Lot 1. 1888 A17 Allen & Ginter World’s Champions Album. Over the years, we have seen a wide range of Allen & Ginter albums. We have offered certain examples in previous auctions. This album is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the finest example that we have ever seen or offered. The condition is amazing. The original string that binds the book together is intact, and the knot, which was tied almost 120 years ago, looks as though it were tied yesterday. The colors on the covers and inside pages are deep and rich. The sharp, clear images are dazzling. The front cover has some incidental and inoffensive creasing near the corners. The inside pages are Nm!!! The back cover shows some incidental inoffensive creasing near the bottom two corners. Take your pick from the following adjectives: incredible, awesome, breathtaking, amazing. They all accurately describe this outstanding album!
Winning Bid $1,577.
Lot 2. 1889 Goodwin & Co. Baseball Album Page of Adrian “Cap” Anson. Simply put, pages of this round album are among the most attractive and most sought after of all items in the hobby. This example is glorious. The colors and image of Anson seem to jump off the page. The sharpness and definition of the image areremarkable. There are very slight bits of staining on the front along with some minor inoffensive creasing. A faint amount of overprint common with this issue is evident on the reverse. All in all, a superb example that we suspect would be very difficult to improve upon. Ex+. Simply put, pages of this round album are among the most attractive and most sought after of all items in the hobby. This example is glorious. The colors and image of Anson seem to jump off the page. The sharpness and definition of the image areremarkable. There are very slight bits of staining on the front along with some minor inoffensive creasing. A faint amount of overprint common with this issue is evident on the reverse. All in all, a superb example that we suspect would be very difficult to improve upon. Ex+.
Winning Bid $3,802.
Lot 3. 1889 Goodwin & Co. Baseball Album Page of Mike “King” Kelly. Pages of this round album are among the most attractive and most sought after of all hobby items. This particular example is best described as “Wow!!!” The image of Kelly is flawless. Colors deep and rich, image sharply defined and powerful, background snow white. The reverse is clean with a tiny spot of paper loss affecting one fourth of the letter “f” in the word “fielding.” There is an ever so slight bit of inoffensive ink at the far left. A faint amount of overprint common with this issue is evident on the reverse. If there is a better example anywhere out there we have not seen it. Simply magnificent! Ex-m.
Winning Bid $3,141.
Lot 4. 1889 Goodwin & Co. Baseball Album Page of John Ward. There are few items in the hobby that rival the desirability or attractiveness of these round album pages. This example of Ward is superb. The colors are deep and rich and the image is powerful and sharply defined. The background is snow white with only a small bit of inoffensive staining. There is a minute tear on the left side that is barely noticeable. A faint amount of overprint common with this issue is evident on the reverse. A terrific example, better than any other we have seen. Ex-m.
Winning Bid $3,456.
Lot 5. 1889 Goodwin & Co. Baseball Album Page of O’Rourke, Richardson, Connor and Gore. Connor was the leading home run hitter of the 19th Century. His career home run total of 138 remained a major league record until Babe Ruth broke it. Pages of this round album are among the most attractive and desirable of all hobby items. This example is rich with deep colors. Only a very small amount of surface wear in a few areas prevents us from calling the image perfect. It is eye-popping, sharp and crisp. A faint amount of overprint common with this issue is evident on the reverse. Ex+.
Winning Bid $1,007.
Lot 6. 1889 Goodwin & Co. Baseball Album Page of Brown, George, Tiernan and Foster. Rich colors and images stand out on the white background. A faint amount of overprint common with this issue is evident on the back, which also exhibits a small amount of paper loss. Light surface were is evident on the front. A strong example. Ex+.
Winning Bid $636.
Lot 7. 1889 Goodwin & Co. Baseball Album Page of Slattery, Murphy, Hatfield and Crane. If you have read the other round album page descriptions in this auction, you may be asking yourself, “Can they all really be this nice?” Yes, they are. And so is this one. The colors are blazing. The sharpness of the images is unimproveable. The white background creates a contrast that makes them jump off the page. The reverse exhibits a very small amount of paper loss. A faint amount of overprint common with this issue is also evident on the reverse. Ex+.
Winning Bid $636.
Lot 8. Quality Set of 9 1880s H804-14 Big White Shoes Trade Cards. The players on these cards have skinny arms and legs, striped shirts and hats, and oversized white shoes. Six of the cards have scrapbook residue on their blank backs. Among the fronts, four are ex, one with “284” lightly stamped on it; the five others are vg-ex, typically with a light crease or a light impression from the scrapbook residue. One of the best examples of this set that we have seen.
Winning Bid $240.
Lot 10. 1880s H804-10 Corner Clefs Set of 8 Trade Cards. Baseball and music converge in this delightful set, which feature humorous baseball figures that wear striped socks and hats. A musical clef decorates the lower corners, and each card has a light-green background. As issued, these cards vary in size. The “standard” width is 2 ¾”; several are 2 11/16” wide. The “standard” height is 4 3/16”; several are 4 ¼”, and some are taller. We find no evidence of trimming. Veteran collectors are well aware of the size variations in trade cards. Two cards have advertising on the back; the others are blank-backed. Several blank-backs have minor scrapbook residue. One card is ex+, two ex, two vg-ex, one g-vg and two g. This is an unusually clean set.
Winning Bid $198.
Lot 11. 1880s H804-10 Corner Clefs Trade Card, “A Short-Stop,” SGC-Graded Vg-Ex 50. Beautiful example that has some discoloration on the blank back, apparently from having been in an album. There is no evidence of this condition on the front, which is centered slightly to the right, clean and bright.
Winning Bid $45.
Lot 13. 1869 Magazine with Baseball Pictured on the Cover and Baseball Content Inside. The cover of the June 5, 1869 Oliver Optics Magazine: Our Boys and Girls shows a boy batting against a scene of a game in progress. Inside, baseball is already designated “Our National Game.” An article covers the Atlantics of Brooklyn, the Keystones of Philadelphia and the Cincinnati team. Vg and historic, this publication offers a glimpse of baseball near its origins.
Winning Bid $55.
Lot 14. 1865 Harper’s “‘Champion Nine’ of the Atlantic Base-Ball Club” Woodcut Print. Harper’s third baseball woodcut, which appeared in the Nov. 25 issue, features portraits of nine members of the Brooklyn-based club. The team composite occupies about 75% of the page, which is clean and vg-ex. The page is part of the complete 16-page issue, which also includes woodcuts of the execution of Henry Wirz, the only Confederate soldier executed after the Civil War for war crimes. Wirz denied that he was responsible for the brutal treatment of Union prisoners at Andersonville.
Winning Bid $50.
Lot 15. 1866 Harper’s Baseball Woodcut Featuring “Athletic” and “Atlantic” Players. Philadelphia was a central part of baseballs’ earliest history. Amateur teams probably started playing there as early as 1830. In 1860, James N. Kerns formed a club, simply named “Athletic Base Ball Club.” “Athletic” (Base Ball Club was dropped) soon dominated amateur play in the area. The Nov. 3 Harper’s Weekly chronicles a championship match between the “Athletic of Philadelphia” and “Atlantic of Brooklyn” and contains the publication’s fourth baseball woodcut print. The score was “Athletic” 32, “Atlantic” 12. The famous Harper’s illustration shows the Athletic players in uniforms with the familiar Old English “A” on the front. The Atlantic players have “ABBC” on their uniforms. The nm+ woodcut is double-matted and framed to 20” x 15”.
Winning Bid $125.
