Nice 19th century minor league item
 

It's not often I get to add an item from the 1800's to my collection. So I was pretty happy to win this one.

http://www.net54baseball.com/picture...ictureid=18809

From Spaulding to the manager of the Scranton Red Sox and forwarded to him at Buffalo. There's not much info I've found other than what's on baseball reference. The manager played and had a very good season, but was 38 and a lifetime minor leaguer. The team had a bunch of players who had or would play in the majors.

Steve B

very cool item!

Very cool Steve....I was the under bidder :o. You should show the other side of the cover too. Very cool graphics as well.

I figured it had to be someone in the hobby. As a cover (stamp term for an envelope) it's not much, minor interest for the forwarding not much else special going on.

As a baseball item it's cool. I'll get a back scan done and up, it was another plus for me since I also collect bicycle stuff.

Steve B

I can save you the trouble Steve:D

Attachment 196804

And the full view.

http://www.net54baseball.com/picture...ictureid=18810

Maybe more than anyone wants to know , but "The Spalding" was the model name of the bike they offered, a decent bike but in an insanely competitive market. roughly 1896-1898 was the first really big bike boom and one that changed not just transportation but society as well. The bloomer girls were often bike riding pants wearing women at the time more than a bit scandalous in some areas, and controversial enough everywhere. There were even pants that could be unsnapped at the sides and converted back to skirts so once off the bike proper decorum could be preserved. Many of the early auto builders began in the bicycle business around this time, as well as a couple clever fellows from Dayton, OH who went a good bit farther.

Also, postal regs at the time required the receiving post office to mark all mail as received at the time it came in from another post office. And the receiving marks show Scranton got it at 3 AM on the 30th, only 9 hours after it was sent out from NYC. They then either tried delivery or had a forwarding order and sent it on to buffalo where it arrived at 8:30 PM the same day. pretty good service that would be hard to duplicate today.

Steve B

How did you find it? A general Spalding search?

I found it browsing stamps and checking out the listings from a seller who had a few other interesting things (Stampwise, no other baseball)

Steve B

I was searching for "Spalding" - yeah, there was no referene to baseball in the listing (btw- your info about the bicycles and post mark chain is interesting)

At the exact time I was searching and saw your cover I also saw and picked up this 1896 Spalding Bicycle receipt. The seller had a few of them, and for $4 I figured why not. For those that don't know, Credenda was the other big brand of Bicycles made by Spalding.

Attachment 196810