Ed Delahanty Photo - what did I miss?

[prewarsports]

For the 19th century in general, almost all were mounted because of the fragility of the photos. By 1897-98 though you can find thousands of unmounted snapshot style images that were developed and never mounted. I probably have 2000 of them here at the house (not baseball subjects) so for 1898 I think it is absolutely a possibility that this photo was developed and never mounted, of if it was it was an amateur job. Whether it was mounted in 1898 or mounted in the 1920's I don't think really matters much, what is important is that "cabinet" just means photo glued to thick paper and there are many levels of quality. To me, this is a photo taken by a family member or teammate and then mounted by Delahanty, a family member, or maybe even the newspaper later on but it is not a professional quality cabinet photograph which limits the value. I think $4400 is probably what it is worth and it is super cool, but I doubt there is much left on the bone for someone looking to flip it for a profit. The fact that it is a "cabinet" doesn't really matter when you are dealing with "amateur mounting jobs"

[the-illini]

Originally Posted by prewarsports

For the 19th century in general, almost all were mounted because of the fragility of the photos. By 1897-98 though you can find thousands of unmounted snapshot style images that were developed and never mounted. I probably have 2000 of them here at the house (not baseball subjects) so for 1898 I think it is absolutely a possibility that this photo was developed and never mounted, of if it was it was an amateur job. Whether it was mounted in 1898 or mounted in the 1920's I don't think really matters much, what is important is that "cabinet" just means photo glued to thick paper and there are many levels of quality. To me, this is a photo taken by a family member or teammate and then mounted by Delahanty, a family member, or maybe even the newspaper later on but it is not a professional quality cabinet photograph which limits the value. I think $4400 is probably what it is worth and it is super cool, but I doubt there is much left on the bone for someone looking to flip it for a profit. The fact that it is a "cabinet" doesn't really matter when you are dealing with "amateur mounting jobs"

Doubt it is a family photo - here is a copy of a photo of Ed Abbiticchio standing in pretty much the same spot.

[the-illini]

And here is Elmer Flick standing in the same spot - note the piece of paper/trash behind and to the left of Flick's left foot - looks to be the same piece as the one in the Delahanty image.

[slidekellyslide]

This is a professionally taken photograph by someone who did this for the whole team in 1898. Maybe the cabinet was mounted to something else at some time and given to players. Looking at the damage on the reverse it does look like it could have been mounted and removed.