FS: 1887 Detroit Wolverines CDV (Pirated Copy)

[SetBuilder]

Originally Posted by Joe_G.

Hello Manny,

I may have some bad news for you, hope I'm wrong. All the authentic Tomlinson images I've studied are found on Tomlinson mounts. That is the 1887 Tomlinson team picture, most commonly found in imperial format 16x20 or regular cabinet size (4 1/4 x 6 1/2). Kalamazoo Bats would be the exception as a non-Tomlinson mount. I've never seen an authentic 1887 team picture in CDV size. I suspect this might be a close relative to a fake that surfaced in 2013 at the door step of REA. Brian Dwyer was suspicious and quickly confirmed it was a modern creation. Similar to your copy, the fake was found on a non-Tomlinson mount. Does this look like an authentic albumen print to you? I hope I'm wrong, it would be real neat to see a CDV of the 1887 team (as strange as that would be).

I looked it over carefully shortly after I bought it a few years ago and there is absolutely nothing modern about it. It is clearly albumen.

I too found it odd that it’s not on a cabinet card and was perplexed when I couldn’t find a suitable comp for pricing purposes but as I was researching it I read that it was common in that era to “pirate” other photographers’ images and use it was a kind of trade card for advertising purposes. Copyright laws didn’t really offer much protection (Mathew Brady is an example). This particular photographer was probably working on a smaller scale and reused old mounts for that purpose, or ordered cheaper smaller mounts. I suppose it’s possible also that they licensed the image for a short time. This would make sense since CDV’s were still around even in the late 1880’s and collected in albums. Even more so if there was 1887 “Championship Mania” in Detroit.

I’m sure this diminishes the value somewhat (or maybe a lot),, but it is still a neat period curiosity. .