1889 Gilbert & Bacon baseball cabinet id?

[GoudeyGum]

Originally Posted by Leon

A friend sent this to me for id help. I don't know who it is but it is (or looks to be) an 1889 Gilbert & Bacon baseball cabinet. Any id help will be appreciated....

not sure...but I'm loving the black eye.

[Joe_G.]

If the copyright is in fact written on the cabinet card in black ink, it may suggest that Goodwin & Co. based their cards on actual studio proof cabinets as opposed to the original negative (at least in this case). This would mean Goodwin would have had to create a 1:1 size negative from the cabinet to be able to make N173s of their own. Now that I study the Proof next to the N172 of same pose, we can see the copyright is in two different locations which may further support a theory in which multiple proofs were made, some sent to Goodwin & Co. and they made the N172s based on these cabinets as opposed to the negative. Interesting . . . (to me)

On a side note, the cards are not mine, they belong to a fellow board member and I hope their use here is deemed acceptable.