1895 Play Ball magazine

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Posted By: Alan Elefson

Hi-
I recently purchased a magazine titled Judge's Library with a subtitle of Play Ball (published by Judge Publishing 1895) at a flea market and I was struck by the number of baseball cartoons inside (There is very little text, as the magazine is made up entirely of cartoons and most of them are African American caricatures). There are also scenes of football and other sports. Is this a common magazine? Are there any similar issues from this publisher or others? Please post any information you might know pertaining to this magazine. I have included scans of the front cover and two inside illustrations.
Thanks in advance,
Alan Elefson
aelefson@hotmail.com

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Judge was a popular 1800s general entertainment magazine. I had an 1890s issue that had a full page color comic black baseball image-- I think it was on the back cover but I'm not sure. The publications are unusual because of the chromolithograph covers. Most similar magazines, like Harper's Weekly and Leslie's Illustrated, were black and white.

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Posted By: Jimmy

Alan,

I have had only one of these issues with political cartoons, and would have to say these are uncommon. The color as stated above is unique for a magazine from the 1890s

Jimmy

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Posted By: Alan Elefson

Thanks David and Jimmy! I was more awed by the amount of baseball cartoons (and the African American caricatures), than the color cover, but it is very interesting that it was not a common printing technique in the 1890s. I would love to see other Judge baseball illustrations and I will post some more from mine later this evening.
Thanks again,
Alan Elefson
aelefson@hotmail.com

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Another thinkg I remember about the issue I had was a number of inside actress photos were credited to BJ Falk, who was a notable baseball photographer and shot the images for number of trading cards, including Newsboy Cabinets.

From a technical printing standpoint, the color covers and insides are printed using two distinctly different printing processes (lithograph covers and relief printing insides), which is rare.

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Posted By: Alan Elefson

Hi-
Here are a few more scans (two pages and the back cover). One of the pages shows a female "rooter" shooting a baseball and a comic golf scene above. The other page shows more basbeall scenes. I also really appreciate the information provided thus far.
Thanks again,
Alan Elefson
aelefson@hotmail.com