Lelands Offers Extraordinary CDV Find Showing Baseball’s Beginnings
 

This article was written by David Seideman, concerning the early baseball CDV's in Leland's current auction. These are great early baseball artifacts and the article is being shared.



"Twenty-five years ago, an avid antique collector was making her rounds in the Southeast hunting for items that caught her fancy such as old books, pottery, and old photo albums. At an antique mall, there were rotating dealers from around the country, including one from the Midwest. He sold her an album filled with photos of baseball teams from 1871 and handsome young men in suits; a few were dressed in baseball uniforms.

The collector is not a sports fan and thought so little of her modest purchase that it sat in her kitchen cupboard collecting dust for two decades. Recently, it occurred to her that it might be worth her while to see if it is worth anything. So she contacted Leila Dunbar, a regular appraiser on “Antiques Road Show,” who referred her to Lelands auction house. “I was never more excited,” says Tom D’Alonzo, a veteran Lelands acquisitions specialist. “This is once in a lifetime. Many of these are the only examples.”

Lelands bills this as the largest and most significant nineteenth century baseball carte de vistas (CDVs) collection ever presented at auction. Original baseball photos dating from the 1870s are extremely rare; many of the players represented are not only the first such examples Lelands has handled, in many years, but the only ones the 38-year-old auction house has ever seen. The auction closes November 18.
https://auction.lelands.com/Lots/Gallery

The original album contained team composite CDVs for seven of the nine founding members of the 1871 National Association, baseball’s first professional league, plus images of many of the game’s earliest stars. Since nearly all the photos found in the album are ball clubs or ballplayers from the early 1870s, it most likely belonged to a former player or perhaps a National Association team executive.

All the CDVs in the collection grade SGC Authentic because they have been slightly trimmed by the original owner so that they could fit properly within the predesigned album sleeves, a common practice at the time. But for most, the trim affects only the mount and the photos remain in outstanding condition overall. The backs bear the stamped credits of the day’s top studios and ornate advertising for everything from sporting goods to toys

“It’s an incredible find, absolutely, but mostly because of its rarity rather than its monetary value,” says Richard Masson, co-author of The Photographic Baseball Cards of Goodwin Co. (1886-1890), the must-read bible for 19th card collectors and any baseball fans. “These are among the earliest baseball collectibles and predate the owner-oriented National League.Aside from the Spalding collection, I know of no other collection with a concentration of items like this.” (The A.G. Spalding collection consists of a massive number of materials related to baseball and other sports gathered by the early baseball player and sporting-goods tycoon A.G. Spalding which came to the Library in 1921 as a gift from his widow. Lelands also notes that the Chicago Historical Society owns some of the CDVs.)

Here are some of the highlights:

1871 Boston BBC National Association Team CDV w/Harry & George Wright

This composite CDV features portrait images of each player in uniform, including Hall of Famers George Wright (one of the century’s best players), Harry Wright (a great manager and an innovator responsible for many of the game's now standard practices such as such as signals and the use of statistics), and A.G. Spalding. The Boston Red Stockings boasted the league’s most star-studded lineup in 1871. In addition to featuring four former members of the legendary 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the roster also included Ross Barnes, who batted .401 that year. Although they finished in second place that year, that nucleus of players helped lead the club to four straight pennants from 1872 to 1875
1871 Forest City (Rockford) BBC National Association Team CDV w/Cap Anson
In its only season in the National Association, this team won just four of its 25 games and finished in last place. But its nineteen-year-old starting third baseman, Adrian Anson, stood out. Anson, who had not yet earned the nickname “Cap" (he was called "Baby" Anson at the time), led the club in batting with a .325 average. Considered by many historians to be the most important player in nineteenth-century baseball history, Anson batted over .300 in twenty-four of his twenty-seven seasons and is generally considered to be the first player to amass 3,000 hits. As a manager, he won five pennants with the Chicago White Stockings, and is credited with a number of coaching innovations, including the hit-and-run play, platooning, and a pitching rotation.

Circa 1870s Albert Spalding CDV

Spalding is one of the most important figures in baseball history because of his contributions both on and off the field. Spalding entered the professional ranks in 1871, joining the Boston Red Stockings in the newly formed National Association. For the next five seasons he reigned supreme as the top pitcher in baseball, leading the league in wins each year, including a jaw-dropping 52 in 1874 and a career-high 54 in 1875. Not surprisingly, Boston was the league champion in four of those five seasons. In 1876, after the demise of the National Association, Spalding remained with Boston's entry in the National League, where he continued his mound dominance, winning a league-leading 47 games that season.
After Spalding's playing career ended in 1878 he became an important league owner (Chicago White Stockings) and formed the largest sporting goods company in the country: A. G. Spalding Bros. Publisher of the annual "Spalding's Guide," Spalding had his hand in almost every aspect of the game, both at the amateur and professional levels.

Circa 1870s Candy Cummings CDV

Hall of Fame pitcher Candy Cummings invented the curveball. Not only is it the only example Lelands have ever seen, but, to the best of their knowledge, it represents the only individual photographic image of Cummings ever taken (he is pictured in several team photos from the era). This is the image of Cummings used in every publication and on every website, and it also appears to be the same image used to create his Hall of Fame plaque.
Candy Cummings may not be a household name, but without his contributions and those of the other baseball pioneers depicted on these CDVs our national pastime wouldn’t exist today."

https://auction.lelands.com/Lots/Gallery





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Those are stunning. What a find!

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...nd%20cards.jpg

Omg terrific

funny thing. At Chantilly SGC told me they don't grade CDVs.

Amazing back story and love learning more about the history of baseball

Thanks for sharing

Not what I heard

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...enan%20CDV.jpg

They absolutely do (or did)

Maybe now they only slab cut down CDV's.

Brian

They don’t do a lot of the things that they used to do. Personalized customer service being one of them.

Great cards Ryan

This was SGC that told me, not a 'heard it through the grapevine' kind of thing. When I saw these I emailed SGC and they again told me they don't do CDVs, yet the Leland flips are the new style...

When I asked them about if they will grade something at a show they give me an email address to contact. I assume the sales people are not complete experts just someone to help making a username on the website.

Surprised that Seideman would get the abbreviation definition wrong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carte_de_visite

I know a GREAT guy at SGC. He returns emails same day and is always super helpful. I’ll give you his contact info if you need a point person there.

Those CDV’s are amazing and very tempting

Hard to stay focused on my collection with bling like that on front of us

Correct Term
 

It's what Lelands uses, too. CDV is short for Carte_de_visite.

Thanks for offering to help. I usually get the same day response but it's never the answer that I am looking for nor am I ever satisfied with it. This individual has no decision-making authority and those that do, will not correspond with the public. Tough to get anywhere with this type of set-up so I have made the only decision that makes sense, cease from submitting any cards for grading to SGC. This is not to say that other TPG's are great but this is only about SGC, not others.

Finally got a somewhat sensible answer today. Here is the email chain with names and my links removed (I left Leland's in, because it's a thread about them!)

__________________________________________________ ______

Hi XXXXX, I was recently told at the Chantilly show that you don't grade CDV's, now I see Lelands has a ton of CDV's that you have indeed graded. Mine were civil war era, and themed, not baseball, but not sure why that would make a difference. Also I was told you simply don't do them, not anything about just doing baseball. It's a little frustrating because this collection is in our current auction and I certainly would've preferred to have them slabbed!


Scott

__________________________________________________ _______

Hi Scott,

Thanks for reaching out. We appreciate your support. Unfortunately, we currently do not grade CDV's. I'm sorry to disappoint.

Please let me know if you have any other questions and I'll be more than happy to help.

Have a great weekend!

__________________________________________________ ________

but there are a bunch of CDV's in your slabs in Leland's current auction:

https://auction.lelands.com/lots/gal...searchin=title

__________________________________________________ ________

Hi Scott,


We do not do the historical CDV's at all. The ones listed on Lelands auctions are baseball ones. These are done on a case by case basis. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Thank you!

So, they don't grade them, but sometimes do grade them?

I have no dog in this fight but I will point out that SGC stands for "Sportscard Guaranty Corporation" ...so the decision to grade baseball player CDVs and NOT historical figure CDVs makes sense to me.

They used to, but they have changed their standards somewhat recently. I sent in a 1930 Blue Ribbon Malt premium and they would only authenticate it, but they used to grade them.

You’ll see CDVs in new slabs because people got older cards reslabbed.

I don't necessarily disagree (though they grade plenty of non-sports obviously) I even offered that as a possible reason in my first email only to be told "Unfortunately, we currently do not grade CDV's. I'm sorry to disappoint."

And then we finally got around to that explanation.

Not true, they will do CDV's on a case by case basis. See my email chain.

[QUOTEYou’ll see CDVs in new slabs because people got older cards reslabbed.[/QUOTE]

CDVs in Lelands are new to the hobby and freshly graded

Seems to me that SGC will still grade certain sports or baseball CDVs, and my gut is they will only grade what they can verify is legit, either through provenance, comparison to prior examples, etc.

If true this could be a legitimate explanation for their inconsistency, but what makes you think that? I doubt there are too many other examples of those 1871 CDVs floating around to compare with.

I think they may be the only examples! With these, its the very solid provenance, which is described in detail in Lelands' write ups, I imagine the relied on.

I have no personal idea the circumstances in which SGC (or PSA) will or will not authenticate something. However, in conversations with a few AH owners who have sent things to TPGs to be authenticated, TPGs are very hesitant to slab something as authentic unless they are totally confident they know what it is and in its authenticity. What could make a TPG confident? Prior examples, provenance, influence..... (at least these are what I could come up with).

Makes sense. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts.

I believe there are 1 or 2 additional examples of most, if not all, of the Pierce team cdvs. It is interesting that while both the Peck and Snyder and Pierce photographs were available for sale, there are apparently much fewer Pierce cdvs known.

How about a shoutout for the Lipman Pike CDV…i was debating bidding above $10k and then…it sold for $109k! Nice. Incredible and rare card. The others did well but that stood out.

I'm super excited to have won this gorgeous Brouthers Cabinet tonight.

Does anyone happen to have more info than the description provides?

I'm trying to pin down the year and am a bit confused that it says Buffalo on the image but was taken in a Detroit Studio as he played for both cities.

"Brouthers was a member of the Buffalo Bisons from 1881 to 1885 before joining the Detroit Wolverines in 1886."

The only other Randall Cabinet I recall seeing was a Harry Wright which said it was from 1877.

Any help with year or other Randall Cabinets out there is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Brian

Brian, congrats! Great early image of Big Dan Brouthers.

I assumed that Randall used the photo from a Buffalo photographer to promote his studio now that the popular player was in Detroit. I think that was a (common?) practice.

Congrats again!

I found this article that discusses (at great length) the history of Michigan photography https://clements.umich.edu/files/tinder_directory.pdf. There are several pages about people named Randall. Don't worry about "tinder" in the url...the author of the article is David V. Tinder.

And congratulations to anyone who won any of the Detroit player cabinets. I think the prices were fair and the images are all great.

I had a very early bid on that one, thinking I might have a chance at getting it for a good price. I had bids on some of the others, but the Pike was really the one I was most interested in. Once it hit $10K I was a spectator, as I collect mostly large-format stuff these days, but wow! The fireworks on that one were unexpected, and great to see!

It is great when really rare, really old material fetches a high price with lots of action.

-Al

The CDVs and cabinets were incredible. It's not too often we see this type of early pioneer day material in bulk. Hopefully it won't be too long before we see more.

What would be nice to see is pictures of the scrapbook before the material was removed.

You can only hope that who ever took possession of it did a good job of cataloging and taking pictures of it. If it were me, I'd have completely photo documented everything and provided that insight to the collecting public. It not only draws more interest to hobbyist, it also provides a good historical background that would attest to the provenance of the extracted material.

It'd be sad to think that anyone would just rifle through it and tear it apart without considering the hobby value of seeing how the scrapbook was pieced together by the original owner well over a century ago.

I hope who ever picked up the 1871 Forest City CDV (lot# 14) also picked up the Ezra Sutton CDV (not in an SGC holder - lot# 46). That would be an incredible companion piece to the team CDV.

Attachment 597673

Anyone want to make any speculations about the original owner of the material in Lelands? May be an interesting thing to investigate.

I ended up winning a few of the Individual CDV's of players I found interesting.

I ended up with the following CDV's:
-Davy Force (one of the bigger names and stars of the 1870's, his performance diminished significantly as he aged into the 1880's)
-John Radcliff (one of the first Players banned in 1874 for offering an umpire $175 to sway a game...he was later reinstated)
-Ezra Sutton (I have an inkling these all once belonged to Sutton)

I bid on several more but there was so much it almost felt like "too much of a good thing" and it was hard to know what to focus on! :)

I was also lucky enough to win the Thompson (in addition to Brouthers)

I primarily collect 19th Century ballplayers and needed a great image of each.

Probably going to tap out my card budget for a bit but I'm beyond excited about these two as great 19th century stuff is few and far between.

.....Unless anyone has a great N173/GQ Kelly or Connor for me LOL

can anyone tell me or admit to
 

Lot 52, Sam Thompson? I own two copies of this rare MacIntyre Bros pose. I believe it to be the pose that was submitted to the Philadelphia Entry to the Player's League in 1890. Thompson "jumped" to the new League, but then jumped back. My congratulations to the successful bidder, for I also suspect it might be the only other one known outside of my two. I would stll be bidding if I didn't have it.

I'm sure glad you already had one Keith :)

You shared an image of yours in a post a couple years ago and I've wanted one since.

Thanks for the background!!

The Lipman Pike items are extraordinary. I gave up on the CDV pretty early on, seeing where it was going, and probably one of a kind. Congrats to the winner. I would say that it is truly museum-worthy.

Very excited to add this one to the Cubs collection.

https://allthecubs.com/wp-content/up.../11/1871-f.jpg

Congrats to all the winners! Really love historical finds like this. Brian congrats on the Brouthers and Thompson cabs. If I had seen the Buffalo connection with the Brouthers I would have given some more competition!
Wanted to add the Lipma Pike for obvious reasons but wasn't to be
Very happy to have landed the cab of Deacon White

Nice pickup Craig!

I let the White go to focus on going into extras on Brouthers. The more I look into him the cooler I think it is. I've been told it's unique and I haven't found another single image of Brouthers pre-Detroit.

Could this be the earliest single image of Brouthers?

Awesome early image Stephen! Looks every bit as much like a Crew Team as a Baseball Team. Great Hats! If you want to see one up close and personal, here's a TSOG segment we did, featuring a similar Boater Style Cap. It appears at the :51 mark...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWmoCBmiJ7o

Congrats on a great score!

Sorry to disappoint. There are several images of Brouthers pre-Detroit (at least on team items). That said, why do you think your new (awesome) cabinet is pre-Detroit? Isn’t the studio in Detroit? Did I miss something? Are we even sure it’s from 1886 (or before)?

EDIT: just saw one of your prior posts that mentions the Cabinet showing noting him as a Buffalo player. Very interesting. I hadn’t seen that before. That certainly lends some credence to this being issued in 1886 before the season started as Buffalo sold some of their best players to Detroit due to financial troubles. Very interesting indeed.

Here’s my checklist of the earliest Brouthers items:

https://imageevent.com/derekgranger/...t/danbrouthers

He has his team and name listed on his collar as “Brouthers-Buffalo” which seemingly would indicate that it dates from 1881-1885 when with Buffalo. He may have simply been in Detroit playing the Wolverines when he sat for the picture, similar to some of the Old Judge “proof” cards being taken of some teams while they were in town playing a different teams so the team city and location where photo was taken not being the same.

I was just editing my prior post as you wrote this post (so before I saw your note). Very interesting. I would venture to guess that this was issued between 1885-86 while he was “in between” teams as Buffalo sold him to Detroit during this time due to financial troubles. But certainly it could have been taken while on a road trip to Detroit prior to 1886. I hadn’t noticed this before. Very astute observation.

And congrats on the pick-up, Brian! I’ll update my HOF earliest checklist accordingly.

I knew there were team images prior but thought this could be the first "single" or individual card of Brouthers.

I asked the smartest person I know (on this stuff at least) Joe G and he said the same that it likely was taken pre 86 while Buffalo was in town playing Detroit. I guess that was a common occurrence for the time.

Either way I couldn't be happier to win this thing and I'll be waiting patiently on my front porch for the foreseeable future for the UPS guy to arrive :)

Now if anyone has a Roger Connor or King Kelly N173 or GQ they'd be willing to part with I'd love to talk with them about it.

Brian -

Awesome cab and congrats again on the pick-up! I think the earliest your new cab could have been produced is 1883, given how much hair he had in images with Buffalo through at least the 1882 season. The hair style (shaved head?) look is very similar to the style he wore during his time with Detroit. So I’d date this cabinet to between 1883 to early 1886 as I still think there’s a chance he had this taken as he transitioned from Buffalo to Detroit. I don’t know what his hair looked like in that three year period (1883-1885), but if images surface, they could help with getting a more precise date of your cab.

Here’s what he looked like in 1880:

https://photos.imageevent.com/derekg...%201879-80.jpg

Given that this NY Clipper Woodcut was issued on newspaper stock, I would say you have a very strong argument that you own the earliest (known) individual ”card” of Brouthers! Pretty awesome!