National 19th century cabinet acquisition
 

I'm finally back from the National after a detour to southern Wisconsin. One of the cards I picked up at the National (from Dave Schrader) was this cabinet of an unidentified player which I believe to be from the 1870s. W.J. Cady later had a studio in Massachusetts but I haven't discovered anything else about the studio. Any input welcome. For me one of the best parts of the National is finding something you've never seen before.

http://photos.imageevent.com/uffda51...%20cabinet.jpghttp://photos.imageevent.com/uffda51...inet%20rev.jpg

Neat
 

Neat cabinet photo, Bruce. But that's about all I got for ya'. Maybe someone else will chime in...

I almost bought that card from Dave. I bought a few others from that time period but don't have much info on it.

Definitely a nice pick up.

BTW, are you the Bruce that Dave introduced me to?

Neat cabinet Bruce. I was fortunate enough to have you show it to me in person at the National. I believe your dating of the photo is accurate which makes it a very early cabinet (CDVs were far more common in the 1870s). The studio advertising is similar to what is found on many CDVs (small stamp on the back, nothing on the front) which supports it being a very early cabinet.

Can you share a higher resolution scan of the bat and ball? Looks like a Spalding ringed bat and a figure 8 ball. A closer look at the equipment might help to assign a better date to the photo. My guess would be mid-to-late 1870s.

Awesome cabinet.

Great cabinet Bruce. The bat looks like one of the early model Spalding ring bats. He started his company in 1876 so that would be the earliest it could be if it is a Spalding bat. I've never seen or heard of a Spalding ring bat pre 1880 though. Does anyone have any 1870's Spalding catalogs?

There was a really cool CDV from a pottsville player last night on ebay.

http://photos.imageevent.com/uffda51...at%20cu%20.jpg

Here's the best closeup I could get of the bat from this cabinet.

Rea
 

Looks like it sold in REA 2006:

http://www.robertedwardauctions.com/...64.html#photos

According to this link about the history of Springfield, VT, he sold his business in 1883:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Xnt...page&q&f=false