This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/22/2010
Offered in one scintillating lot are 13 cabinet cards featuring members of the 1895 to 1896 Hanover Tigers club from the short-lived Cumberland Valley League. All but one of the photos measure approximately 4" by 5-1/2" and are affixed to elaborate, gold-rimmed 4-1/4" by 6-3/8" die-cut mounts. One card, featuring either John Butzer or a very young Tommy Leach, shows a smaller 2-3/4" by 3-7/8" photo affixed to a square mount of the same approximate dimensions. All thirteen cards appear in exceptionally presentable EX/MT to NM or better condition except for some adhesive remnants at the bottom of each obverse, most likely resulting from some sort of window or even stand-up display scenario. Mounts have Hanover, PA embossed in the lower right corners along with the studio's name, Frommeyer, embossed at the bottom left. According to an expert on the Hanover community and its ties to the origins of American baseball, John Coulson, whose forthcoming book on the subject will feature these very cabinets, the players represented include the following: Pop Harkins, John Butzer, John Butzer (again, or Tommy Leach), Ray Michael, Harry Shutt, Bill Keister, Bill Keister (again), Frank Weber, Barney Mulhall, Barney Mulhall (again), Charley Gettig, Gene McCann, and one unknown. Devoted historians of the game might recognize Bill "Wagon Tongue" Keister's name as an eventual Major Leaguer who would play for Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, and St. Louis, all in the span of seven professional seasons. Under consultation with the aforementioned historian and author, John Coulson, one of the Butzer cabinets was initially identified as a 17 to 18 year-old Tommy Leach, a much more prominent Major Leaguer who arrived in Hanover in 1896, the same year Bill Keister left for the Orioles, but Coulson later communicated to our consignor a revised opinion that the cabinets are more likely from the 1895 season, the year before Leach arrived. That season, in 1895, the Hanover squad was a remarkably successful team, posting a 41-9 record based on an independent schedule, but we still strongly encourage interested bidders to closely inspect the Butzer cabinet in question and decide for themselves whether or not it appears to be Tommy Leach. Maybe we'll even get a little help from our knowledgable friends at Network 54! An obvious argument in favor of the Leach opinion is that his later arrival to the team may very well explain why both the photo and the mount of this cabinet in question are drastically different from the other 12 cabinets, and it might also explain the uncanny resemblance to both Tommy Leach's T206 Portrait and T207 images, among others. Either which way, offered is a superlative lot of early cabinets from a team and community whose roots can be traced to the very beginnings of our National Pastime. Enjoy!