Slabbing old paper

[bcbgcbrcb]

19th Century woodcuts and even early 20th Century Reach & Spalding BB Guides present a terrific opportunity for those vintage baseball rookie collectors like myself who seek each player's earliest collectible without necessarily having a huge budget to spend.

For example, an N172 Harry Wright issued from 1887-90 in lower-grade condition will cost you at least $3,000 for a presentable copy (not to even mention a Peck & Snyder card or other Wright CDV or cabinet cards). At the same time, you can pick up a clean example of an 1869 Cincinnati Team woodcut from Harper's Weekly or Leslie's Illustrated for around $150 and it also includes George Wright, another HOF'er as well. For HOF Rookie collectors, that's an item 20 years earlier (which is our ultimate goal, isn't it) at a cost of approximately 95% less than the lower-grade Old Judge card. If you are doing this for collecting purposes and not investment purposes, I don't see how you can lose with the woodcut in this scenario.

[HistoricNewspapers]

Woodcuts are a great opportunity to acquire early images of players for sure.

The famous 1865 Leslie's baseball print is a nice item at an affordable price!

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Brian:

A couple of years ago, that one was selling in the $1,000 - $1,500 range, I believe. These days, it seems to be down in the $500 range for some reason. Maybe a decent number of them have made their way out of the "woodwork".............

[novakjr]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

19th Century woodcuts and even early 20th Century Reach & Spalding BB Guides present a terrific opportunity for those vintage baseball rookie collectors like myself who seek each player's earliest collectible without necessarily having a huge budget to spend.

For example, an N172 Harry Wright issued from 1887-90 in lower-grade condition will cost you at least $3,000 for a presentable copy (not to even mention a Peck & Snyder card or other Wright CDV or cabinet cards). At the same time, you can pick up a clean example of an 1869 Cincinnati Team woodcut from Harper's Weekly or Leslie's Illustrated for around $150 and it also includes George Wright, another HOF'er as well. For HOF Rookie collectors, that's an item 20 years earlier (which is our ultimate goal, isn't it) at a cost of approximately 95% less than the lower-grade Old Judge card. If you are doing this for collecting purposes and not investment purposes, I don't see how you can lose with the woodcut in this scenario.

Exactly. I lucked into my 1869 Harper's woodcut of The Cincinnati team for under $20. Mostly because it was the full issue, and the seller never mentioned the woodcut specifically in the listing. It's currently stored away for safe keeping. I'm still working on a way to display it properly, but I definitely DO NOT plan on cutting it up. Sure having it as a full issue is creating displayability problems for me thus far, but I'd rather have this problem than just the page, or worse yet, just the woodcut..

And while I'm doing this for collecting purposes, I agree with Phil, you really can't lose. But hell, even if I were in it for the investment, the $20 I spent on it seems like a good one..

[Runscott]

So you guys have absolutely no respect for history, but yet you enjoy collecting it.



Carry on.

[aquarius31]

I prefer woodcuts to be unaltered and in their original state. That said, if someone wants to slab them for part of their own collection or wants to sell them with the disclaimer that they're cut outs, I don't see a problem with it. In fact, some collectors prefer them slabbed, just not me.

As some people have already said, the woodcuts are more valuable as part of the original publication (with some very interesting articles) although I think that the larger full page and double page woodcuts are just as valuable if removed in a manner where it does minimal or no damage to the borders. You'll also see many woodcuts which have literally been cut out and essentially destroy the rest of the page. IMO, that is really such a shame for such great pieces.

Some woodcuts are very difficult to come by (Brian, that Police Gazette one is superb) and I do think that in general they are becoming harder to find even if they are affordable. A few additional random observations and comments based on some of the previous posts.

1) The 1889 Buck Ewing Harper's cover has been referred to as a woodcut but it's not. Take a look at it with a loupe and you'll see the dot pattern although within the newspaper itself I have found a mix of woodcuts and mechanical prints. Perhaps this is the first baseball related Harper's weekly which is not a woodcut.

2) I had previously found a great thread on how to display the woodcuts. The thread mentioned the Itoya Art Profolio presentation book. I purchased one a few months back and it works great. It stores ~48 woodcuts and the best size for most Harper's woodcuts is 19" x 13".

3) If anyone has any of the Leslie's woodcuts for sale (other than Creighton), please let me know.

Since we're on the topic of woodcuts and cutouts, if anyone has a woodcut that would be appropriate for this one, let me know

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George:

You probably know this already but that is Henry Chadwick on the right-hand side in the center.