Need help dating mounted photo...

[smokelessjoe]

Matt,

Great photo! I think it is quite interesting... I am surprised to see the ball field featured so prominently in front of the buildings... Its like if you drove up to this place you would have no choice but to walk across the ball field. Certainly not going miss the fact that "baseball is played here"...

Also, it looks like there is some writing on the wooden box that is at the end of the path that leads from the building. Looks like I can make out the number "3" ??? Perhaps through a loupe you can read more?

I am intrigued as well by the wooden plank "back stop" - can you post a close up scan of it? (on the left side of the photo)

If that is what it is... Imo certainly lends itself to some serious ball playing

Shawn

[Matthew H]

Hi Shawn, here is the "backstop", I didn't think much about it before, thanks.

George, not a woman in white, just another window!

Sorry, I have a really crappy scanner, super blurry. Also, I can't read anything on that table, it's too distant.

[drc]

1800s black mounts usually date to the 1890s, though there are a few examples from the late 1880s. The black mount Old Judge cabinets being the already stated examples.

It's larger than cabinet size and, all other qualities (including image subject) being the same, larger is better for 1800s photos. Larger means rarer and more displayable.

Photo mounts were mostly factory made and had specific colors and other physical qualities to different time periods. That's how you can date a photo by the mount color, thickness, embossment etc. You won't find an 1863 Robert E. Lee cabinet card with a black mount. It's like dating an antique car by its form and style. In dating a photo, you also look at the image-- as the uniform etc is important-- but the mount says a lot.

[prewarsports]

There is no way to concretely tell but Black Mounts were widely used in the 1880's as well (even the EARLY 1880s), but certainly MORE popular in the 1890's. I have attached a scan of an 1883 Wesleyan Football Team photo which is on a gilded black mount to show that they were indeed available and widely used. Once again though I am not arguing at all with the others on here as there are probably 50 black mounts from the 1890's for every one from the 1880's, I personally feel that the way the men are dressed combined with the look of the albumem part of that photograph dates to the 1880's but that is just my opinion and there is no way to tell, I could be wrong just as easily as I could be right but that is just what my gut tells me.

Rhys

[GaryPassamonte]

Here is a mid 1870s black mounted CdV with gilded edges. The 1875 Hartford CdV also has a black mount.

[smokelessjoe]

Thanks for posting that Gary & Rhys... I have seen others as well...

Matt,

Have you looked closely at the back? Sometimes if you hold it just right or tilt it just right - you will find something lightly embossed... Not often, but every once in awhile...

[Matthew H]

Thank you all for your help- Gary, Rhys, very cool items!

Shawn, I'm not home right now but I'm pretty sure there is nothing on the back, it's a very generic mount.