Was this the first baseball postcard?

[Bicem]

Was the earliest that I had ever seen.

[RCMcKenzie]

Who won it?

Is it from a known wood cut?

I was bidding because of the wood cut, as i don't bid on many postcards.

[BeanTown]

I was under bidder on it. Very cool. I wonder who won it to??????? Hmmmmmm

[steve B]

Postcards were legal pretty much from the start. The first known was handmade in 1840 in England.(It made fun of postal workers, at the time you could mail just about anything.)
Basically it was considered to be a letter, if you happened to write that letter so the content could be seen by anyone that was your own business.
The US government began supplying postal cards with pre-printed postage in 1873. The first picture postcards appeared around the same time.

So about 20 years between some of the early postcards, and the one in the auction.
It's probably the earliest with any sort of picture, but I'd be surprised if there wasn't at least one advertising card either for equipment, or for a game.

[aelefson]

There was an earlier one discussed on this forum somewhat recently. Here is the link.
https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=171578


Also, Barry posted some earlier ones from 1878 in this link.
https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?p=1838500


Alan

[BeanTown]

My concern for not bidding higher was this. Maybe it’s 100% but I wouldn’t be sold until seeing it in person. My fear is that the front looks like a newspaper woodcut possibly just affixed on a period postcard. Not sure of course but that’s my fear. Look at the edges. They look cut by hand. And the front has creases that don’t go through to the back that I can see from the pictures. Plus, the print quality is different on both sides. H&S thought it was good and I guess no TPG opinion needed. I dunno. Still a one of a kind item that has many red flags.

[irishdenny]

Jay makes some really good points and he didn't even mention the Stamp?!

How does the Stamp get some what abused and the Card be immune from whatever that is?

Anybody a Stamp GuRu? Year? Country? Planet?

If it were Real!? It would certainly be a Very Unique Piece...

[steve B]

Well, that made me take a closer look, and to look up some Canadian postal history. And that led some interesting places.

The stamp is correct for 1893, there are finer points to that whole series involving papers and colors to determine when and where it was printed, but While my wife collects Canada, I haven't really gotten into most of that.

The interesting bit is the rate described on the piece itself, Book post, printed matter only. That would be very unusual for a postcard, which went at the same 1c rate
From the 1893 Canadian postal rates

3rd Class Matter.—Addressed to Canada.—1. Transient newspapers and periodicals. Rate, 1 cent per 4 oz.; prepayment compulsory; limit of weight, 5 lbs. A single paper weighing not more than 1 oz. may pass for ½ cent.
2. Book packets. Rate, 1 cent per 4 oz.; limit of weight, 5 lbs., except for a single book, in which case the limit is 7 lbs.
3. Miscellaneous matter. (a) Printed pamphlets, printed circulars, etc., and also seeds, cuttings, bulbs, etc.; rate, 1 cent per 4 oz. (b) Maps, lithographs, photographs, circulars produced by a multiplying process easy to recognize, deeds, mortgages, insurance policies, militia, school and municipal returns, printed stationery, etc.; rate, 1 cent per 2 oz.
Circulars, Prices Current, etc., to pass at 1 c. rate must be ENTIRELY PRINTED. Any insertion in ink is not permissible, except the name and address of the addressee, the name of the sender and the date of the circular itself.

So 1 cent was pretty much the minimum. (Regular newspapers were carried free to other cities!)

Here's an example of a different photographers wrapper for photographs from the same era.


It's possible that the piece is from either a brochure, or a similar wrapper, and happens to have part of the advertisement for that picture on the back.