“Base Ball Cartes: The First Baseball Cards” by Mark Rucker.
Lot 353. “Base Ball Cartes: The First Baseball Cards” by Mark Rucker. Wonderful 1988 book by Rucker, who has made significant contributions to baseball history through his work with the Society for American Baseball Research. Rucker’s specialty is antique imagery. In this book he notes the advent of photography and baseball within a 10 year period (1839-45). As he recounts in this book: “It was with the mass marketing of photographs through the introduction of the Carte-de-Visite (CdV) that baseball images appeared in significant numbers. A CdV is a paper photoprint glued to a card mount, approximately 2 ½” x 4”. CdVs were issued in greatest numbers between 1861 and 1879. By 1860 James Creighton, pitcher for the Excelsiors of Brooklyn, was the hero of the baseball world, as ‘cartomania’ was sweeping the country. Rucker’s 64-page softcover book provides more than 80 examples of these early baseball cards. It has a vg-ex appearance, but the first 34 pages are separated from the binding, and some pages are separated from the others. The book is complete, and the individual pages are ex-m and better. Winning Bid $20.