Was this really an 1890 Players League player cabinet?

[joeadcock]

The back of the Cabinet identified as 1890 Chicago Pirates. It appears to be mislabeled as you state.

The player appears to be TOM DALY.
He played for the Chicago White Stockings before 1890. The Chicago White Stockings ended in 1888.

The first cabinet pictured shows him right lower(from 1887)
Second cabinet shows him again right lower corner(he has a mustache), from 1888.

Steven Art Studios Cabinets are listed in the Standard Card Catalog, as either Chicago White Stockings or Chicago Pirates from 1890. He was not a member of either team in 1890. So, therefore, the penciled in caption on back of cabinet is incorrect.

Therefore, it appears the Steven Art Studios made Cabinets prior to 1890, assuming all their subjects were Chicago(he played for them in 1887 and 1888). If this is further confirmed, perhaps it can be corrected in future editions of Standard Catalog.

Of further interest, Heritage Auctions sold a Steven Arts Studios Cabinet clearly labeled 1888(see cabinet at very bottom on the right), in the April 2010 auction. The player is Duke Farrell. He played for the Chicago White Stockings. The difference between the 1888 cabinet and the one just sold today on Ebay is that this one does not show the date of 1888, in fact the only date is the incorrect penciled in 1890 on the back side. THE MYSTERY DEEPENS.

Interesting stuff.

[joeadcock]

Packs

Here is the auction on the Steven Arts Studios Cabinet that just ended few hours ago.
Compare to the other cabinets above, and I am sure you will agree it is Daly. His face is simply facing to the left as opposed to the 1887 cabinet where he faces to the right.

[bmarlowe1]

I agree that he does not match any member of the Chi PL club, but we can also be sure he is not Tom "Tido" Daly (who played with Chi NL 1887-1888) because the shape of his ear is different. Below left is Daly with Chi NL in 1887-8, center Daly with Chi AL in 1903. Below right the still unknown guy from the Stevens cabinet.

[MW1]

I agree. Not Tom Daly. He does, however, kind of resemble a young Cap Anson.

[packs]

To me it doesn't look like Daly.

[joeadcock]

Mark

Good piece of dective work. I concede when close cropped pictures in way you did and blown up, does not appear to be Daly. Though it is the closest player in likeness. My original inclination toward Daly was due to the composite picture of 1887 Knickers shown above.

Are you able to pull out Daly from that composite and blow up to approximate size and do comparison to the recently sold Cabinet?

Question now arises. If this is not Daly, or anyone else we can identify, might this not be a baseball player at all? Did Steven Studios make cabinets of non athletes? That would certainly seem possible as other studios did this at the time. Perhaps whoever wrote in the caption 1890 Chicago Pirates simply made an error in ID and hence it ended up at auction as a 1800's baseball player cabinet.

[ramram]

As mentioned earlier, I think you have to also look at the fact that the ink does NOT appear to be from the time of the photo. And, yes, the studio would have photographed anybody, not just athletes. A studio would have never survived just selling photos of celebrities.

Rob