Your Oldest Baseball Related Card or Item
 

The title pretty much says it. I was happy to re-acquire this 1860 ambrotype.
When I picked this up the first time and asked for members to show any, I then realized how rare they are. One of my favorite pieces. 1 of 1 LOL....

We will have an 1858 "Spirit of the Times" Newspaper with a box score from the third game in a three game series between all-stars from players from Brooklyn vs All Stars from New York players (Brooklyn was a separate city in those days) in our fall Pre War auction. Believed to be the third ever published box score, with the first two games of the series being the first two of course. It's on the cover of the newspaper and by far the most popular item we have in our booth at the National!

1860s
 

stereoview card

Great item. Baseball players had such formal looking outfits 160 years ago. Being a collector that is focused on cards, my oldest baseball item is from the much more typical late 1880's time frame, but still a toughie...a trimmed down 1887 N175 Gypsy Queen of Roger Conner.

Brian

1888 SF Hess N321
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Per Wikipedia, "The Washington Nationals of 1884 were a short-lived baseball team in the American Association. They won 12 games and lost 51. Their home games were played at Athletic Park in Washington, D.C. They were also known as the Washington Statesmen. The Nationals were managed for all but one game by former player Holly Hollingshead. John Bickerton managed their final game on August 2, 1884, a loss to the New York Metropolitans" by the score of 6 - 5. "This team should not be confused with the other 1884 Washington Nationals franchise, a different team which played in the Union Association during its only year of operation."

The oldest items in my collection are this 1884 season schedule for the Washington Nationals/Statesmen of the American Association and this scored scorecard for Washington's final game on August 2, 1884, before the team disbanded. What I think is especially neat is that both of these items have penciled, period notations regarding the team disbanding after this game (see the right edge of the scorecard), which leads me to suspect that both items originally belonged to the same person/family.

I have some newspapers with box scores from the early 1860s, but my first collectible with any baseball images is the Jim Creighton memorial woodcut from 1865.

My oldest baseball card

I've got some A&Gs that are a couple years older, but this one is much more interesting. Baseball was introduced to Japan in the 1870s, and this postcard is from 1891. It pre-dates any known Japanese baseball card and (as far as I know) any other baseball-themed postcard. There are earlier books that have woodblock prints of baseball games, but this is among the earliest Japanese baseball images.

1875 stereoview from Kansas.

My contribution

Very nice pieces everyone but Glen’s is a Wow for me

Nice piece Nat.

The board id'ed this one as Tommy Bond from the late 70's. It has CW Jeffrey written on the back, which may have been the photographer.

Arslonga made an art card from this cabinet. I don't know if they made it from the one I have, or if there are other cabs out there like this one. Arslonga says they have released/sold 7 of their Bond cards. I don't have one, but would like to own one.

N172 for me.

https://www.net54baseball.com/pictur...ictureid=28282

You can find general baseball images from the late 1850s-early 1860s, although they are scarce, but it is almost impossible to find images of players from the country’s premier teams much prior to the late 1860s. Even then, “major league” items prior to 1886 are still difficult to find. This was really the dawn of baseball as we know it. BTW, beautiful piece Leon.

I have the Sept 6, 1956 first issue of Porter's Spirit of the Times, but I don't have it scanned.

I think my oldest scanned item is this Oct 15 1859 Harper's two page woodcut with a cricket match on the top and "A Base-Ball Match at the Elysian Fields, Hoboken" on the bottom

Edited to add the scans I found of the baseball content in that first issue of Porters.

Bond is 1878
 

Charles Webster Jeffery was a Boston photographer who produced cabinets of the Boston team in 1878. A group of these turned up in the 1980s, many of them misidentified on back, causing some confusion about the date they were issued. Bond, Burdock, Manning, Morrill, O'Rourke, Schaefer and Sutton were included as well as, I believe, George Wright. Another Bond, perhaps yours, came from the Bond estate.

Ever so close to 1859.

Great idea for a thread, Leon! What amazing relics!

I think my oldest identifiable baseball-related item is an 1889 Chicago Daily News "Daily schedules of League and American Association Games of Baseball." According to Baseball Reference, the American Association teams of that year were: Brooklyn Bridegrooms, St. Louis Browns, Philadelphia Athletics, Cincinnati Red Stockings. Baltimore Orioles, Columbus Solons, Kansas City Cowboys and Louisville Colonels. I have seen schedule booklets like this for "League and Western Association games" but I've not seen this one when I've searched.

I'm not an advanced schedule collector, but I'd guess it's either fairly rare or there's just not that much interest in schedule-collecting these days.

Thanks very much for the background info on the Bond. I got it in 2013 from Andy Sandler's 2nd auction. He may know more about where he found it.

I grew up 10 minutes away from here.

CDV image of a club from upstate NY...Canton? Watertown?

1869. Would love to own something from the 1850s….

Not very old. May 31, 1950. Baseball from an exhibition game between Post Cereal and the Brooklyn Dodgers. It’s as old as I got. Jackie Robinson played in the game.

Attachment 527447

Attachment 527448

Attachment 527450

Here's my contribution

First NL no-no. The image is new (can't afford a time piece) but the article is real

My two oldest pieces...



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I have several early tintypes which can be hard to date . . .

https://www.net54baseball.com/pictur...ictureid=28551

https://www.net54baseball.com/pictur...ictureid=28550

. . . except this one which still has its original tax stamp with a legible cancel of March 10th, 1865 (this is likely my earliest piece)

https://www.net54baseball.com/pictur...ictureid=28549 https://www.net54baseball.com/pictur...ictureid=28548

This small collection all coming from the summer of 2020 New Haven auction which was loaded with great early material.

1871 ......TROY HAYMAKERS scorecard
https://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan...lliamFlynn.jpg https://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan...pperflynnb.jpg



On display in my office (surrounded by my uncut BB card sheets) is this classic Elysian Fields Currier & Ives Lithograph (1865).

This print was reproduced by the Sidney Z. Lucas gallery in NYC (circa 1930's).

http://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan7...llArtworkZ.jpg



TED Z

T206 Reference
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From book picked up over the weekend
 

Published in 1877. There's also a page featuring a football game.

Not my oldest. I have an assortment of N172 OJs. But I I just love this 1936 photo I picked up years ago.

Here’s my entry.

Not sure which of these is earliest; I am not a 19th C. collector.

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...ut%20Anson.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...8%20Ward_1.jpg

Kinda Old
 

a magazine Ive had for about 30 years got it at a Mall Antique show....

a bit older
 

Also had this for about 40 years..... think I got it at the Nashville Flea Market in around 1980.....

My contributions: East Boston Flyaways silk ribbon 1865-1875-ish; photo of Actives player; 1872 Bates College team

My #5 type collection has a few 19th century cards and these appear to be the oldest. From what I know, these lady baseball players date to the late 1880s, when Allen & Ginter employed a significant number of women as cigarette rollers. Other sets exist showing cigarette rollers and bicycle riders, many using the same studio models.

A&G used these images, in part, as a competitive PR campaign to influence public opinion _against_ mechanization of cigarette production. Duke & Sons tobacco quietly used high-efficiency machines to out-produce competitors like A&G and overtook them by the 1890s.

Wow! A-okay from a Cincinnati collector.

Sent from my SM-G9900 using Tapatalk

Perhaps not my oldest, but pre-1900 nonetheless.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...97c61cc01c.jpg

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I have a handful from 1887, but that's as far back as my stuff goes. Using my fancy photo editor lol.

My goal is to get 1 of each non-oversized 19th century cards.

My oldest game used card by a long shot.

Original excerpt from Harper's Weekly (1869)
https://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan...ightbigbat.jpghttps://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan...kly7241869.jpg


TED Z

T206 Reference
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Here’s mine. A bib/shield front uniform set.

https://www.antiquebaseballuniforms....-unknown-maker

Hands down the best item posted in this thread IMO.... absolutely killer Mark, and utterly rare!
What is the provenance if any? How did you acquire it??

Love that group of cards. That O'Neil card appears on a neighborhood mural honoring Tip O'Neil a few blocks from me, where he started his political career. Fun to see them work in details like that. (Your card's in the hand of the kid in the blue coat.)

http://davidfichter.com/images/l/Tip...eb%20size).jpg

Thanks! I bough it from the gentleman who won it in this REA auction:

https://robertedwardauctions.com/auc...jersey-and-cap

It's my holy grail item, especially since I collect antique baseball uniforms as my primary area of focus

OMG, that is so gorgeous! Hope you'll be displaying it on a mannequin and posting pictures.