Info requested on 1890's cabinet card

[scooter729]

Hi,

I recently bought this cabinet card, picturing Bob Allen of the Boston Beaneaters. I assume it would be from 1897, as that was his only year with Boston.

My questions on it:

- Would it be common for a cabinet card of a Boston player (and a common one at that) to appear on a mount from a Minnesota photography studio? He wasn't from Minnesota or anything like that either.

- The writing which you see at the top of the card doesn't actually appear to be on the cabinet itself; it almost appears like the writing was on some original copy of the photo, which was then printed with the photo. Is that possible? I can't swear that the writing isn't on this cabinet itself as I'm not an expert on it, but my initial guess is that it isn't.

Any thoughts anyone has on this would be most appreciated - thanks!!

[scooter729]

OK, well, I guess I should have done some Google searching first. I just discovered the same card (with the same writing) but with another studio mount. The image is small and doesn't link to anything to help, but I found this interesting....

At least it confirmed for me that the writing is NOT on this card itself.

Now, anyone with any more info?

[rhettyeakley]

Looks like a badly made reproduction of an original Elmer Chickering cabinet known from the Library of Congress collection. The writing was fountain pen on the original cabinet which on subsequent copies would "appear" to be part of the image.

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collecti...em/2008678935/

Pretty easy to "make" these by taking a reproduction image of the player photo and pasting them on an original cabinet mount.

Just as an FYI very rarely are you going to find a Boston National League (for example) players cabinet card like this on a non-Boston photographers mount. The exceptions would be from a city of an opposing team (the Boston team was in New York so they got their photos there) or sometimes a player being photographed at a studio near where they lived but the cities on those two Allen mounts make no sense and are 100% fakes. Usually the city the photographer was in makes sense with the given subject matter.

[scooter729]

Thanks Rhett - that is great info! The LOC image clinches it for sure. I thought something seemed up with this but couldn't quite put my finger on it, so your comments were extremely helpful so I can avoid being stuck with this copy.

Much appreciated!

[GregMitch34]

Not sure if relevant but I recently picked up this Cabinet of Boston Beaneater, Tom Gunning. In this case, it's a Boston studio--they have it labeled circa 1888 but must be earlier as he only played in Boston 1882-1886. I see no record of existence of any other example of this cabinet--or the photo studio. Would seem odd that no other Beaneater had it done there? Or did players just do it on their own and this could even be old Tom's only copy? Interesting to speculate...
http://www.net54baseball.com/attachm...1&d=1387511386

[spec]

Originally Posted by GregMitch34

Not sure if relevant but I recently picked up this Cabinet of Boston Beaneater, Tom Gunning. In this case, it's a Boston studio--they have it labeled circa 1888 but must be earlier as he only played in Boston 1882-1886. I see no record of existence of any other example of this cabinet--or the photo studio. Would seem odd that no other Beaneater had it done there? Or did players just do it on their own and this could even be old Tom's only copy? Interesting to speculate...
http://www.net54baseball.com/attachm...1&d=1387511386

Greg,
Over many years of baseball research in Boston, I never encountered anything indicating this studio photographed baseball players. In this period, Hastings, Waldon Smith, Conly and Gray were often mentioned in connection with the teams. However, there were many photographers in Boston and I suspect Gunning chose Pepper for this personal portrait. If you Google A.F. Pepper, you will find other cabinet photos with his imprint. As for the time frame, Gunning was from the Boston area (born in Newmarket, NH; attended Boston College and Holy Cross in Worcester, and after completing med school at the University of Pennsylvania practice for many years in nearby Fall River, MA. Thus, he might have had this photo taken by Pepper any time between 1880 and 1900. Nonetheless, it was a nice pickup. How did you happen to spot it and make the connection to baseball?
Bo.b Rich.ardson