1899 Boston Beaneater Cabinets

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Posted By: Adam J. Baxter

Greetings all,
Saw these cabinets on Lipset's site for the April auction. I also read the article on them in Beckett Vintage. Exactly how rare are these? I have a few baseball cabinets and have seen quite a few others, however, I've never seen any like these. The only Chickering baseball cabinet I've seen thus far that even comes close was a Dickey Pearce cabinet (Which I would have loved to have.) from on of Hunt's previous auctions. Any thoughts from anyone on these? Any thoughts from anyone as to whether or not a Willis or Stahl cabinet will turn up?

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Posted By: Hankron

The Lipset Chickering photos aren't cabinets (wrong size), and they aren't trading cards (I know some registry member somewhere is saying, "Does that count as So-and-So's Rookie Card? And, if so, will it fit in a PSA holder? And, if so, will that ding to the corner give it a 5 or a 6?"). They are very rare to unique. Chickering was and is a well known photgrapher of the day, including in non-sport areas-- though his photographs, in general, are not as rare as Carl Horner's and Joseph Hall's. In my opinion, a number of these Chickering photos in the Lipset auction are Grade A, and the potential bidder will wait a long time to find a better example of a photo of the player in 1899.

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Posted By: Adam J. Baxter

Thanks for the feedback on the 1899 beaneaters, Hankron. Always appreciated! One more quick question: What is the best reference available on 19th century baseball photos, particularly non-commercial photos? Is there one?

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Posted By: Hankron

You pitched me a softball, Adam. Check out the below link.

http://www.cycleback.com/earlybaseball/

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Posted By: warshawlaw

If I had any money left after being hit with all of the above, I'd be all over the HOFers in this auction. The studio does great work (i've been trying for some of their boxing cabinets, unsuccessfully, for a while) and these are imperials.

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Posted By: Hankron

Chickering was in Boston, and most to all of his sujects (sport and non-sport) that I've seen are of Boston subjects. This would mean you might find a Chickering King Kelly or Hoss Radbourne, but would be less likely to find a Chickering Cap Anson or Christy Matheweson. The Beaneaters are a natural fit.

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Posted By: Hankron

One thing I'd like to point out about 19th century cabinet-style photographs, is that, while only one quality, the size of the photograph does relate to the photograph's value. All other qualities even (subject, condition, age, etc), the larger the photograph the more valuable. This is due to the scarcity, display valuable and because, originally, large photos were more difficult and expensive to make and reserved for special occasions.

So, when you look at 1880s-1910s photographs, start with the base size of 4-1/2" x 6-1/2". This is cabinet card and was the standard (average) size of a mounted photo during these days-- and also was the standard size of Chickerings photos. If you look at the Beaneaters photos, each measures, without me refering to the site to refresh my memory, about 8x10." While this isn't humongous, it is substantially larger than a cabinet card and should be considered special value-wise in that way.

If you ever come across a very large and finished 19th century player or team photo, say 13" x 14" or bigger, you can assume that the photograph was made for someone official, whether it be the player, team or, say, to display in the school or clubhouse. Any very large 19th century baseball photo, even if of unknown players, is automatically desirable and pricey as examples 13" x 14" or larger rare. For albumen print photos (type of photo used until the ending of the 19th century), the largest I've ever seen were a bit over 20" x 20".

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Posted By: Adam J. Baxter

I don't know if your already one of the bidders on this. But there's a Chickering Ike Weir Cabinet on eBay right now. Pretty nice looking too. The link is below in case your interested. Good Luck!

http://cgi.aol.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13705&item=3216709862&rd=1

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Posted By: runscott

The Chickering portraits were used for the late 1890's Sporting News Supplements, and you can also find pretty clear images of them in lot #2325 of the Halper catalog: 17 players plus the manager - even more than the team portrait which only had 15 players!