Hi Carlton,
Thanks for all of your feedback!
Honestly, when I bid on them I just assumed them to be generic and did not think about them representing depictions of real players.
When I received them, I started to study them more and it became a project for me... I do believe they are folk art renditions rather than produced, and I believe based on the characteristics and somewhat specific styles of the uniforms, although with no clear uniform identification, that they were intended to depict specific professional players. As I believe them to be circa late 1880s... i.e. 1887 to 1888 or so... question becomes who were key players from that time?
Now, I also believe there were likely more originally of them... quite possibly 10, so there were likely more renditions of players captured. So, these 2 they may not necessarily be the very best players of the time, but among the best players of the time, i.e. there may have been Anson and Kelly among subjects?
That said, these are the only ones that I recollect seeing, other than i did see the ones from the Mark Cooper collection i am going to say 30 years ago or so. I remember them being different and naming specific players, but do not specifically remember more than that... what comes to mind are players from the early 20th century, rather than 19th century....i.e. Mathewson?
I can say with fair certainty these are circa 1880s, and likely late 1880.
Anyway, in starting with researching uniform styles from the period, i believe one is Cincinnati and other is New York, although again neither is ided so i could be wrong. Anyway, here is my belief...
Cincinnati player is long in stature and features resemble long John Riley. He was among the best players in the window of the late 1880s based on his stats
New York player has the body stature and look and uniform style of John Monte Ward.
What are your further thoughts?
Best,
Glenn Mechanick
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