Harper's Weekly engravings

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Posted By: Dave

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the Harper's Weekly baseball engravings like the one below sell for? Are there any that are harder to find than others? Is there a list of the ones that were produced anywhere?

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Posted By: Phil Garry

Probably the most famous one pictures the old Cincinnati Red Stockings team w/George & Harry WEright. I have seen that one a couple of times for around $50 - $100. I wouldn't think that many of the others would sell for more than that.

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Posted By: scgaynor

Phil is right, $50-100. Kind of cool that it is hand tinted.

Scott

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Lew Lipset's Encylopedia of Baseball Cards (1800s part) lists them.

To be technical, it's wood-engraving, not engraving. The two have a similar final look but are different in how they are made. You can also call the Harper's prints woodcuts, as wood-engraving is a type of woodcut.

Famous artists like Durer and Picasso made both engraving and woodcut prints, so both techniques were part of the standard repertoire.

Both printing techniques take great technical skill and the designs were created onto the plate by hand.

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Posted By: Jimmy

If lucky you could get a complete book for 100.00, but these are sometimes common to find separate

Take care

Jimmy

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Posted By: davidcycleback

There are also Leslie's Illustrated baseball woodcuts, with Leslie's Illustrated being a similar type of magazine to Harper's. The famous 1860s James Creighton woodcut was in Leslie's, and I think it's a 1880s-90s Leslie's that has a large Buck Ewing woodcut in catcher's gear on the cover (might be a Harper's though).

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Posted By: Joseph

What's with the occasional hand-coloring of these pieces? Is that period? Or is it added later to enhance?

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Posted By: scgaynor

I don't think that I have ever seen any that were period, I think that it is just something that the guys that sell old ads and cutout's like to do to enhance the appearance. Ususally it does.

Scott

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Any hand coloring is put on afterwards and unofficially. Desirability is a matter of taste. Some want things uncolored, while some will pay extra is the coloring looks nice to them. The style of the above colors show that they are not from the 1800s.

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Posted By: leon

But on some of the older tintypes they have been colored in, in the same period of mfg.....It would seem to make sense that these could have been done that way too? I am just fishing here and making an analogy....

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Posted By: davidcycleback

It is possible, Leon. There may be examples colored in the 1800s.