Baseball Poem
 

Someone contacted me on my nonsports forum about a baseball poem and I'm attaching a scan of it. It definitely appears to be 1870's to 1880's from the look. Can't really touch the paper/etc but it appears genuine from the scan. Has anyone seen it before? He was wondering what a good price/value would be for it.....

http://www.net54baseball.com/picture...ictureid=11683

Tom- all I can see is a red X....and thanks for the kind words on the Gerry Glasser thread.

Hmmm......I'm looking right at it..............odd.....what browser are you using? Just sent it to your email.....found your address in my book..........

I am not seeing it either?

What browser am I using....it's a genuine browser!....I have absolutely no idea.:o

I use Internet Explorer and I can't see it so I tried Google Chrome and I still cant view it.:confused:

Okay.....I uploaded the photo to Net54 BB here. It was linked to the Nonsports old network54.com and maybe you still have to be registered there to get it to work? Let me know if you can see it now........

Could not see previously
 

Now I can. Guess it worked.

+1

I can see it now as well, but still no idea what it is. Did he say if it was a standalone piece, or removed from a book, or...? Looks like it is printed on thin paper, not card stock, correct?

It reminds me of "Baseball as Played by a Muffin", but it's not that. Maybe if Max sees it he will have an idea.

I haven't seen it before Barry, but I did think of the Muffin book when I first looked at it.

Is there any clues as to the style of font?

guys
 

funny muffins was a first thought :-) The answer has been mostly covered on the NS side. What wasn't arrived at was a valuation........

Penny dreadful
 

I think it's called a penny dreadful. There was an ebay book seller who had a very similar one for sale about a year ago. It was part of a lot that included an 1895 Boston latin school team photo. From what I recall, there were 2 of them being offered with the lot and at least 1 had a similar poem. One of the images looked like the Peck and Snyder caricature.

Here's a link to a much later version of these items. I can't talk to the value but I'm having a heck of a time finding any information on the web.

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/4965580

Maybe the value would be in the vicinity of a 19th century comic trade card...however, since nobody has seen it before and it does contain a poem, maybe a little more. Tough call.

Hi Barry!
 

hope everything is good - been way too long since I've seen the slope?! I think the difference between this and a comic trade card is that people collect trade cards, comic trade cards, and base ball trade cards. Few people collect these per se - rather one might display with a memorabilia collection. The visual appeal/condition issues would also keep the number of people looking for a "go-with" or making an impulse buy low. I would think a crisp 20. should get it done but I don't have to make the call. BTW - yhe poster who said penny dreadful was SPOT ON.

Found it...here are the 2 penny dreadfuls that I referenced in my previous post. I do not own them. Interesting to see who I assume is the 19th century baseball board game manufacturer "McLoughlin Bros" at the bottom of each poem.

yes
 

the firm was in business from the 1820's until they were sold to Milton Bradley. The colors and designs/artwork of their work always pop when you see this stuff in person - I have yet to figure a way to get a representative game into my accumulation. Usually I only care about the graphics and not the game itself - and early base ball themed games are expensive. I still have Mark Cooper's book on baseball games sitting on the shelf. Haven't looked at it since I bought it. :-( Anyone know if he's still in the hobby? Or Mark Rucker as long as I'm finding books authored by collectors I haven't read in a while?

Mark Cooper recently auctioned off the bulk of his amazing games collection through Heritage -- three big-ticket items in February:
http://sports.ha.com/c/search-result...y=1&Ntt=cooper
and most of the rest (lots 81582 through 81670) in May:
http://sports.ha.com/c/search-result...y=1&Ntt=cooper

The McLoughlin Brothers firm, which began operations in the 1850s, was at least as well known for their publication of children's books,
paper toys, and greeting cards as for their games. Although bought out by Milton Bradley in 1920, McLoughlin continued as book publishers
through at least the 1940s. A concise company history here:
http://www.americanantiquarian.org/cl/mbhistory.htm

thanks Butch
 

I think Heritage is one of the only AH's I don't regularly check for my collectibles (and Lelands since Josh no longer sends me a catalog). My bad probably......