1888 Agreement from Spalding NYPL?

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Posted By: Max Weder

http://tinyurl.com/3d43os

While I would love to bid on this item, its origins are from the NYPL Spalding collection. A number of items have gone missing over the years.

"The booklet is ink stamped on the “Index” page “Spaulding Collection” and came to us with an unrelated blue cloth board with a bookplate of “The A.. G. Spalding Collection of Baseball Data Connected with Baseball America’s National Game.”. This is National Agreement is among the rarest and most important Professional Baseball Publications and it documents a major step in the formation of the National Pastime as we know it today. It is offered her, as always, with no reserve and the confidence that it will attract the serious attention that it justly deserves!! Please Note: This is an original, 1888 Publication - not a reprint, reissue, reproduction or later printing but an example of the 1st Edition of this important Baseball Document - published, printed and distributed in 1888!!!"



I emailed the seller, and he indicated he would contact the NYPL on Monday.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I have a feeling that sale will be nixed. That looks like a stolen item, of which there are many circulating.

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Posted By: Max Weder

Sale price ended at $1324. I didn't hear back from the seller, nor the NYPL. I don't know the winning bidder, but I wouldn't want to warrant good title to this sale.

Max

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Posted By: Max Weder

I heard back from the NYPL. The book has been deaccessioned, so title is good. In a way, that is perhaps sadder than if someone had taken the book many years ago.

Max

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Posted By: barrysloate

Didn't realize any of the Spalding material was deaccessioned. It should say so somewhere.

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Posted By: Joann

OK. I'll bite. What does deaccessioned mean?

Gads I'm ignorant sometimes.

Thx guys,

J

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Posted By: Max Weder

Deaccessioned means the library has abandoned title to the book from its collection. They will normally stamp something like "discard" indicating this.

Max

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Posted By: barrysloate

Sometimes a librarian will go through a collection and find duplicates, so the library will deaccession one of the copies. Also, some research materials have been microfilmed over the years and a library may feel they no longer need to retain the original. But there should be some indication as Max cited.

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Posted By: Joann

So in this case, since theft was mentioned, does it mean that the library gave up title and rights to something that had been stolen from it years before?

J

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

No theft involved. It means at some point some lucky stiff picked up this title from the NYPL used book sale.

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Posted By: Joann

Oh OK - I see where I got it goofed up.

Thx guys

J

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Posted By: Max Weder

That said, it would be interesting to find out how much of the collection has been stolen and how much of it has been deaccessioned. I will email the NYPL contact and see if he can advise. As Barry said, much of the collection is in circulation, and it would be helpful to know whether good title can be acquired.

Max

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Posted By: barrysloate

There should be a letter of some kind written by the library and included with the book if you want to make certain the piece hasn't been stolen. Just to say you have proper title to it is unacceptable, because the word of someone trying to sell a stolen item is far from reliable.