[earlybball]

Just thought I would share this CDV as it is a very early sports card with direct connections to baseball.

Below are what could be the oldest (photo) sports card known picturing the 1859 English Cricket 11 as they set off for their tour of the USA.

It was printed in New York in 1859 by Fred Lillywhite (organiser of the tour) and used as a ticket to entry to the England 11 vs the USA 11 series of games. This example was ticket number 284 to one of those games (simply hand numbered in pen). This process of using a numbered photo CDV for entry was well documented in Lillywhite's subsequent book of the tour. Lillywhite sold his photo tickets and other souvenirs from the tent pictured in scan 3.

This CDV predates the 1863 CDV’s for the St. Georges (of NY) Cricket Club photo card tickets by 4 years. Interestingly, some of those featured on the St Georges cards actually played in the featured 1859 tour of the England 11.

Harry Wright, San Wright and Crossley all feature in the box scores in the 1859 series (see scan 5 for box score). As a result, I believe that this CDV was the origin/predecessor of the 1863 St. Georges CDV’s with Lillywhite’s keen business acumen (using the photo cards as tickets) providing the example for the Wright’s to follow (copy) in 1863.

What makes the CDV even more significant is that it does have further baseball connection. During the 1859 cricket tour, the England 11 (pictured) took part in several baseball games vs the US team (at Elysian Fields) including the Wrights (see scan 6). I must say that the English team were rather derogatory regarding the game of baseball and its player’s merits.

As far as my research show, this is the only known and remaining example of this CDV. Lords Cricket Club (MCC) museum does have a larger print (and a few other similar prints in private hands) but this was published later in London following the England 11’s return from the USA. That version of course cannot be classified as a sports card either as it was not printed for commercial or promotional purposes like the CDV was.