This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/10/2010
S81 silks are some of the most beautiful and important collectibles from the dead ball era. A single example was exchanged for 25 Helmar cigarette coupons, making this premium more difficult than the similar premiums of the L1 Leather and T3 Cabinet cards. This silk is of Grover Cleveland (Pete) Alexander of the Philadelphia Phillies, one of the more difficult to locate subjects from the S81 set. With both Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson dominating the mound in the early days of baseball, Ol' Pete is often overlooked. However, he did win 373 games, tying Mathewson for third all time. With the fragile nature of the silks, there are usually fraying along the edges. This example is no exception, but these natural frays are part of the territory and do not detract from the overall beauty of the piece, which measures at the original size of 6 3/4" x 8 3/4". The lower right corner, however, does have a 1.5" brown stain and there are a few small wrinkles in the lower left corner and along the top edge, which do not affect the image. A single line crease does transport horizontally across, running through the image below both knees. While most of the S81 silks use the same image as those on the T3 Turkey Reds, Alexander is one of only five subjects who do not appear in the T3 set, and thus remains one of the more desirable subjects. This is a nice example of this hard to find silk of one of baseballs greatest pitchers. Extremely rare and seldom seen.