What set is this from??

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Posted By: Harrison

Person said it was a baseball card and I paid $25...what set is it from?



edited for picture...

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Posted By: davidcycleback

It's a 1800s cabinet card, which was the standard type of photograph back in those days. Without knowing who the guy is I don't see indication it has anything to do with baseball.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Interesting considering it's still on ebay right now.

<a href="http://tinyurl.com/2avy5y</a" target="_new" rel="nofollow">http://tinyurl.com/2avy5y</a&gt;

It's not from any set and it's not a baseball player. The seller is clueless about baseball photos. I know from experience. I think he's a nice guy and all, but he just doesn't know this area of memorabila well at all.

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Posted By: Dylan

So... you didnt want to tip anybody off about it being on ebay but you wanted info about it so you pretended to own it already? Trust me if its on ebay somebody here will know, no matter how obscure the category it was placed in, atleast thats been my experience!

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Posted By: Harrison

Yeah, pretty much. Thanks for the help and the info.

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Posted By: Zach Rice

Though the seller states the photograph is a baseball player, he or she does not give any proof to help legitimatize his or her claim. It is not uncommon to see people on eBay doing this with old photographs.

Cabinet photographs were produced of people from all walks of life; this includes men, women, and children, not just baseball players. Without any further evidence, besides the seller's claim, this "baseball" cabinet could just as likely be just an example of a studio portrait that was done of gentlemen who worked at a town's general store.

The dating of the photograph the seller gave is also incorrect. The actual image of the person pictured in the auction link appears to be an albumen print which was then pasted onto a mount. The albumen printing process was pretty much rendered obsolete by the 1900s. Most 1880s-1890s cabinet cards also have similar motifs at their bottoms, usually the photographer’s name and studio address. Cabinet cards from the 1900s have a completely different look to them, for the most part. The mounts are usually much larger and come in all different shapes and sizes. Also, most of the mounts lack the fancy designs advertising the photographer’s studio on the lower portion of the card. This isn’t to say 20th century cabinets do not have the photographer’s studio name, but I think in general, most do not posses this quality. The ones that do, however, usually do in a much more subtle way. I don’t think there is a 100 percent full proof way of stating the age of the cabinet in the auction description but it lacks the common qualities of a 20th century cabinet and posses all of the common qualities of an 1880s-1890s cabinet photo.

There are a few great books and reference guides that go over 19th century photography in much detail. In particular, David Rudd’s site and book are both wonderful reference sources. There is no real reason to have said you bought this card when in reality it was currently listed on eBay. A simple picture of the item would have sufficed and you would have gotten a response. There are many knowledgeable people on this board who are more than willing to help.