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Posted By: ramram

I was the runner-up on this interesting item. I'd call it a variation of Rounders and the Massachusetts game. It was determined to definitely be from around 1863 as the seller had an autograph album that contained all of those same men (BTW, that's not the future president Taft) signed into it with multiple 1863 dates (Shawn - she was suppose to send a copy of the pages from the autograph album with the item - you might ask her for it so that it's not lost to history). Had this item been from the 1840's or early 1850's I would have bid much higher as I would consider that a period when base ball was still finding its future path. Since it was from around 1863, it was more like the Neaderthals species - split apart and fading fast. Bottom line though, it's a great piece and a fair price.

Rob M.