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1929 Charles M. Conlon Original Glass Plate Negative Used for Babe Ruth's 1933 Goudey #181 Card....
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Sold on Aug 23, 2025 for:
$61,000.00
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Description
Includes Conlon's handwritten filing envelope!
1929 Charles M. Conlon Original Glass Plate Negative Used for
Babe Ruth's 1933 Goudey #181 Card. Even if you do not know his
name, you know the work of Charles Conlon. Between 1904 and 1942,
there was no more skilled or dedicated biographer of our national
pastime than Conlon, whose work serves as the primary visual record
of Major League Baseball in the early half of the twentieth
century. From imagery populating early Reach and Spalding guides to
syndicated newspaper photography to iconic trading cards spanning
the days of tobacco to bubble gum, the work of Conlon permeates the
historical paper trail of the most glorious decades of baseball,
almost always uncredited, the life's work of a man both anonymous
and intimately familiar.It would be difficult to argue that there is any man absent from the salaried ledger of Major League Baseball whose service to the sport was more vital, or that any created a body of work that more effectively bottles the genie that is our fascination with the early game. But make no mistake; Conlon's photography is not simple, bloodless documentation. We risk no hyperbole by filing his work under the heading of Fine Art, his deft eye and technological skill conspiring to create imagery that would strike no discordant note on a gallery wall beside Ansel Adams or Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Certainly the subject here requires no introduction, his reign as the most celebrated figure of our national pastime already having entered its second century. But this particular image is one of the most famous of the great Bambino, earning that stature through its use as card number 181 in the iconic 1933 Goudey trading card set.
Longtime Heritage clientele will recall that we auctioned "The Charles M. Conlon Photographic Archive" of 7,462 original negatives almost ten years ago, the $1.79 million sale price now looking like an absolute bargain as the baseball photography market surges ever onward and upward. This particular image was absent from that collection--perhaps the most famous Conlon image that was not contained within that archive.
The unique and original glass plate negative measures 4x5" in size and presents without any condition faults to mention. Conlon's hand-notated paper envelope is here as well, reading, "Babe Ruth, Yankees, sitting in dugout, 29."
Auction Info
2025 August 23 - 24 Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction #50079 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
August, 2025
23rd-24th
Saturday-Sunday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 12
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
Page Views: 1,182
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22% of the successful bid per lot.
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