A few Burke Photo Questions and Burke Show'em thread.

[Abravefan11]

I have a few George Burke photos and had a couple of questions.

1) Can I expect there to be numerous examples of the photos I own?

2) If so how many?

3) Are there first run photos and then copies and a way to tell them apart?

4) Does anyone know the meaning of the catalog numbers on the backs?

Here are the three I have.

[drc]

Yours are originals, first run as you said. There are later reprints, but they have different stamping. There will be some other examples, but not a lot. The serial number is the number identifying the negative used. The original negatives were probably filed in envelopes with the identical numbers on the outside. Many professional photos have similar i.d. numbers, sometimes written on back.

[thekingofclout]

vintage original TYPE I photographs...

babeburke.jpglougehrigbyBURKE.jpg

1936dimaggioBURKE.jpgGEHRIGburke.jpg

[Abravefan11]

Thanks drc. Exactly what I was looking for.

Jimmy - Great photos, thanks for sharing.

[bijoem]

1935 Burke Stamp.
I think I am nearing 150 - 200 different stamps. I am slowly picking them up as I see them come available at a reasonable price.

[batsballsbases]

That about sums it up . A classic Gehrig.

[thekingofclout]

Just tremendous Al. Would look incredible parked next to my Ruth/Burke.

A couple more of Burke's finest...

dizzydeanburke.jpgfoxxburke.jpg

[JasonL]

and probably one you won't see everyday. Thanksfully he snapped a photo of my cousin Lee during his rookie campaign's visit to Wrigley!

Take a look at this early pic of one of the sport's earliest free agents (following this season's photo), and the first opposing player that Jackie Robinson credits with wishing him well in Major League Baseball, after one of the sport's nastiest games in Philadelphia in 1947.

[batsballsbases]

Jimmy,Jimmy,Jimmy,
You know what I collect Im always up for a good trade How about we just throw up that nice Jimmy Lou Gehrig postcard and call it even

[HexsHeroes]

.


. . . complete with difficult signature.


.

[cwazzy]

I love Burke's photography. This Preacher Roe is my only stamped example. And I got this Furillo from the same guy that I got the Roe from. It's not stamped but it was part of a large group of photos and almost all of them had the Burke stamp. But the surface of the photo is quite a bit different.

[Forever Young]

Here is the little sister to your guy Al.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

A little beat up, but a nicely signed first generation Burke 8X10 nonetheless.

[Lordstan]

Unfortunately no stamps, but nice pics.

[drc]

Many players purchased photos from Burke to fulfill their autograph requests-- this includes Ruth, Foxx, DiMaggio, Greenberg. This is why many Ruth and Foxx signatures are on original Burke photos. Leon has a 1936 bill from Burke to Mickey Cochrane for Cochrane's purchase of 30 photos.

[Forever Young]

Originally Posted by drc

Many players purchased photos from Burke to fulfill their autograph requests-- this includes Ruth, Foxx, DiMaggio, Greenberg. This is why many Ruth and Foxx signatures are on original Burke photos. Leon has a 1936 bill from Burke to Mickey Cochrane for Cochrane's purchase of 30 photos.

And let's not forget Gehrig as I have seen more photos signed than unsigned.

[thekingofclout]

"Bronko"

bronconagurskibygeorgeburke.jpg

[drc]

That Bronco is something.

[Forever Young]

[thekingofclout]

Originally Posted by drc

That Bronco is something.

Thanks David. Coming from you, that means a lot.

Sincerely, Jimmy

[drc]

Well, the Nagurski is the rarest of the lot in this thread, and I've never seen one before. Burke supposedly was the team photographer for the Bears, but you rarely see football photos by him-- and the biggest football star of the day Nagurski.

[thekingofclout]

vintage original TYPE I photograph...

wagnerBURKE.jpg

[thekingofclout]

The Heart & Soul of a Dynasty.

Vintage original TYPE I photo.

cochranefoxxBURKE.jpg

[Lordstan]

I totally forgot about this thread.
I got 2 last year. I figured I'd post them and see if anyont else got any new Burkes.

Lou



Sunny Jim Bottomley. One of my favorite photos.

[Scott Garner]

Here's one of no-hit pitcher Paul "Daffy" Dean.

Not an original Type I, but an old one based on the early vintage Paul Dean fountain pen signature. I picked this up within the last year...

[Lordstan]

Scott,
How do you know it's not a type 1 original? It's got the address stamp and the name and number notation on the back upper left. You can see the letters below the paper that is attached to the back.
Mark

[Scott Garner]

Mark,
It could be a Type I, but I'm no expert...

[thecatspajamas]

Scott,
Your Dean photo is an original Burke. As for the "Type 1" designation, I've never been real comfortable with applying that to any Burke photo simply because of the 2-year window from when the photo was taken to when the print was produced that is part of the "Type 1" definition.

For example, the Dean photo would have been taken as early as 1934 (quick judgement based on his uniform, though other details may pinpoint that more accurately). So Burke could have produced that particular print in 1934, or 1935, or 1936, or 1937, or any year up through 1948 around which time he retired for health reasons. Only prints produced within those first 2 years would qualify as Type 1's, though any print that Burke produced (signified by his stamping on the back) would be considered an "original" (i.e. produced by Burke's hand from his original negative).

With Burke photos, the stamping on the back is the important factor in determining an original from a later-era print produced by George Brace, Jim Rowe, or others. If it has "Geo. Burke 847 Belmont Chicago" it's an original, produced by Burke sometime between when the photo was taken and 1948.

Also, others have mentioned the typed coding that often (but not always) appears in the corner of Burke's original prints. The first number represents the player depicted. The second code typically starts with an N or A (for National League or American League) followed by a number which signified the team represented. If Scott scratched around under the paper affixed to the rear of his Dean photo, for example, if the code is there, I would expect it to be "187 N8" for Paul Dean in a St. Louis Cardinals uniform (fwiw, Dizzy was #186). The code is not "shot-specific" by which I mean that the same "187 N8" could appear on any photo of Paul Dean in a Cardinals uniform, of which there are at least several that I have seen. It does not refer to a specific negative, but rather a specific player/team combination for which there could be a number of different poses which may or may not have been taken on the same day. Flipping through a few other photos I have here, I see that he also used "U-#" to refer to umpires, as well as "T-#", "C.P." and "W.F." to refer to other executives, though I haven't yet given thought to what those codes would represent.

Another example of a Paul Dean by Burke, this an 8x10:

[Scott Garner]

Lance,
Thanks for the explanation!

[thecatspajamas]

An example of the identical coding used for two different shots of the same player:

[Big Six]

picked this up a couple months ago VERY inexpensively...photo is 4x6 in size...



If anyone can give me a sense of when this was reproduced, why and any other pertinent information about the photo, I'd be very appreciative...Matt

[GKreindler]

Matt,

Reproduction or not, that photo's an absolute winner. Congrats!

Graig

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by Big Six

If anyone can give me a sense of when this was reproduced, why and any other pertinent information about the photo, I'd be very appreciative...Matt

When reproduced: 1929-1948

Why: Chase had retired before Burke began photographing players in 1929.

In what I can only assume was an attempt to create a complete catalog of baseball player images, Burke would run ads in The Sporting News (and other publications?) advertising not only that he had photos for sale, but also that he was seeking photographs of "old time" players for which he would trade photos of then-current players that he had photographed. He would then reproduce the photographs of the old time players to fill gaps in his catalog. I don't know what, if anything, he did to obtain the rights to reproduce the images, but he did at least acknowledge that they were reproduced with that particular back stamping.

Other details: So the photo you have would have been produced from a negative that was itself produced by re-shooting the original photograph (in effect, taking a picture of a picture). Technically, it would be a Type 4, or vintage reproduction, or vintage 2nd generation photograph, depending on your preferred nomenclature.

As Graig said, a nice desirable image, and I wouldn't get too caught up in the "reproduction" aspect of it (as your opposing bidders, or lack thereof, seem to have done). Nice snag!

[Big Six]

Thanks so much for the kind words Graig...one day I hope to add one of your masterpieces to my collection. Have you ever a Chase for anyone? If not, what image would you do?

And thanks Lance for the background on my photo...it's one of my favorite pieces and it's nice to know a little more about it. Hope to add more Chase shots in the future...

[GKreindler]

Matt,

They're a few that I do like of him, portraits and full body shots alike. For whatever reason, I'm always drawn to this one:



There's something about him watching the ball go by that goes with his supposed nature, I feel. Even though it's a seen that was probably taken in practice and all, it still feels kind of sinister to me. Then again, maybe he's a sinister looking dude.

Speaking of sinister:



Amazing.

Graig

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by GKreindler

Matt,

They're a few that I do like of him, portraits and full body shots alike. For whatever reason, I'm always drawn to this one:



There's something about him watching the ball go by that goes with his supposed nature, I feel. Even though it's a seen that was probably taken in practice and all, it still feels kind of sinister to me. Then again, maybe he's a sinister looking dude.

Speaking of sinister:



Amazing.

Graig

Wow, Graig! He really is sinister looking! That photo of him wearing the black uni is awesome.

[Forever Young]

Picked this up the other day.. TYPE 1 RUTH. I don't see many good images of the Babe on the Dodgers. Really pleased with it.

[71buc]

This Luke Appling is my only Burke 8X10

[Scott Garner]

Here is a Burke 8 x 10 of no-hit pitcher Lon Warneke aka "The Arkansas Hummingbird". I picked this up for a whopping $5 at The National!

I love the image!

[GKreindler]

Mike, LOVE that shot of Appling. Even if it's your only Burke, it's a winner.

That's one hell of a pickup, Scott. Well done!

Graig

[Runscott]

Here are a couple of oddball Burke photos - Edward Eynon and Mark Roth (baseball executives). I don't have them in front of me, but they are very large - either 7x9 or 8x10

I liked the hats

[Runscott]

Another. This one took a little of the sting out of selling my Ruth to Jimmy:

[Forever Young]

Below are some of my "best" Burkes. Geo. does some amazing work.

[Marckus99]

Mr. Riggs

[mybestbretts]

Thank you for sharing. I enjoy seeing these photos so much

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by Marckus99

Mr. Riggs

Great photo, Mark. Burke was certainly a master at those 'soft' shots.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by Forever Young

Below are some of my "best" Burkes. Geo. does some amazing work.[/IMG]

I used to have a nice set of Yankee Burkes, including that Ruth and action DiMaggio. Here are a few from that group that I really liked:

[cwazzy]

Does anyone know if Burke would have photographed Roy Campanella? I've never seen one and it would have been at the very end of Burke's career. I would LOVE to see one if he did but have my doubts. Thanks!

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by cwazzy

Does anyone know if Burke would have photographed Roy Campanella? I've never seen one and it would have been at the very end of Burke's career. I would LOVE to see one if he did but have my doubts. Thanks!

Could have? Perhaps. Would have? Certainly, if health and opportunity permitted. Did he? I don't know.

I've never seen one if he did, though I know for sure that George Brace, his "understudy" if you will, took a number of nice photos of Campy (see one example below). Burke had a heart attack in 1948 (though I'm not sure when in 1948) that ended his career and would have limited his opportunity to capture Campanella on film in his rookie year.

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by thecatspajamas

Could have? Perhaps. Would have? Certainly, if health and opportunity permitted. Did he? I don't know.

I've never seen one if he did, though I know for sure that George Brace, his "understudy" if you will, took a number of nice photos of Campy (see one example below). Burke had a heart attack in 1948 (though I'm not sure when in 1948) that ended his career and would have limited his opportunity to capture Campanella on film in his rookie year.

Boy Lance,
That Brace Campy is awesome. What a cool image!