Who Bought Conlon's Negatives?
 

Curious if anyone here knows who bought Conlon's negatives from Heritage. I am looking to get a scan of one of them and hope that someone here might have a lead for me.

Thanks

Anyone?

What did they go for, Bryan?

A cool $1.792 mil!!

https://sports.ha.com/itm/baseball-c...a/7160-80082.s

Wow! Neal McCabe and I did the audio set of "The Glory of Their Times," and I got to know the story of how his sister Connie, a photographic restoration expert in D.C., told Neal, who lives in L.A., about the contract she had to work on Conlon's negatives, then owned by The Sporting News, to fix them up for the early 90s Megacards sets of Conlon photos. Neal, a big baseball fan, flew to D.C. just to see them and came away with the inspiration for his magnificent book, "Baseball's Golden Age: The Photographs of Charles M. Conlon" and its sequel. That was also when Neal and I met, setting the stage for our collaboration with Larry Ritter several years later and a friendship that continues to this day.

Wow --- lots of baseball history tied up in those few sentences there Hank! I might need to pick up a copy of the Conlon book - it would be great to look through with my kids.

Deep thoughts by Ben Weingarten
 

I bet this collection would sell for 10 time’s that now or more. I had dreams of buying when it auctioned. It quickly got out of reach. It’s probably good that I don’t have pockets that deep or all of the great photos and negatives would never be available to the public at auction. Ha The buyer(s) of this Collection did well(whoever they may be). Hopefully something cool is done with them as far as projects go.

In my opinion(always has been and i have put my money where my mouth is despite my first love for cards), photos and negatives are huge part of the future in an age where video clips sell for 6-7 figures with zero tangible asset. Photography and negatives(glass, film etc) are forms of media and history. They are historical records and artifacts. Photography also is a form of art which adds another Dimension. Look at the Jackie Robinson photos used for cards that sold in heritage. Those checked another box and crossed over into baseball cards. Believe it or not, i believe the buyers of those got good deals as they went for a fraction of what the best single card of each goes for. The photos are the ORIGINAL art.. not the cards.

Anyway.. that is all..Coffee almost gone.. I’ll go back into hibernation. I would live to know who owns these too but like the mystery as well.:)

Thanks, Bryan. As confident as I am that our set made from Larry's tapes will stand the test of time as the #1 all-time baseball history audio compilation, I am equally sure that Neal's book will forever hold a similar position in the pantheon of baseball photography books, and like Ritter's pioneering work of oral history, "The Glory of Their Times," all that follow Neal's efforts will be hard pressed to meet the standard he has set. By all means get yourself a copy, you won't be sorry.

I'd love for some TPGs to get involved with slabbing and authenticating negatives. And also slides made from original negatives. I know it could be tricky to actually authenticate the originals but if they can render opinions on autographs and photo types then I don't see why they can't do negatives too.

Wherever they are, I hope that they are being cared for properly. I imagine for that selling price the buyer knows what they're doing.

In my opinion, a collection like this is historically significant and I would hope that it eventually ends up under the care of a major museum as part of their collection. It would be wonderful if they were somehow able to be displayed, even indirectly. Cooperstown is an obvious choice, but I'm thinking even bigger, like the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

Just picked up from RMY Auctions this 1910’s Conlon Glass Plate of HOF Player Rabbit Maranville!⚾️

Nice Rabbit!!

I posted this because I would like to see a specific negative of his and was hoping that there might be a way to contact the owner. But their location does not seem to be widely known, so I may email HA and see if they will send a question on my behalf.