This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/1/2008
This is an original Carl J. Horner studio cabinet of Sam "Sandow" Mertes that can be dated almost precisely to 1903 or 1904, Sam's first two seasons with the Giants and Horner's final years working out of a studio located at 11 Winter Street in Boston. Very rarely can an original Horner cabinet be dated to such a precise and relatively early period, which is certainly one of the virtues of the offered piece. To our knowledge, this exceedingly sharp image has not been used in any major sets, although three different Mertes cards do exist for the expansive W600 Sporting Life Cabinets issue. Judging by some editor's cropping marks on the obverse of the offered cabinet, however, it appears that this image was used for some other publication purpose. The reverse of this 5-1/8 x 7-1/4" cabinet displays a number of pencil notations, as well as a bit of tape near the bottom edge, while the front shows some missing stock at both right side corners, which is conveniently counterbalanced by the Winter Street notation and the desirable and very scarce "European Photographer" stamp found on only the earliest Horner cabinets. Hopefully the new owner of this Hall of Fame-worthy relic will have more success in determining its publication use!