1891 Alpha Engraving Co. card

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Posted By: leon

I found this at the National and thought it was interesting.

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Posted By: Hankron

Never seen that one before. Is your goal to accumulate the largest 1890s baseball card collection? (All 6) You have a number of unique items from the period.

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Posted By: runscott

For those who don't remember, Tom wrote a very detailed article on Alphas for VCBC

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Posted By: Dan Mckee

Though this is a neat piece, Tom and I both agree that this is a separate company altogether. His research shows That Alpha-Photo Engraving Company was established in 1894. All references state Alpha-Photo Engraving and not just Alpha Engraving from 1894 til the company ended in 1961. There is currently an Alpha Graphics company now in Baltimore that is completely separate. Though it is possible that this is a prior sister company that helped establish the company that made my cards, Tom's research showed all references as 1894 as the earliest and consistantly referenced each year through 1961. To have a break in references from 1891 to 1894 is possible but highly unlikely according to Tom. Regards all.

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Posted By: Jimmy Leiderman

Very interesting piece.
Congrats for the ultimate type collector!

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Posted By: Dan Mckee

Leon has single handedly defined the "type collector". His display at Scott's table was a museum at the least. I think dad and I took several people over just to see it. The only disappointment was when his cases were half empty because he yanked half of the stuff to have it graded at SGC. Oh well, only 1 disappointed patron who I later brought back over.

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Posted By: leon

Hey folks,
David- it's not really my goal to have one type card from each 1890's set...although we all know there were only a few made (and now 1 more known I guess).....I think your guess of 6 is a little strong .....my goal is to have one from each set pre '41.......

Dan- I have to agree with you. This is probably not the Alpha Photo Engraving Co. I am going to do a little more research too but I am quite sure you and Tom are correct. Ya'll have put a lot of time into the research in making those statements. You certainly are THE ALPHA man......is that kind of like the Alpha male in a gorilla pack?

Thanks again for the kind words to the rest of the folks too....it is always my pleasure to brag about my collection (btw, the smiley and frown are the only 2 da** pics I know how to do and don't care to learn more) breast regards

ps...stay tuned for a few more National finds....

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Posted By: Tom L.

Most company or owner sketches WRT the Alpha Photo Engraving Company refer to an 1895 start date; however, I was actually able to find advertisements in the local Baltimore papers of the day starting as early as May 1894. Such references continued pretty much unbroken until 1961, when the company dissolved.

The two Alpha founders worked at other photo-engraving companies in Baltimore prior to establishing APEC, so in 1891 they would have been at different companies (of which there were several large ones in Baltimore - not sure whether I have the specific company names somewhere in my notes.)

Anyway, my guess is that the Alpha name is just coincidence (as I could find no reference to an Alpha Engraving company between the year of Leon's card, 1891, and the May 1894 APEC start date). Still, I would be interested to learn which Hanover team is indicated on the card above. Leon, have you figured that one out yet?

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Posted By: Kevin Cummings

Tom/Leon:

There is a Hanover professional team listed in The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball from Maryland playing in the Blue Ridge League.

The time is all wrong, though (1915 - 1917 and 1920 - 1929).

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Posted By: Dano

There is also a Hanover PA city which is very close to Baltimore as well as a MD Hanover city in southern MD.