Oldest Memorabilia

[rjackson44]

Picked this up ten years ago pretty

[seattlerainiers]

One of the earliest surviving artifacts from baseball in the Pacific Northwest:

[ramram]

1867 scorebook.

Rob M.

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[bmarlowe1]

Originally Posted by Scott Garner

Mark,
This is going to be my last post on this topic as well, and it is as you said, an opportunity to share nice old stuff. I don't want this to get into a pissing contest, because I don't really believe anybody likes that kind of thing. I have always enjoyed your posts on net54 and I have no issue with you personally and I truly believe that you bring value to the net54 forum.

FWIW,I sincerely don't ever recall stating that the ticket is "for sure" a NA ticket. When I purchased it originally, I did believe that it was (at least that was my thought process up until your post).
What I did say when you questioned me about it is that I believed it was from the NA White Stockings "to the best of my knowledge". You made the point that it likely wasn't because of a couple of factors. OK, fine. It's not the first time that I've been wrong and certainly not the last time I'm sure.
It's OK to question a person's perception of reality if you believe that it should be reconsidered & I have.

Please don't make it sound like I have done this through conscious misrepresentation, because it was never intended that way.
Enough said. Peace, out!

OK, sorry if I misunderstood your intent - have a nice holiday weekend.

[Jason19th]

Here are my two oldest

1. Woodcut from Potter's History of Greece- section on the ancient Olympic Games (1696)

2. Woodcut from Carver's Boys Book of Sports (1834)

[aquarius31]

I love this thread and the diversity of items! Here are some more.

1826-1827 boxing prints by S.W. Fores
1860's Collegiate Cricket Club (either Haverford or Penn)
1868 Xenia BBC
1860's Dunkirk, NY BB players

[CarltonHendricks]

Originally Posted by seattlerainiers

One of the earliest surviving artifacts from baseball in the Pacific Northwest:

For lack of a like button....very cool trophy!! congrats

[CarltonHendricks]

Originally Posted by Huysmans

http://www.sportsantiques.com/ice_skate_poster.htm
Before I got the sheet music this 1862 ice skate poster advertising poster below was my oldest piece...above is a link to the full feature page.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

Great pieces as always Carlton!
I'd die for that skate poster![/QUOTE]

Hey thanks Brent...Got it from a big name folk art dealer years ago...took quite a few years to find but I finally got the skates too.

[Runscott]

Too much great stuff to comment on all of it, but I really like the history behind this group.

The cdv's and tintype images everyone has been posting are just amazing - making me feel 'photo inadequate'. If you guys got together, you could put together a heckuva virtual cdv/tintype museum.

Originally Posted by bbpostcards

1. c. 1866 Oregon CDV of Portland Pioneer Base Ball Club player Joseph Wiley. The bottom CDV includes him several years later.

.....

5. 1870 Oregon CDV of Portland Pioneer Base Ball Club members. Joseph Buchtel (the team's founder) is at the top. Joseph Wiley (the person in the first CDV) is at the bottom left.

Information about these and related images is on the website below.

[jpop43]

Not our "oldest", but certainly one of the earliest mfg. marked rings bats we're likely to ever see...this is our c.1870's Peck & Snyder bat.

www.dugouttreasures.com

[bbpostcards]

Before there were postcards there were postal cards. The postal card is from 1875 and on its reverse advertised the wares of the Peck & Snyder sporting goods company. The woodcut image show the fun that lays behind the storefront.

The 1876 trade card below it marks the first time to my knowledge that a baseball scene at a true baseball park (Boston's South End Grounds) was used to promote a product, and is also the earliest panorama of that park. Advertising Washburn & Moen barb wire, the woodcut on the front is captioned, "Barb Fence Armor. - The Boston Base Ball Grounds, enclosed with 'Barb Armed' Fence."

The engraver is John A. Lowell. He was involved in Boston baseball from the late 1850's forward and was so influential that the Boston Lowells was named after him. The message on the reverse is from the president of the Boston Base Ball Association. As the National League was founded in 1876, this image shows South End Grounds, the home of the Boston Red Caps, in its first year as a professional stadium. The detail is interesting. People peeking over the fence. Fans buying tickets. Men, women, kids, all at the ballgame. American flags adorning the grandstands. View of Boston in the distance. The maker of the barbed wire is Wasburn & Moen Manufacturing Co.

More items like these can be viewed on the website below.

[Runscott]

1866 letter from a student attending college in Kentucky, to his sister. He states that most of the students are 'Unions'.

[ValKehl]

In 1884, Washington, DC, fielded a team, known both as the Nationals and the Statesmen, in the American Association. After losing a game by a score of 6 - 5 on August 2nd to the eventual league champion NY Metropolitans, the Washington team, with a 12 - 51 record, threw in the towel, as noted on this scorecard for this game and on this 1884 Washington team schedule:

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

In 1884, Washington, DC, fielded a team, known both as the Nationals and the Statesmen, in the American Association. After losing a game by a score of 6 - 5 on August 2nd to the eventual league champion NY Metropolitans, the Washington team, with a 12 - 51 record, threw in the towel, as noted on this scorecard for this game and on this 1884 Washington team schedule:

Very cool, Val! That's an amazing piece of early Washington AA history.

[ValKehl]

Thanks, Scott. Although I am mostly a card collector, these two complimentary pieces do fascinate me, having lived in the VA suburbs of Washington all of my life.
Val

[vintagesportscollector]

The other thread about dating a 1870s tintype based on the cap style reminded me of this 1870s The John Wilkinson Company Uniforms fold-out catalog I have.

[khkco4bls]

Originally Posted by vintagesportscollector

The other thread about dating a 1870s tintype based on the cap style reminded me of this 1870s The John Wilkinson Company Uniforms fold-out catalog I have.

ok Joe I will buy it from you

[vintagesportscollector]

Originally Posted by khkco4bls

ok Joe I will buy it from you

I'll keep that in mind Kevin . Apologies for the big/wide photos. If you would like to see a close up of any page you can view on this link.

http://antiquesportscollector.com/Wilkinson.html

[CarltonHendricks]

Originally Posted by vintagesportscollector

The other thread about dating a 1870s tintype based on the cap style reminded me of this 1870s The John Wilkinson Company Uniforms fold-out catalog I have.

That thing's off the chart Joe!...congrats!

[Huysmans]

Sorry, but I had to chime in...
that piece is spectacular Joe!!!
It brings up a question I always wondered about....
What's the earliest catalog known for both Peck & Snyder and Spalding?
I remember REA a few years back had a Spalding from 1889 I believe, but there must be earlier ones in existence.

[bgar3]

I am sure it is not the oldest spalding catalogue, but I have one from 1879, 4 pages, advertising the new league ball (just adopted) on 1 page, professional bats on another, and the 1879 guide on the back. Sorry, no scanner, but i can send a scan to someone if interested, it would come from a local library.

[benjulmag]

This poster was an insert to the 1869 Peck & Snyder catalog.

[bobfreedman]

Originally Posted by benjulmag

This poster was an insert to the 1869 Peck & Snyder catalog.

Corey, that is awesome! What size is it?

[benjulmag]

Bob,

I won't be in a position to measure it until next week, but from memory I would estimate it to be 16'' by 24".

[khkco4bls]

.baseball in England 1874 prints

[68Hawk]

1871 Peck & Snider Scorecard Mutuals v Athletics

At least as purported by the 'seemingly contemporary' notations on the scorecard....
Nahh. Confident it's as described.

[patricka]

1871 double-sided Chicago scorecard for September 18th game against the Athletics (Chicago side of scorecard shown). 3 weeks after this game was played much of the City went up in flames. Unlike the team's ballpark and even their uniforms, this items survived the fire.

[vintagesportscollector]

Originally Posted by patricka

1871 double-sided Chicago scorecard for September 18th game against the Athletics (Chicago side of scorecard shown). 3 weeks after this game was played much of the City went up in flames. Unlike the team's ballpark and even their uniforms, this items survived the fire.]

Very cool advertisements on the scorecard, especially the Ladies oyster and ice cream parlors. 'Googling' these parlors and the evolution of 19th century eateries provides an interesting history.

[khkco4bls]

I want the Lyman's self adjusting bat. Very cool

[vintagesportscollector]

Originally Posted by khkco4bls

I want the Lyman's self adjusting bat. Very cool

Interesting description...it's a Corked bat.

[seattlerainiers]

An unremarkable baseball tintype, except for the fact that it is depicts an Alaska ballplayer (and is reversed...unusual in a tintype)

[vintagesportscollector]

I find it interesting too that he is basically wearing what looks like a modern T-shirt, and the collar and sleeves look like they were drawn on in the photo to add the dark edging.

[Runscott]

I can't recall ever seeing a tintype with lettering that was NOT reversed - all of mine have been reversed.

[bigfanNY]

Picked these up this month from a board member. 1878, 1879, 1881. the 1881 vs Chicago With both Anson and Kelly... and board favorite Ross Barnes. I will upload more pics later.

[bmarlowe1]

Originally Posted by vintagesportscollector

I find it interesting too that he is basically wearing what looks like a modern T-shirt, and the collar and sleeves look like they were drawn on in the photo to add the dark edging.

This uniform style was briefly popular in the mid 1870s.

[cubman1941]

I can't get a good picture but I have an original "The Sunday Times" from April 22, 1877 and on page 3 is the write-up of the "Base-Ball" Opening Game between the Chicagos and the Fairbanks. The better part of the write-up consisted of speaking about the pennant flying from 1876. The Chicagos were referred to as the Whites in the write-up.

[bbpostcards]

It's not often you get to hold a document penned by someone who in 1860 played in the first true baseball game in Philadelphia, one of America's most important baseball cities, who fought in the Civil War that contributed to his club's demise, and who in the document is seen in his own hand vainly trying to restore the team's pre-war standing.

William H. Litzenberg was the Equity Base Ball Club of Philadelphia's catcher in the historic June 11, 1860 first game between two organized ball clubs played under the New York rules in Philadelphia. Their opponent Winona, another local team, prevailed 39-21. The box score confirms Litzenberg's participation. See New York Clipper, June 30, 1860, p. 85. That contest is "generally given the distinction of being the first match game ever played in Philadelphia under the New York rules." Base Ball Founders (Morris et al., ed.) at p. 242.

The Civil War led the Equitys to suspend play. Litzenberg then fought with the Union Army. After the war the team tried to resurrect itself. In the fall of 1866 the Equitys sent representatives to the National Association of Base Ball Players convention. It was not enough for the team to survive. For these and further details on the team's history, see generally Base Ball Founders, pp. 241-246. In the midst of that unsuccessful rebuilding effort Litzenberg wrote and signed this May 28, 1866 telegraph proposing that Wayne Litzenberg (likely a relative) become a team member and directed it to the Equity team's president, officers, and members.

The Equitys are credited with being one of the clubs that "sparked a major shift from town ball to baseball that took place in 1860" and as having "a strong claim to having been Philadelphia's best prewar club and might well have remained a major force on the city's baseball scene if not for the intervention of the Civil War." Base Ball Founders, pp. 241, 244. Litzenberg was involved at every turn.

[ramram]

Originally Posted by seattlerainiers

An unremarkable baseball tintype, except for the fact that it is depicts an Alaska ballplayer (and is reversed...unusual in a tintype)

Regarding your tintype, I wonder what the infatuation with Alaska was that there were a fair number of teams named "Alaska" in the 1860's/1870's. I know there was an "Alaska" team from Brooklyn, NY. There was also an "Alaska" team from Fairhaven, Mass that I have in an 1867 scorebook. Probably several others as well. It caused me to look up Alaska in Wiki and I see that the U.S. purchased it in 1867 from Russia which, I suppose, was the reason. Still seems odd that a team would name themselves after a remote, little known, wilderness.

Rob M.

P.S. As Scott alluded to - All tintypes were produced as mirror images (as well as ambrotypes and dags). If you see one that is not reversed, either it's a photo of a photo (a mirror image of a mirror image) or, as is often seen in Civl War images, the photographer made the correction on the original image with overpainting.

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[sam majors]

I will try and post pictures of 2 Harvard Yale baseball score cards. The 1881 is smaller than the 1887. The 1887 has Stagg in the lineup as a pitcher for Yale. It's split at the spine and missing inch and a half of paper on right top front cover. The 1881 is in much better shape. Sam Majors

[sam majors]

Here is the 1881 Harvard Yale score card.