Negro League Poster

[eastonfalcon19]

Hey guys I just picked this piece up. What year do you think this poster is from?

[Bob Lemke]

I can't speak to the authenticity of the poster, but Sept. 22 fell on a Saturday in 1923, 1934 and 1945.

[earlywynnfan]

It's not 1922, Bolden didn't own the team then.

[jerseygary]

Wow! Never saw that before! The Crawfords and the Stars were both around in 1934 and 1945 and Ed Bolden owned the Stars in both years so it's hard to nail down except if we find a box score. If it's '34, what a Crawfords line up that would have been, and Philly had Slim Jones, in the middle of one of the most dominant season in blackball history.

[eastonfalcon19]

Thank you guys for all the information. It´s greatly appreciated.

[Bestdj777]

On the Crawfords Wikipedia page, it indicates that they moved from Pittsburgh in 1939 and folded in 1940, which would likely make this a 1934 poster.

[earlywynnfan]

I believe the Crawfords existed long after as a semi-pro team.

[eastonfalcon19]

Does anybody know how much this is worth?

[jerseygary]

Don't rely on wikipedia. The Crawfords existed as a top-draw Negro League team through 1936 when Satchel Paige took all the big stars to the Dominican Republic. They limped on through 1938 and sank to semi-pro status. In 1945 they staged a comeback with a few aging stars but were never a contending team again. So in-short, they were indeed around in '45.

[ramram]

1945. I highly doubt they had lights on a field in a small town in 1934 unless they were borrowing the KC Monarch's portable lights. Major leagues didn't have them until '35. Game started at 9:00 pm according to the broadside.

Rob M.

[ctownboy]

Is everyone positive this poster is authentic?

I am not very knowledgeable about posters so I have no clue. I do, however, know that scam artists list reprint/fake/fantasy pieces on eBay all of the time (either that or sell them at local flea markets or auctions). So, if a scam artist didn't know the field didn't have lights in 1934 then they wouldn't know that a 9 PM starting time would be out of the question.

David

[jerseygary]

Without handling it in real life, I can't say for sure. An original would show evidence of being produced on a letterpress, not by off-set lithography. You can see that up close and in life. But, as a graphic artist and typographer (I create period-correct props for movies and TV), the first mistake scam artists fall into is that they use computer fonts instead of type that would have been period correct. This poster uses the typefaces you would have found in the 30's and 40's. If it's a fantasy-fake, the person knew his typography. Plus, many of the fakes that are made have photo's of the key players and all the bells and whistles on it. This one is simple and not that attractive except to a collector, which for me makes it a little more believable.

I hope it's real for the buyer's sake, it's a real find.

[eastonfalcon19]

For what it's worth I purchased this poster at an local auction in Stroudsburg Pa. There were other vintage baseball memorabilia at this auction including nice local 1920s jerseys.
There was also a vintage Darktown coin operated bank. So wherever these items came from the individual obviously had an interest in baseball.

[murphusa]

The auction house has a pretty good reputation.

The piece is also correct in the location of the field and the fact that teams from Pennsylvania went to Jersey to play.

The field was part of a Bread Company's grounds

[eastonfalcon19]

Thanks Jim for the information. Do you know exactly where the bread company was? The broadside was produced by The Day Printing Company which was also based in Phillipsburg NJ.

[eastonfalcon19]

Here´s another picture of it.

[murphusa]

Freihofer Bread was a Philadelphia Based Bread company that had factories in New York and in Phillipsburg, NJ from 1920 to 1972. They are now part of the Bimbo Ford Company. This was their factory field

[john.clowes]

http://articles.mcall.com/1995-08-27/news/3048025_1_cool-papa-world-series-babe-ruth

This article describes a 1932 game between the Philadelphia North Ends and the House of David where HOD brought the lights. It's interesting that the North Ends were the undercard on the poster.

[john.clowes]

I finally had the chance to get to the library last night, hoping to find the box scores for the games described on the poster that's been discussed here. I targeted 1934, as that seemed to be the year in which our discussion had been going.

In the Saturday Sept 22, 1934 edition of the Pittsburgh Courier, I found the box score below, and it's definitely not the same game as described on the poster (the article states that the game was Saturday afternoon). The Crawfords were in Pittsburgh that day, losing badly to the Homestead Grays 11-2.

http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy291/jclowes1/craw1_zps3fbf59a8.jpg

I am going to look at 1945 next, in the hope that I can find something to support the idea that the poster is authentic.

[eastonfalcon19]

Thank you John for the article. It is an interesting article. Hopefully more stuff will pop up so I can gain a little more knowledge about this game.

[ElCabron]

Why would the Saturday, September 22nd paper have a boxscore for a game being played on Saturday, September 22nd?

-Ryan