Chadwick's 1869 Book of Reference

[Baseball Rarities]

This ad from the 1869 New York Clipper mentions a supplement that Peck & Snyder included with their 1869 "Book of Reference." This supplement was "published for the benefit of parties wishing to order BASE BALL Uniforms &c."

I also stole an image of this 1869 supplement from one of Barry's posts from a while ago. It was obviously made to help advertise their wares.

[bgar3]

Thank you. I think that must be what they referred to as colored illustrations. My hope was there might be colored illustrations of players etc., even though I knew this was unlikely.

[barrysloate]

Hi Kevin- that color poster was on my wall for many years. I actually excised it myself from the inside cover of a Haney Guide. There were numerous tears that had to be repaired, but because the adverising sheet had never been removed, the colors were original and pristine.

[Baseball Rarities]

Barry - that is an amazing poster. I remember you posting about it years ago and I have been looking for one ever since. No luck so far. I imagine that it is going to be next to impossible to find one in decent shape unless it has been kept intact with the guide like your example. The ones in Kashmanian's book are pretty beat up.

[barrysloate]

The posters are so incredibly fragile- imagine something from 1869 made of the same brittle paper used in the guides. Also consider it had dozens of folds in order to fit inside the front cover. Given those factors, as well as the scarcity of a Haney Guide, it's possible that this one and Kashmanian's are the only ones that survived. I am not familiar with any others.

You can find, however, early guides with hand colored illustrations, as well as old Peck & Snyder catalogs with color pages. I had both when I collected and they are of the same quality as the poster, but the individual pages are too small to frame.

[Baseball Rarities]

Barry - I had no idea that they paper was the same that was in the guides. Your poster was so nice that it looked like it was printed on some sort of special stock.

Kashmanian actually has two different posters pictured in his book. One takes up a full page while the other's picture is much smaller, so it is easy to miss. It is interesting that each of his have Peck & Snyder advertising on them with different addresses: 105 Nassau (which would date it 1868 or before) and 126 Nassau St., (which would date it at 1869 or after). Yours came from the 1869 Guide, which if my research is correct, would have had the 22 Ann St. address if it had the Peck & Snyder advertising.

[barrysloate]

Mine did not say Peck and Snyder on it, but if I remember my history (and I do forget things) Chadwick published the guide until 1868, then P & S bought it in 1869. Does that sound correct?

And yes, the paper was incredibly thin and low quality stock. I guess the posters were not made to last very long.