David and others - help dating a baseball related photo please!

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Posted By: Jon Canfield

Today I found this photo at a local antique shop. I just thought it was kind of unique considering different guys are holding baseball bats, while others are holding very feminine looking umbrellas! Needless to say, I was hoping someone could just provide me with an approximate year? The photo mount is 8*10 (photo maybe 7x9). It is a thick mount and has embossed edges with designs. The back is imprinted Ridgway photographer. Thanks all!

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Posted By: steve f

Terrific picture...

1910's The girls had their session, Now the boys. The grooms' family side vs. the brides' fam side. Lose the game lose the bride?!

The carnations on the lapel suggest a wedding. The two blokes in the center with Tuxes are the groom and his best batsman. There is also a guy with a tux shirt The tux'd fellow center, rear with the parasol and holding the bats is serving as the Ump?

He may look familiar to the others here. I'd guess the groom was a major leaguer.

These are a lot of fun, too bad there's rarely a definitive answer.

There was a Jack Ridgway, Baltimore, Fed Leaguer. Played four games in 1914.
1889-1928 (auto accident).

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Posted By: ramram

I'd put it at 1910 - 1920.


Rob M.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

It's from the early 1900s. Steve and Rob's dating of 1910s, sounds reasonable to me.

A cabinet card or other mounted photo with an ornate embossed mount, in particular when the embossment is in the shape of a faux frame, usually is from the 1900s. Notice that in the T5 Joe Jackson thread, people were talking the photographic print fitting into the embossed frame.

Unless there's pressing need to know the year (Sox World Series year?, Ty Cobb rookie era year?), the seller of a normal 1900s cabinet card of unknown people and team doesn't have to lose sleep if he doesn't know the year or even the exact decade. The price difference between a generic 1907 cabinet card and 1913 cabinet card is minimal at best. There won't be a T206 card inside if it's from 1909. So, when selling a generic cabinet card on eBay, saying 'early 1900s' or 'circa 1910s' is perfectly acceptable dating. If you post a nice picture in your eBay description, the potential bidders will be able to make their own judgments.

With 1800s cabinets, it's in the seller's best interest to be a bit more exacting in dating, as, all other things equivillent, the earlier the cabinet the more valuable. But even here you will be more likely dating a cabinet to the 1870s or 1860s, rather than 1872 or 1867. And 'circa 1880s' is an acceptable dating.

In fact, on eBay, some sellers of inexpensive non-sport cabinet cards post a picture, call the cabinet 'guaranteed original and antique' and let the viewers make an assesment of age.

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Posted By: John Harrell

Based on the bat seen in the photo, I'd place the scene from around 1910. The thick handle and what appear to be flame-tempering marks on the barrel would place the bat from this period.

John