Very Early Baseball Game 1860s CDV

[Leon]

Was anyone watching this?


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...#ht_804wt_1271




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[Ease]

Sorry nothing to add, but I bet that whole deal ended quickly after someone hit an opposite field foul ball into one of those windows.

[Jason19th]

I was keeping an eye on this. I think that its a very neat item but I would date it alot closer to 1870 or later. Maybe a photo expert can help out but I don't think that this type of image was even possible until the later 1860's

[Jeffrompa]

I was watching it also . Is this the famous Rounders one ?

[drc]

It looks to be 1860s. It was very difficult to photograph outdoor game action back them, but I've seen 2 or 3 examples from the Civil War era.

[brianp-beme]

To me the players definitely appear to be staged in various fielding poses so as to minimize any blurring caused by movement.

As a side note, the two lads with their arms stretched to the sky seem to be rather awkwardly anticipating a pop up to the infield.

Brian

[drc]

It was difficult to photographically capture movement back then. Which is why all the Old Judge poses are obviously staged. And why you never see a photo of a star like King Kelly or Cap Anson in action during a real game.

Posed or not, I think it's a great and rare image. And I bet it was taken during a game.

[atx840]

Nice Leon..sounds like you got a true gem.

[Ease]

Originally Posted by atx840

Nice Leon..sounds like you got a true gem.

x100, killer "impulse buy." You've got a nice piece of history there.

Nice pickup, Leon.

[Runscott]

Very, very interesting.

French & Sawyer primarily created stereo views - 'Googling' will yield many good examples. The image used in the Burns documentary (and also shown in the ebay listing) is obviously one side of a stereoview. It's too bad we can't see the complete stereoview, including the photographer markings, but that's okay.

Leon's cdv is very interesting for a number of reasons. First - there's no reason to doubt it's legit:

• the Burns SV image is rounded at the top and the scan appears to have not been shortened at the sides (we're looking at most/all of the SV image)
• Leon's cdv print is WIDER that the Burns SV print. The photo was taken with the intent of using it to create a stereoview, so there is garbage at the left that had to be cropped from the SV print
• The 'garbage' had to be left in for Leon's cdv print, in order to cover the entire mount
• So, basically - the photographer took a negative that was intended to be used for a stereoview and printed a wider version of the image for Leon's cdv. Leon's cdv print also had to be trimmed at the top and bottom to fit the mount.

I can't tell if Leon's image is the same (or the other) side of the Burns stereoview, but I'm sure Chris could figure it out for us

Another thing that interests me about the Burns/Leon stereoview/cdv: When looking for a good 1860's stereoview for a test I completed last month, I found that many of the 1860's SV's were created with both images printed on a single sheet of paper. This led me to believe that possibly stereo views were created using a single camera with two lenses, and somehow creating a single negative with both images. Not sure how that could be possible, but now I'm fairly sure it wasn't how they were created, since the photographer obviously had stereoview negatives with images that were wider than the final prints.

Another interesting thing about this example is that it sheds light on the SACO Brooklyn Atlantics cdv, but I won't pollute this thread with that stuff.

[Leon]

Nice post Scott but the photographer is French & Sawyer per the back of the cdv I have. Great write up though and much appreciated. And after looking at the way you did those pictures in your post it really sheds light on how these were made. Very good job.....

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by Leon

Nice post Scott but the photographer is French & Sawyer per the back of the cdv I have. Great write up though and much appreciated. And after looking at the way you did those pictures in your post it really sheds light on how these were made. Very good job.....

Thanks Leon - don't know why I keep thinking 'Green'.