Posted By:
Jay MillerI am not a photographic expert so I have no idea if these "proofs" are period or not. I know David has stated that he believes that they are not period and I have no reason to doubt his view.
As to the history of the items, Jon is right that they came from Vermont. The source of these is the same gentleman who was the source of the glass plate negatives that were found almost ten years ago. However, the "proofs" could have been made from glass plate negatives at some point after the late 1880s. These negatives still are very functional and I have taken a negative that I own of Wilson-Omaha, a player who is not known in either N172s or N173s, to a local photographer who made some really nice prints from it.
As does Jon, I own a few of the "proofs" and I guess from a value standpoint I would like for them to be period, but from an informational standpoint of providing images of scarce Old Judge players it really doesn't matter. The images are genuine, the negatives were made in the Old Judge period, the only question is when were the "proofs" printed. I'll defer to the photographic experts to hash that one out.