Photograph assistance

[Fritz]

Hello all,
My name is Fritz and I'm asking for some assistance with a picture I found yesterday, from the looks of it, and its somewhat hard to make out, the guys jersy says "Commercial Club", Can anyone help me with finding out where and what time frame this may have been taken? I thank you for your assistance in advance.

rgds
Fritz

[Fritz]

Here is a closeup of the jersey.

[drc]

It's from the 1910s-- teens.

[drc]

I should add that there are a lot of anonymous photos of baseball players and teams as it was a popular sport across the land. The player likely belongs to some local sponsored team. As there are so many anonymous players, it doesn't need to have a where and who known to have value. For the record, I dated it due to the style of the overall photo, and yours is a nice example of that type of photo.

[Fritz]

drc, Thanks for the info! I've been trying to fiqure out the team via internet search but like you said if it's a small city sponsord team there may not be anything on it. it is a cool picture non the less, I found it in a pile of pictures at a sale and unfortunatly the people having the sale didn't have any history on it.

Fritz

[bmarlowe1]

I would say that the laced front (instead of buttons) dates the uniform a bit earlier. Factoring in the cap style and belt, I would say early 1900's.

Of course the uni may not have been new and the photo may have been taken later.

[Fritz]

Originally Posted by bmarlowe1

I would say that the laced front (instead of buttons) dates the uniform a bit earlier. Factoring in the cap style and belt, I would say early 1900's.

Of course the uni may not have been new and the photo may have been taken later.

bmarlow, thanks! To bad we might not be ableto find out more on where this was taken.

Fritz

[Fritz]

Gentleman thanks for the help, any thoughts as to fair value for this picture, I wish to sell it and want to list it here but I frankly have no clue as to a fair value. Any opinions?

Fritz

[Fritz]

No thoughts?

[Leon]

There are a ton of old photos like this. When we don't know the team or players the price is usually fairly low, unless it's a photo from the 1800's....then the price can get into the hundreds or even a bit more if there is equipment and ornate uniforms. Sometimes the best way to sell such an item is on ebay to see what that market dictates. If I had to SWAG a guess I would say around $10-$25 ......not too much more. If you can find out the team and/or players the value would go up a little bit.

[drc]

I'm not an appraiser, but I would say $50-$60. It is fairly modern and anonymous, but is a nice looking example. Nice pose with charector, good looking mount, decent condition. I haven't bought or sold baseball cabinets in a while so may be rusty on pricing, but can testify that it's a nice looking example for its type and genre.

Identification of place often will raise value, but not always. It depends on who are the bidders/buyers. Some buyers will value it more knowing it's from their home county, many just like knowing the whole story even when they have no connection to the place, and potential buyers in Mississippi and Oregon, as examples, may not value it more when informed it's from Bismark North Dakota.

One thing I do remember is when I sold a diverse selection of vintage football photos on eBay. Whenever I placed on eBay a University of Wisconsin Badgers football photo the winner would be from Wisconsin. I could count on it. Though with college teams there are especially strong connections and followings from locals and alumni.

[Fritz]

Leon, drc, Thanks. I have since did a bit more searching and have found something that may be on track in identifying the team, In the 1860s in St. Louis there were a few what I believe are military teams, the Empire club, Cyclone club,Union club,Commercila club and a few others, could this be a later era picture of the same baseball club? If you look at the gentleman in the back behind the man in uniform that man looks to be in military uniform of the early 20th century, campaign hat with tassles and blue uniform jacket. I'll try and get a close scan and post it. Thoughts?

Fritz

[Fritz]

Here is a closeup scan of the man in the back.

Fritz

[bmarlowe1]

That's pretty cool - it does look to me like a Spanish - American war type uniform, but I admit that I am not an expert on that.

[Fritz]

That is my thoughts also, military collecting is my main hobby and when I looked at it a bit closer thats exactly what I saw, so with this in mind I think this may be from a military team like I mentioned in my previous post, worth a bit more checking.

Fritz

[Fritz]

Just a note this type of uniform was phased out of the army in approx 1902. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I may be able to research this more?

Fritz

[Fritz]

Well I talked to a firend of mine and it looks like this was taken at Jefferson Barrecks in St. Louis, he contacted a friend of his and he was pretty sure the "Commercial Club" was a team at this base like I posted earlier. Any thought on where to go to find out more?

Fritz

[steve B]

You could try the unit that was there at the time, if they're still around. If not, most of them got absorbed into other units or renamed. Lots of the older units have pretty good history departments.
Or, Maybe a St louis historical society? They or the St Louis library would have the newspapers from the time usualy on microfilm.

From here on, it's probably a matter of persistence in looking, and/or luck in finding info that was printed and saved. And that turns up in weird places sometimes.

Steve

[Fritz]

Thanks, I found the Jefferson Barracks site and sent an Email to the curator, I'll let you know what I find out.

Fritz