Incredibly rare studio cabinet photo originating from the studio of Joseph Wood, one of New York's premier studio photographers, well-known for both his baseball photography and his connection to various 19th Century baseball card issues. Each of the photos originating from this series picture a vignette portrait of a member of the New York Metropolitans of the American Association. Each player is handsomely dressed, wearing a polka-dot necktie. These images (without vignettes) would be used on N172 Old Judge portrait cards; these "Spotted Tie" portraits are among the most desirable of all the subsets in the series. The Old Judge "Spotted Tie" subset is extremely difficult to complete; these Jos. Wood cabinets are more rare by orders of magnitude. In fact, of the five examples featured in this auction, only one appears in the most recent (2017) edition of the Standard Catalog, with just three appearing in the online checklist at TCDB.com.
Each of the cards in the grouping we are offering shares a common characteristic: the subject's name has been written in the bottom border, in pencil. Though no advanced collector of this type of material would presume this writing to be an autograph, the writing gave both grading companies pause. Neither SGC nor PSA would holder the cards for fear that the writing would somehow be mistaken for an Frank Hankinson autograph, so each company (including SGC, which doesn't even authenticate autographs, and who have authenticated cabinets with similar writing in the past) returned the cards to us without authenticating. We assure you, this cabinet is genuine!
Frank Hankinson, who replaced Cap Anson at third base with the 1878 Chicago White Stockings, was, at 30 years old, nearing the end of a 10-year major league career when he was photographed for this cabinet (and his corresponding Old Judge card, catalogued as card #211-1, the only pose of Hankinson included in the set). Hankinson was a member of the 1881 Troy Trojans, where he played alongside Roger Connor, Buck Ewing, Tim Keefe and Mickey Welch.
His cabinet exhibits wear, noticeable chipping at the top corners, and some moderate soiling, though the soiling does not encroach on the vignette image of the subject. The aforementioned writing is restricted to the bottom border and does not encroach on the photo itself; the reverse exhibits visible foxing and soiling. An incredible rarity, discovered recently enough that it is not checklisted in the 2017 Standard Catalog.