Need advice on 1870's baseball team photograph display
 

Hi,

I am looking for some restoration advice on my recent acquisition of this 1877 St. Paul Red Caps original photograph display. 9 photographs are pictured - the starting lineup of the first professional baseball team in Minnesota. The entire piece is very fragile (nearly 138 years old). Two of the photographs have come loose and the vintage cardboard definitely shows it age. The display itself measures 20x27 while the photos measure 4x7 inches each.

Since this is my first vintage photograph; I am a bit uneducated on what should be done to keep the photo and displays safe/protected for another 138 years. A few questions I have are:

Should I restore it? Should I have the photographs and center logo professionally removed and transferred onto a better matt? If so, what type of matt? Would removing the photographs from the vintage cardboard and replacing it decrease the value of the piece?

Or should I just leave everything "as is"?

What method should I use to protect this piece until I decide to frame it? I've seen older photographs at memorabilia shows that are wrapped in a sealed plastic wrapped with a cardboard back. Will that suffice?

Any advice you can pass along will be very much appreciated.

Thank you,

Taylor

I don't know enough about resoration to give you good advice, but I will say this -- WOW!


Greg

Beautiful piece, Taylor!

Would you say that it was "homemade" i.e. were the pictures glued to the board to make the display? If so, I think removing them and re-gluing to a new, stable backing might be appropriate. You would obviously want the new backing to have a vintage look.

Just my 2¢.

Personally, I love the original look of a piece like this. Once you've tampered with it you can't get ever get it back. I'd find a vintage frame befitting of this piece and replace the glass with UV protected glass and mount it in that.

Rob M.

That is a photographic proof. The larger images and wording were arranged and then another photograph was taken to create the finished composite photo from the photographer so he could then sell the smaller piece with all the players on it. Having said that, what you have is a unique piece of history arranged by the original photographer so I would not touch it. Frame it and leave it.

Beautiful piece!

Rhys

Keep it as is ....place it flat between aci∂ free paper or matt boar∂ to store it. Michaels or AC Moore has aci∂ free paper/matt boar∂.
Posterfix in Brooklyn NY woul∂ be a great place for restoration if you choose to ∂o so.
Scott

Beautiful piece - I would personally leave it alone like the others said . Are any of the darker stains , mold ? If it's mold I would have that stabilized so it doesn't get worse
Matt

I vote for leaving it alone too. I would take it to a high end art framer and they can do a phenomenal job for very little money (relatively speaking). I think my Horner photo was done for around 300-350 and it's large at around 25 x 28 total inches, museum quality with triple matting and complete preservation materials were used. Well worth it for pieces like that one and yours. Yours is great looking. Congrats!!

+1 to everything below...

Another vote for leaving this historic piece as is, unless the backing has mold or mildew. Can you list the players pictured? My vision isn't what it once was.

Thank you everyone! I was leaning towards keeping it original as is - that's always my preference. I just wanted to validate.

It appears homemade. The player photographs are on a very light weight paper material secured on a harder stock back card that has the player name and position.

Rhys - thank you. I had no idea that this piece was a photographic proof, but it makes sense! Now, If only the composite would surface.

Players list from left to right:

(Top) Salisbury (P), Gross (C), Miller (Capt. & 2B), Gault (1B), Ellick (3B)

(Bottom) Ely (LF), Birmingham (RF), Allison (CF), McClellan (SS)

If the piece were mine I'd personally have a paper conservator stabilize it and do a light restoration on the mount. Other than that I'd have a museum quality frame and mat job done and then hang it and enjoy it. It's a great piece!

Great piece!

+1 Very cool photo display!

Awesome item!

Wow, certainly one of the most unique 19th century baseball items I've seen in quite some time...great pick-up!

I agree with other posters regarding keeping it as is and just having it properly matted and framed. On many of my 19th century display pieces, I've used a local frame shop to mat out in a way that hides some of the imperfections but still keeps it character.

We are in the minority, but this is what I was suggesting in my original post.

I don't have any advice that wouldn't be parroting what is said above. I just want to comment and say this is the coolest thing I've seen posted on this forum in a very long time.


You know if those photos showed up individually without that backing I would think a lot of hobbyists would consider them baseball cards. How did you obtain this awesome piece?

Beautiful piece. Agreed keep it as is. I would have it matted where the water damage to the outer edges of the board are hidden behind the matt and maybe have the top portion matted in a sort of rounded shape . It will look incredible in a Victorian style ornate frame.

Awesome item depicting 5 major leaguers - Joe Ellick, Art Allison, Emil Gross, Joe Miller and Harry Salisbury.

Antique frame advice
 

Superb piece, excellent choice to retain it in original condition. Almost as important is the decision on how to frame it. I have framed quite a few of my prewar cards, photos and memorabilia pieces. At first I took them to a professional and had them framed in a currently available frame. They were very nice but somehow didn't ring completely true to me. I decided on trying antique frames for my projects. It makes all the difference as does using TruVue Museum glass (better UV protection, glare free and greater clarity). Posted are before and after pictures of framed T206's. The first is with a modern frame and standard UV glass, the second is with a tiger oak antique frame circa 1900 and Museum glass (I also added a couple of card and rearranged the display). The results speak for themselves. If you want other pictures or more information feel free to contact me directly.

LOVE that display, Jim.

NOW that is just beautifuL! I wouldn't do anything with this epic piece. I would have it mounted (archival of course) to a dark brown matt, with a 2" border between the photo and goldish frame.

my 3 cent

albert