Interesting Old Judge Pickup
 

I recently picked up this card from Rob (thanks Rob) in the BST section. As can be seen below, above the image is the team name--Boston. I have never seen an Old Judge before with this format. I checked Lew Lipset's Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards and found that this card is the fourth from the left in the top row of 1887 Boston sheet #8. This made me think that perhaps on Series B 1887 cards the team name is located in this position. Sure enough, I found an image of a Wahington sheet, and as can be seen from the second image, this is where the team name is printed. This is a set that always provides new things to learn.

Here is the Washington sheet

How neat is that, very cool! :D

Congrats Jay.

Cheers,

John

Interesting Observation :), cool card.

nice find Jay! So did every printed sheet have a single team name at the top?

I have this James Williams with a number in the border on the top and bottom. At least it looks like an "0" and backwards four. Thought it was cool, since I never saw that before. Nice pickup Jay, I saw it and almost bought it, passed only because I already have a Hornung.

Rob--every 1887 Type B sheet, but most of the time it was far enough away from the border to not appear on the card.

Jay - Thanks for sharing the info. It is always enjoyable to learn something new.

I was interested in the card when he posted it but couldn't tell if it was pen or printed. I obviously wasn't interested enough to inquire... now I wish I would have.

Looks hand written to me too.

It was hand written, just on the sheet before it was rephotographed to make the cards. It is definitely part of the card and not written on later.

Thanks Jay!!

Very interesting.
JimB

Interesting pickup - congrats!

Not as interesting as Chin-lung Hu standing on first base apparently ;)

Hu's on First?

I'll answer Barry, just so the thread can move on. I sent the link for this card to Kevin before it sold and he said it was cool but the picture he sent me of Chin-lung Hu standing on first base was more interesting. So it was just an inside joke based on our email exchange and the fact he called it interesting.

sorry to bring up an old thread, but I noticed I had (another) one of these when looking thru my scans and didn't even realize it. I don't have many OJs so these can't be THAT rare???

Rob
:)

Nice card! It's not like they are falling out of the sky randomly, so they're certainly not common.

I've got almost 300 Old Judges and I don't have any!

Jay, any clue what this says at the top?
Thanks for any insight!
Rob
:)

I read it as a sideways "07". Sevens used to have lines through them to distinguish them from arabic-style 1s (with the forward drooping "awning."

Rob, there are a couple 1888 cards, Fa style, that seem to have this type of writing. Deasley in particular is found this way with 9+ of his 14 poses re-issued in 1888 as type Fa cards showing his team change from NY to Washington. One of my cards may be a neighboring card to yours (see attachment). I believe most of the 9 re-issued poses show some writing in the border. It would be interesting to gather the cards together and try to figure out what was written and perhaps even how the cards were arranged on a sheet. John's card of Williams (also 1888 Fa) may have been on this same sheet (if it were a mixed team sheet).

If you wish to try and gather these cards together, I'd be willing to part with my copy (top card).

I just love this stuff. All, thanks for sharing! :)