1873 Boston Red Stockings Team Cabinet with Al Spalding, George Wright, Harry Wright, Jim O'Rourke, Deacon White, and Ross Barnes

Sold For:

$26,400

Year:

1873

Auction:

2025 Spring

Lot #:

16

Category:

Pre-1900 Baseball Cards (1830-1899)

Extremely rare team composite cabinet card features cameo portraits of the 1873 National Association champion Boston Base Ball Club, including Hall of Famers Harry Wright, George Wright, Jim O'Rourke, Albert Spalding, and Deacon White. Each player is identified in stylized print beneath his portrait. Another notable player depicted is Ross Barnes, one of the best infielders of the era as well as National League batting champion in 1876 (three years after this cabinet was issued). The 1873 Boston team cabinet has always been a favorite with sophisticated collectors of nineteenth-century baseball cards. This is one of the few cards of the most dominating team of the early 1870s and one of the few to feature Al Spalding as a player. The 1873 Boston team card is quite distinctive from other nineteenth-century team cabinets in that it is smaller than a standard-sized cabinet card but much larger than a CDV. Graded POOR 1 by PSA (submitted by REA), the card (3.25 x 5 inches) has a small discoloration on the upper right, a heavy diagonal crease, and a corner missing on the lower-left. The composite photograph displays outstanding photo contrast. The photographer's name ("Richardson") and address ("Boston") is printed along the lower edge of the reverse. The reverse of the card also displays an Act of Congress copyright imprint. This is only the third example of this 1873 Boston team cabinet we have handled in the past 21 years. The most recent appeared as Lot 28 in REA's Summer 2022 auction, realizing $24,000. This is an extremely impressive-looking and exceptionally rare team composite cabinet card of the 1873 Boston Red Stockings, a team for which very few cards of any kind exist.