Glass Plate Negatives Value?
 

Anybody know anything about the value of these? Henry Yee is auctioning off some pre war baseball glass plate negatives and I asked him about them and he told me to look them up on wikipedia:)

I like the fact that they can't be trimmed.

Value, as with most things, depends on the subject and condition/clarity.
Legendary has auctioned several over the past couple of years. You could check out their archives.
I personally think they are often undervalued. They are extremely delicate, remember they are made of glass. I also think they are really special since at one point in time the glass negative was within a few feet of it's subject. Not very many pieces of our treasures and valuable cardboard can argue that it was ever within that type of proximity of it's subject.

I only own one. Waner in 1932. It has the original filing envelope and notes from The Herald. Picture is showing it held up to the light.

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...er22008424.jpg

I agree that the glass being on the field with the player is pretty special. I am certainly persuaded by the concept of having the treasures I collect come within a close proximity of their subject -- which is why I still get a charge every time I hold one of my signed T206 cards. "Hello Tommie!"

<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/q5e6ki8ti_iCycuOjJvK6ziJm_Z5QsNdec5_I7WHZRE?feat=e mbedwebsite"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-w5HJ-5oYVmg/RsjQJjNZejI/AAAAAAAABD0/g519izi2mZc/s800/Leach%252520Portrait%252520Auto%252520SGC%25252040 .jpg" height="800" width="494" /></a>

Ephus is correct.

As a general class, glass plate negatives are valuable. The preceed the film ones.

I've broken two Stanford football ones by dropping them on the floor. They're little but thick panes of glass.

If you're a team collector, or whatever, it would be neat to have one.

Funny. Awhile back I won a group of 5x7 glass negs of boxers on Ebay. They were smashed by the time they got to me. :(

They have to be shipped in a box not a bubble envelope. A glass autochrome photo I once shipped within cardboard and bubble envelope broke into many pieces, so I learned the hard way.

The glass plate negatives are pretty neat, in my opinon. Henry had a lot of glass plate negatives of ball players many years ago. There were stars and the average player alike in the offering he had. The stars went for much more than the average players. Lucky for me Ernie Nevers wasn't a star baseball player. :p

Just saying.... if one of those glass plate negatives was associated with an image on a card it would probably have a pretty good premium.... again, I'm just saying....

Ty Cobb Family

Im confused. This may be a stupid question but is the glass plate negative on the left or the right?

The 2nd image is a positive scan of the negative.

Thanks but if an auction is for a glass plate negative, do u get the right or left image. Thanks

Both.

Thanks Frank

They are the same piece. In hand it looks like the one on the left.

Ok, but how do u get it to look like the right? If it looks in hand like the left, when does it look like the right?

I think when you flip the negative to the other side, then it looks like the right.

I think the proper question is can these glass negatives still be used to create a print? If yes, how big could that print be? 8 x 10? Larger? And, money question, would it be considered a first generation print still? Or 2nd generation...thanks!

I'm not sure if you've ever seen your Waner with the negative reversed, but here it is....

It's a positive exposure of the negative. There are scanners out there that can do that for you.

Yes, you can make a print. If it's a quality original neg, with good clarity and a competent photographer, you can make it almost any size you want.

Just like today, a lot depends on the equipment and the skill of the original photographer.

No - it's a negative, just like old 35mm film. In order to get the positive image, you can scan it in and use any photo software (e.g. the free Picasa software) to click a button to convert the scan.

A good photo lab can make a print from a glass negative. Doing a print the same size -a contact print - is easy. Better photo labs will be able to make larger or smaller prints. It's limited mostly by their equipment. They need a holder to hold the negative in the enlarger. If they have the right holder they can make decent size prints. If it's a nice crisp negative they could enlarge it a lot. Any flaws in focus make the large prints look awful, and they may recommend against doing something like 14x20.
Some places will make a 35mm copy negative and print from that.

Steve B

The negatives should be large enough to make poster size photos if you want.

Obviously, the negative image has to be clear and sharp.

As said, you can scan them.

Most glass negatives are much larger than 35mm. Often around the size of an index card or larger. I've never heard of a 35mm glass negative.

Will the photos be Type 1, 2, 3 , 4 or something else?

Going only and strictly by the PSA grading descriptions on their site, they would by Type II.

But it matters in collecting who printed the photographs. There's a difference between the Chicago Tribune printing one of their photos 25 years later, and Joe Shmoe printing the same image 25 years later. In general, something printed 'officially' is worth more-- meaning a Tribune photo made by the Tribune, or a Robin Yount photo with the MLB stamp on back.

I don't know how PSA takes that into account.

It should be noted that if you win a negative, you may have all legal rights to print the photos. I don't anticipating that being an issue. Having legal right is part of something being official.

There are a plethora of interesting questions brought up by this topic. It also shows that the PSA grade doesn't say everything about a photograph.

It will be a modern print. Doesn't really matter. It's a novelty at that point.