Matty McIntyre's ca. 1905 Photo Album

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

We may never know, but lots of people saved their negatives. I just bought over 1000 negatives from an estate that date to around 1900 - 1920...I also just sold on ebay a month or so back about 100 glass plate negatives from the 1890s-1910s. That's not unusual at all. However you're not the only person who believes those inscriptions are in McIntyre's hand...as a non-autograph person I just don't know, and after so many years on this forum all autographs not obtained in person are questionable to me.

I know some non-glass were saved - I'm just saying it wasn't the norm, even less-so to re-create photo albums using such negatives, but here's a possible scenario: If it was someone other than McIntyre, I'm thinking it was at least done around that period, and by someone who knew him well, and knew the other players well; otherwise, you wouldn't see all the nicknames in the descriptions. Perhaps it was another person on the same journey Matty took, who asked Matty if he could use the negatives to make his own personal album? No telling. Or maybe it was someone who did it around 1920 when Matty died, finding the negatives in his belongings, and wanting to create something to remember him by.

I do lean toward it's being McIntyre's handwriting, but let's say it was the same situation, only it was an album belonging to a far more famous player - there is no way I would pay prices based on it being that player's authentic handwriting.