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Tom Boblittthe heavyweights weigh in! Nice to see some of the movers and shakers in the hobby giving us their opinion on the items......I found it interesting that American Memorabilia was the recipient of these items. Not really known for their 19th century card and photo prowess. Other items that they had in the auction were primarily memorabilia items. Something of this nature, if real, would more appropriately wind up in a Robert Edward, Mastronet or Lelands auction.
Any time I've seen these, they just look 'overdone'. Kind of like the reprints that you see on ebay so often. Looks like they have been super-aged or extreme efforts taken to really make them look real. I didn't feel good about the mounts that they were on either. They just looked too crude for the time. Why mount them on cut mattboard type mounts (most I've seen) when the actual cabinets were on the standard 4x6 mounts. Along with that the 'proofs' widely believed to be authentic are usually on photographic studio standard mounts. Anyway, just found that wierd. I still maintain that the actual images must be vintage. Don't know though......