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Posted By: Rhys

I am not making an argument that all cabinets should be considered cards, and I completely see your point of view. However, there are some cabinet photo groups which are more like cards than a lot of the cards we collect, and then there are thousands which are just like you said, similar to player snapshots. I would say that a studio photo of a baseball player on a professional team in uniform with photographer advertising on it is absolutely a card as these were almost exclusively done to increase business for the studio and not because the professional player decided to pop in one day with his uniform on and hair combed for a keepsake.

The studio cabinets of ballplayers wearing dress clothes were primarily done for themselves, with some exceptions like the Stevens cabinets which were produced for resale by the studio.

Not real similar to a charcoal drawing scenerio because these were mass produced (in varying quantities) and in many many situations, there are more of these particular cabinet cards out there than most of the 19th century "cards". My guess is that there were probably several hundred at least of these Keeler cabinets produced in the New York area and distributed by the photographer or sold as advertising pieces for his studio. It is just that only a few have surfaced in the last 20 years.

This is abviously a huge grey area which will never be resolved to anyones satisfaction, but it makes for a nice debate.

Rhys