were mounted on wood blocks. If I remember correctly - there's a fairly recent thread on these if you search it out. McLoughlin Bros. as one would expect was discussed but I don't think any final conclusion was drawn. Think those game guys (Butch sumptin?) were exploring the issue. BTW Tom C. - like many here (well at least them whats on the NS side anyway) I always view your offerings and respect the way you do business.............

[walnutts]

George - thanks so much - Have posted the information to the thread that you mentioned - no question that our Paper Dolls are part of what must be a rather large but apparently very rare series of Professional Baseball Team Paper Dolls published in the late 19th century (likely by McLoughlin). Hopefully if we all put our heads together, somehow this series will get properly identified.

Thanks again,
Tom

[CarltonHendricks]

Tom,
Glen Mechanick had those same ones on his table at the National....see below..I've seen them around over the years...always serious money....the ones I've seen have always been standing up mounted on a wood backing...I think all by Mcloughin Bros.

[Butch7999]

Sorry to report no further progress on these as yet.
We have access to McLoughlin catalogues and "order lists" in digital format, but for only certain years --
1882, 1894 and 1895, 1897 through 1900, and 1914 through 1920.
While several of those catalogues do include paper dolls for boys -- mostly military figures -- we couldn't find any listed
that are associated with baseball or any other sports.
As we mentioned in the other thread [ http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=174760 ], while we've seen these figures
by themselves before, we've never seen them included with any of the 18 known McLoughlin baseball games (which doesn't absolutely
rule out the possibility that they were in fact original to a game and merely missing from any of the scarce examples offered for sale
or at auction in the last 20-25 years).
Also perhaps worth noting: almost all the McLoughlin paper dolls are described as being in the range of 6-7" tall.
The baseball figures appear significantly smaller than that.
We're also pretty certain, judging largely by the "1880s" labels, that they were affixed to the wood blocks
at a much later date than their manufacture.

[walnutts]

Butch - Thanks - I am nearly certain that you are right and these were not issued affixed to any type of backing. The fact that all of the ones I have now seen (thanks to the posts on these Forums) and the ones we own all appear to be hand cut (rather than die cut) seems to point to them having been issued in either sheets or "Paper Boll" books - likely as Paper Dolls of some type for boys. I assume you have checked all of the McLoughlin catalogs that the American Antiquarian Society has on line so I won't duplicate this research but I do have another thought. We have handled hundreds (if not thousands) of McLoughlin Brothers Chromolithograph Children's Books, Paper Dolls, Paper Toys, Card Games, Board Games, etc. (of all types not just sports related) over the past 33+ years and the quality of the color lithography seen on these baseball "Paper Dolls" is nowhere even close to the craftsmanship that McLoughlin produced in the 1880's and 1890's. These Baseball Paper Figures feature a simple 3 or maybe 4 color printing process while McLoughlin products of this period were much more complex - printed with 6, 8, sometimes 10 or 12 stones. I think there might be a very good possibility that these Baseball Paper Figures we published by someone other than McLoughlin - the quality of the lithography is just not up to what McLoughlin Bros. were doing at the time. Just my opinion but perhaps another avenue of research.
Tom

[Butch7999]

Hi Tom -- wouldn't presume to disagree with your experienced observations and critique of the quality of the figures,
but the fact that they look identical to those pictured on the gameboard / playing field of McLoughlin's circa 1892 Base Ball Game
certainly associates them in some way with McLoughlin.

American Antiquarian was indeed our source for the McLoughlin catalogues, and with a little further digging there earlier last evening,
we did spot an "American Jockeys" set of horse-racing-themed paper dolls (the only sports-themed paper doll set we've found),
and other sets of paper dolls, er, cut-outs, for boys, featuring "Wild West", Boy Scouting, and marching band figures,
as well as the previously noted military sets, in the 1910s-era catalogues. Still haven't seen anything baseball-related, though.
However, the digitized catalogues are far from a complete run, and even several of those present are missing pages.
The mystery continues, and therefore so must the search...

[Joe_G.]

Here is one in my collection with a slightly different pose than above.

[barrysloate]

Any possibility these came from a newspaper supplement? Could a Detroit paper have included them as pieces to be cut out and used for some type of tabletop game? Just a guess, but there are other examples of this from the late 19th century.

[aquarius31]

Thanks to Carlton's great photographs and write-up on the 2013 National, I think we may have confirmation of what these cut outs looked like in their original form! I grabbed this from Carlton's website (Tick and Tick booth). It's difficult to make out what is written underneath "AMUSEMENT FOR BOYS TO CUT OUT" but it may tell us the manufacturer unless it's written somewhere underneath the framed section or on the back.