Mike, thank you very much! I appreciate views both pro and con, and that's the reason I posted it here, as you guys are the best and most knowledgeable.
prewarsports, I think the wild card here is the Anthony Brothers. They began their stereoview business in 1857, and had deep ties to the Knickerbockers. I can totally see Edward Anthony, who had traveled to England in 1847 and learned photography from one of its inventors, making a photograph of this team as one of his first stereoviews. Also, I have seen numerous stereoviews that were verified to be from the 1850s and have a style identical to this one (including the photo shape). What I need to do eventually is have the original photo inspected by photo and facial-match experts. Even after that, I assume there will be people who agree or disagree. For me, after spending a lot of time trying to convince myself otherwise, I don't see any way that there can be six guys who look so incredibly like the comparison photos and not be them.
|