1926 Unc issue (Negro League)

[darwinbulldog]

I've seen these two cards (postcards?) from this uncatalogued issue depicting players from the 1926 St. Louis Stars of the Negro National League, Carl Glass and Hall of Famer Willie Wells. Does anyone here know anything more about this issue? Have any of you seen another card from the set? The debris on the ground suggests the two images were shot within a few minutes of each other, and it seems likely the photographer would have gotten everyone or nearly everyone on the team (which would include Cool Papa Bell), but I haven't located any other images.

Not of interest for baseball card reasons, but I also just noticed that whoever wrote the captions uses a different shape for S at the beginning of a word and S at the end of a word, reminiscent of the usage of the sigma in Greek.

[Exhibitman]

Are you sure they are cards? They look like card-sized photos. What's on the backs?

[darwinbulldog]

Blank backs, but both have a bit of scrapbook paper stuck to them, like so:

[36GoudeyMan]

Whose are these? They're amazing!!

[darwinbulldog]

The Glass is mine. The Wells is not.

To answer Adam's first question, I'm really not sure how to classify them (baseball card, RPPC, other postcard, photo, something else), but they're 3.5" x 5.5" and on a relatively thin cardstock.

[Exhibitman]

I have some photos like that from the same era. I'd guess they are photos rather than cards. Awesome photos, BTW.

[jerseygary]

Those are really great images. I happen to be writing an article on Carl Glass, also known as "Lefty" and "Butch", so this was nice treat to see this.

[ghostmarcelle]

Originally Posted by 36GoudeyMan

Whose are these? They're amazing!!

I own the Wells - and yes, it is truly amazing!

[dbrown]

Similar but unlabeled (and cropped) Cool Papa Bell image seen on this blog:
http://agatetype.typepad.com/agate_t...-st-louis.html

[triwak]

Nice stuff! And thanks for posting this link ^^ (above).

[Leon]

Great images and I agree; photos...

[darwinbulldog]

Rob Lifson (or whoever was writing his descriptions in 2004) used the term "photo card" for the Wells. Is that synonymous with RPPC? Or just photo? Or is it not really a standard term for anything?

[Exhibitman]

I don't think it is a term of art like "T card" but I've always used the term to differentiate between a real photo postcard, a real photo card, a card made by some printing process, and a photo. I'd label the Frederick Foto cards as "photo cards": they are real photo cards, as opposed to halftone print, litho, etc. This is a real photo but also a postcard, hence real photo postcard (RPPC):



Simple enough. And this is a photo that is card-sized:



Very similar to your NL items, which is why I am hesitant to label them cards rather than photos.

It can get confused. I know of several such sets in the boxing arena that were made both as RPPCs and as photo cards: a set issued by IFS that was for the Dempsey-Willard fight in 1919:



if it has a PC back it is a RPPC, if not it is a photo card.

There are tons of "photo cards" from prewar entertainment, usually made by studios to send to fans. This Dempsey was made to promote his film:



Here are a favorite pair of mine:

[bcbgcbrcb]

There are others, I saw several on eBay, listed individually, a couple of years ago. Right now, I don’t have any more details than that. Of course, they are too old to find on eBay now as sold items. I never saw Bell, for the most part, they were not notable names. I didn’t buy any of them.