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Vintage Sports Photography – Tin Types and Photos
10 Lots
 Lot 17. Superb 1930s Photo of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jake Ruppert - and a Dirigible. The three New York Yankees Hall of Fame members pose in front of the airship with its captain and another player. Gehrig wears a Yankees uniform. He and Ruth each clutch a group of bats. The 8” x 10” sepia photo has a 5” x 7” image area. The border has seen heavy game use, with a couple of ½” creases, paper loss, glue residue and multiple creases. Time has been kinder to the image area. Only one crease of note affects the unidentified player. Several light creases do little to detract for the photo’s appearance. The images are sharp, and the contrast strong. On the back, the photo is dated Oct. 18, 1949, and signed by Tom Brannigan, an actor of the period, to Johnny Murnane. Likely unique.
Winning Bid $300.
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 Lot 53. Circa 1865 Carte de Visite of Abner Doubleday from a Mathew Brady Negative. For many years, conventional baseball history, relying on the early 1900s Mills Commission, credited Doubleday with inventing the sport. His place in history as a Civil War figure is much more secure. Doubleday is credited with firing the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter. He saw action at Fredericksburg and performed admirably at Gettysburg after achieving the rank of brigadier general. Nevertheless, he ran afoul of Maj. Gen. George Meade, who was eventually replaced by Lincoln for his ineffectiveness. Doubleday then spent most of the remainder of the Civil War carrying out administrative duties in Washington, D.C. Later in his career, he commanded an African-American unit in Texas, and he patented a cable car railway that still runs in San Francisco. In the photo, Doubleday is posed in his military uniform. A single star on his shoulder reveals his rank and dates the photo as Civil War vintage. After the war, Doubleday reverted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. More common is a full-length portrait by Brady taken after Fort Sumter. Here, Doubleday sits, and a few jacket buttons are undone. The studio stamp on the back recognizes E. & H. T. Anthony of New York and notes that the photo is from a “negative in Brady’s National Portrait Gallery.” During the Civil War, Brady provided thousands of negatives to the Anthony studio. The CDV measures the traditional 2 3/8” x 4” with clipped corners; it is untrimmed. The sepia photo shows light foxing. There is a minute spot of paper loss and a very tiny inute brown stain on the background, both away from Doubleday’s image. The card has ghost Doubleday signatures on the front and back. The signature on the front is over an area where another signature appears to have been removed. This is an excellent and scarce photo of one of the 19th century’s more interesting historical, and mythical, figures.
Winning Bid $390.
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 Lot 54. Circa 1880 Yale Baseball Team Photo with Skull and Bones Members. This early Yale baseball team photo shows seven players in full “Yale” uniform and another five in sweaters. The pitcher and catcher display a ball and mask, respectively, and the front row leans on bats. Striking, clear image. Interestingly, at least two players wear Skull and Bones pins. One is in the center in the front row, and the other is the catcher. The player in the front row has the pin on the “l” in Yale. Skull and Bones is a secret society established at Yale in 1832. Both President George W. Bush and Democrat presidential nominee John Kerry were members. The photo has been trimmed from its mount and has tack-holes at each corner. A ½” x 2 ¾” section in the lower left is held in place by tape. This is a wonderful Ivy League early baseball photo made all the more intriguing by its association with the most famous collegiate secret society in the country!
Winning Bid $218.
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 Lot 55. 4 1870s-90s Baseball Team Imperial Cabinet Photos. Each of these sepia photos includes vintage baseball equipment. For example, at least two ring basts are evident in a circa 1870s photo of team members in front of a school house. Dressed in suits, they are seated on the ground in front of their classmates. The photo is 10” x 12” on a 13” x 17” mount. The photo has an inoffensive crease in the upper right corner. The mount is stained. 2. Faintly dated “July 11, 78” in pencil on the reverse, a 7” x 9” photo on a 9 ¾” x 11 ½” mount shows a team with “H” in an overturned triangle. Several players wear ties, and a vintage catcher’s mask is evident. Striking clarity and contrast in this photo, which shows a few light, minor creases close-up. 3. Circa 1890s baseball team with “LE” flashily displayed across the players’ chests. An African-American man sits on the ground next to the team holding a bucket marked “LE.” The 7” x 9” photo is matted to 13” x 16”. It has two full-length vertical creases or tears; the clarity and contrast couldn’t be better. 4. Interesting two-team photo marked “Long Branch, Sunday July 28, 96” on the reverse. Players for one team seem to be considerably younger than the other team’s players. One player holds a catcher’s mask, and two hold baseballs. The 7 ½” x 9 ½” image on an 11” x 14” mount shows only extremely light scuffing. The focus and contrast are excellent. The mount is rought and a prime candidate for a mat. These are great early baseball images, with players for two teams in uniform.
Winning Bid $354.
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 Lot 56. Original 1912 Photo of a Japanese Champion Baseball Team. This 8” x 10” sepia photo composite contains vignette photos of 11 players, an owner or manager and championship cups for 1911 and 1912. The players are identified. Intoduced in 1878, baseball picked up steam in Japan as early as 1890. Anyone interested in the early days of international baseball should be anxious to add this photo to a collection. This ex to ex-m silver print photograph came from Graphic Antiquity Vintage Photographs of Washington, D.C.
Winning Bid $520.
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 Lot 57. 9 Wire Photos Lazzeri, Gomez, Ford, Thomson, Robinson, Dean and Lavagetto. An eclectic collection of wire photos, the star is truly a wonderful International News Photo of HoFers Lefty Gomez and Tony Lazzeri flanking Jacob Ruppert. The photo is missing its caption, but because it is dated 10-10-37, we can guess that it’s an evening celebration of the Yankee’s win over the Giants 4-2, pitched by Gomez earlier that day. 2. AP wire photo of starting pitchers Whitey Ford and Juan Marichal together before Game 4 of the 1962 World Series. 3. AP wire photo of Bobby Richardson’s error during sixth inning of 1964 World Series Game 4, margins cut to image size. Second generation photos: 4. Acme Photo of 1936 Cardinals team in the locker room including Haines, Medwick, Frisch and Dean, photo has binder holes along top. 5. Cookie Lavagetto’s last hit. In seventeen World Series at-bats, Lavagetto had only two hits but the latter made history. Coincidentally his last hit as a major leaguer, he broke up the no-hit bid by Yankee’s pitcher Bevens with two outs in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the World Series. 6-7. Jackie Robinson stealing home against the Cubs in 1952 and 1951 Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard Round the World,” are both promotions for “The Golden Age of Baseball” series. 8. Dizzy Dean and the Gashouse Gang shown in the dugout and captioned “The World Series Champions, 1934. 9. Uncaptioned photo of Sandy Amaros making a catch. All photos are ex-m or better, unless otherwise noted. A nice grouping featuring many Hofers.
Winning Bid $301.
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 Lot 58. 10 Swimming-Related Tin Types. These 2 ½” x 3 ½” (1/6 plate) tintypes feature men and women in swimsuits or beach clothing. Men’s swimming teams are the subjects of two tin types. Three show individual woman, and one shows a man. One has two women, one has two men and one has a co-ed group of three women, two men and a boy. Seven women, a boy and a baby are the subjects of another. Six images have one more corners clipped. The photographer often clipped the corners to facilitate a framing. One team tin type has a small nail hole at the very top well away from the image. One single-female image shows minimal corner flaking. All of the images are strong. Great collection of 19th and early 20th century swimming images.
Winning Bid $110.
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 Lot 59. 7 19th Century Bicycling Tin Types, 2 High-Wheeled Bike Snapshot Photos. Of these seven tin types, two are single poses. Each of the others shows at least two people, and in one case, four lined up on their bikes! Three of these tintypes are among the brightest and clearest we have ever seen, including one striking image of a young man. Two images show women modeled next to their bikes. Two are co-ed. Four tin types have one or more corners clipped, probably done by the photographer to make it easier to from these 2 ½” x 3 ½” (1/6 plate) examples. One tin type is dark. The others show excellent clarity and contrast. The tin types are accompanied by two sepia snapshopt photos, each featuring two images. Each pair has a Victorian high-wheeled bicycle, one with a child seated on it. In an image without a bicycle, a child holds a chicken. The snapshots are ex-m.
Winning Bid $100.
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 Lot 60. 10 Scarce 19th Century Tennis Tin Types. Tennis emerged as a popular sport in the second half of the 19th century, and tennis-related images from the period are scarce. These tin types appear to be from the 1880s-90s. Photos include a group of three boys, a group of three men, two couples, two pairs of women, one single female and three mixed groups. Each photo shows at least one racquet, and some, as many as four. Two photos show balls as well. Seven images show clipped corners, common among early photographers for easier insertion into frames. Two have small imperfections that affect images. The photos generally are bold with strong contrast. These tin types are 1/6 plate-sized (2 ½” x 3 ½”). Fantastic collection that includes at least three different models of early racquets.
Winning Bid $440.
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 Lot 130. 10 Late 19th-Early 20th Century Boxing Tin Types. Bare-knuckle pugilists dominate this impressive collection. Pairs of boxers in seven of the photos are without gloves. Most of these fighters wear suits, and in two images, they even have formal hats. One does have two gloved, bare-chested brawlers. Interestingly, one of the photos, which features two fighters and three onlookers, appears to have been taken outdoors. At 2 ½” x 3 ½”, these tin types are 1/6 plate-sized. One image is unusual at 2 ½” x 4” with a dome top and a bit of color applied to the boxers’ cheeks. Four images have clipped corners, and three have border chips or minor rust. The images are generally sharp with excellent contrast. Boxing tin types are scarce, and early gloved images are harder still.
Winning Bid $220.
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