The good news is that this is very rare letterhead from the 1901 Pittsburgh Pirates (Dreyfuss and Pulliam identified). The writing is in the hand of Barney Dreyfuss.
The terrible news is that someone LONG ago cut the letterhead in their scrapbook and long ago discarded the content of the letter and the signature. Still a nice and desirable piece from the brief period when the future National League President Harry C. Pulliam worked as Secretary for Pirates Owner Barney Dreyfuss.
This comes from the estate of Lews S. Carr, member of the 1901 Pirates team (actually he was the last Pirates SS before Wagner moved there-- Carr was beaned by a pitch by Wm Dinneen and ended his season, with the opening as SS Fred Clarke moved Wagner from 3rd to SS and the rest is history). Carr is a very underappreciated figure in history as he also played early professional football and later became the Coach for the Syracuse BB team for several decades and was an Asst Coach on the Syracuse FB team as well at various points during his tenure there.
I have another letter by Dreyfuss that shows this is 100% in his hand, guaranteed authentic for life
VERY EARLY DREYFUSS ITEM...
$295 shipped.
