Lot 421. Harper’s First Baseball Woodcut -Oct. 15, 1859. Titled “A Base-Ball Match at the Elysian Fields, Hoboken,” this litho covers the bottom of two pages. The top half has a woodcut of a U.S.-England cricket match. Very clean images with several incidental stains, a vertical fold as issued and a light horizontal crease. Vg issue.
Winning Bid $83.
Lot 422. Complete June 27, 1874 Harper’s Showing the Boston Team. Titled “International Base-Ball - the Boston Champions,” this full-page woodcut is perhaps Harper’s most famous. It pictures the Boston team members who traveled to England - Harry Wright, Al Spaulding, George Wright, James O’Rourke and others. Vg+.
Winning Bid $152.
Lot 423. Complete Nov. 9, 1889 Harper’s with New York’s Buck Ewing on the Cover. This photo gravure, the second baseball litho on a Harper’s cover, shows Ewing wearing his chest protector and holding his mask. Ex cover with minor imperfections around the edges. A strong, clean image of Ewing. Ex issue with an advertising supplement on the 1892 World’s Exposition.
Winning Bid $174.
Lot 424. 4 Full Harper’s Pages on the “Opening of the Base-Ball Season of 1890” in a complete issue from May 3, This is the most extensive of Harper’s baseball offerings, featuring illustrations of 28 players from the National and Players Leagues and a report of how the two leagues came about. Among the players pictured are Anson, Clarkson, Ward, Keefe, Ewing, Hanlon, Comiskey, Glasscock and Connor. Rosters are provided for each of the 16 teams. The four baseball pages have stains along the top and outer edges; otherwise, ex with clean text. The issue itself is vg.
Winning Bid $121.
Lot 426. Rare 1887 Copy of Puck’s Library No. 1, “The National Game,” subtitled “Puck’s Best Things About Base-Ball.” This “sample copy” of the “illustrated humorous magazine” presents 31 pages of baseball stories, humor and illustrations. Copyrighted by Keppler & Schwarzmann, it is complete with substantial wear on the upper left corner, stains on the first six and last six pages and a tape repair on the back page.
Winning Bid $125.
Lot 427. Hand-Colored 19th Century Woodcut of a U.S.-Canada Baseball Game. Titled “London, Ont.: International Base-Ball Match Between the Tecumseh Club, and the Mutuals (Professional) of Chicago,” this litho is 7” x 9 ¾” matted to 10 ½” x 13”. The artwork is ex as displayed; the matt is g.
Winning Bid $152.
Lot 520. Rare Civil War Newspaper with a Report on N.Y. Knickerbockers Base Ball. New York Daily Tribune from July 16, 1862 reports that the Knickerbockers defeated the Victory Club of Troy, N.Y., at Albany, 74-35. The brief article says that “The batting was of the most extra- ordinary character, and the fielding, under the circumstances, splendid.” Complete eight-page newspaper with the report on page 7. Ex.
Winning Bid $68.
Lot 521. 1865 Harper’s with the Brooklyn Atlantics Championship Team. The Atlantics were instrumental in the evolution of baseball from an amateur to professional sport and the development of the New York-Brooklyn rivalry. In the 1860s, teams from New York and Brooklyn met to determine a champion. Through 1866, the Atlantics won every championship, except in 1862 and 1863. This team participated in the first inter-city tournament attended by a U.S. President. In 1865, the Atlantics and Athletics competed against the Washington Nationals in the nation’s capital. President Andrew Johnson attended. This litho, titled “Champion Nine’ of the Atlantic Base-Ball Club of Brooklyn, L.I., 1865,” is about 10 ½” x 15 ½” and shows nine team members. With only a couple of minor wrinkles, it is one of the nicest Harper’s pages we have seen.
Winning Bid $102.
Lot 522. 1883 Harper’s Litho Featuring the N.L. Champion Boston Beaneaters. The Boston team occupies the top one-third of a full page from the Oct. 13 issue. Beautifully matted and framed and seemingly free of creases, this page hung in the MCI National Sports Gallery at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C.
Winning Bid $75.
Lot 523. Aug. 22, 1885 Harper’s Weekly Full Issue with a Woodcut of Kelly, Ewing. Titled “The Winning Run - How Is It, Umpire’,” the lithograph features a Chicago White Stockings catcher who almost is certainly King Kelly and a runner who appears to be Buck Ewing or possibly John Ward. Full page, ex-m, in an ex issue. Corners of the last two pages, which do not include the baseball scene, are restored.
Winning Bid $75.
Lot 525. 1866 Leslie’s Woodcut with Officials of the National Association of Base Ball Players. Complete issue with top officials of the organization on the cover. Founded in 1857 by New York area teams, it was first organization to govern baseball and the first to establish a championship. After the Civil War, it expanded well beyond New York. The officials pictured are John Wildey, president, Mortimer Rogers, first vice president, H. C. Sexton, second vice president, A. H. Rogers, secretary, and P. J. Cozans, treasurer. An early star and an entrepreneur, Rogers played for Brooklyn and Lowell teams, started a newspaper devoted to baseball and sold scorecards. Early vg issue.
Winning Bid $138.
