Chickering Cabinet Photo Questions

[aelefson]

Hi-
I recently acquired the cabinet photo scanned below in a trade with a friend of mine. It is in very rough shape but it appears to be a Chickering photo. Has anyone ever seen a Chickering photo like this? Is the uniform familar to anyone? My guess is that it is just a town team member as I know Chickering was a prolific photographer in Boston for a number of years. However, before I file it in my collection as an anonymous player/team, I figured I would ask. The C on his uniform looks really crude to my eyes, which reinforces my belief it is a town team member. Any thoughts or opinions on this photo are greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Alan Elefson
aelefson@hotmail.com

[drc]

Just going by the scans, it's a genuine Chickering cabinet photo, and I've seen another Chickering baseball cabinet in the same style with the same front stamp.

[aelefson]

Thank you, that is great to hear! I wish I knew what local town team or school the uniform belongs to, but I really like it either way.
Thanks again,
Alan

[Runscott]

Alan, I've never seen a baseball photograph by Chickering that was NOT the Boston ML team. Meaning that what you have is a tough piece to come across.

Chickering stamps come in many different styles, some with only very slight variations - I have identified four different ones, the one you have being one of the four. To me this is significant, as there were plenty of other Chickering mount stamps, but they were only used for non-sports photos. Some of the variations on the black ones are subtle, but still easy to spot.

If he had used only two mounts (one light and one dark) for sports photos, I might draw the conclusion that for some reason he used special mounts for such photos, but given there are at least four different ones, I think they are simply related to a period when he took such photos - cabinet mount designs were changed often by most photographers and you can sometimes date photos by the mount stampings.

Edited to add: the above isn't taking into consideration the designs on the BACKS of the mounts - those also changed, but I haven't been documenting them.

[drc]

The other one in this style/color/stamp I saw was indeed of a Boston Beaneaters player, Kid Nichols if I recall correctly. It's in the Library of Congress.

[Runscott]

Here are the images I have with that style.

David - I don't have a copy of Nichols, and can't find it by googling. Please send it to me if you have it and I'll update my folder.