Circa 1910-12 Ty Cobb Original Photograph Used for 1914-15 Cracker Jack Card, PSA/DNA Type 1....

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The perfect companion to the $396,000 T206 image we sold in April 2019!

Circa 1910-12 Ty Cobb Original Photograph Used for 1914-15 Cracker Jack Card, PSA/DNA Type 1.
UPDATE: This lot comes with a letter of provenance from family of Cobb's former teammate.

Veteran Heritage Auctions clientele will surely recall our offering of the legendary Carl Horner portrait used for the Green and Red Background portrait variants of Ty Cobb's T206 entries, and the eye-popping price of $396,000 the winner bidder forked over for ownership. He understood a fact this offering will further elucidate--the enormous desirability of original photography utilized for key entries in the trading card hobby.

We suspect that the first look at this image instantly elicited a twinge of recognition even among those with little interest in Dead Ball Era cardboard, but for the truly faithful, the sight will be as familiar as the face of an old friend. This is the photograph selected by the creators of the Cracker Jack trading card issues of 1914 and 1915, one of the most famous of the Hall of Fame's first resident that exists.

In the E145 candy card issue, Cobb's body is cropped from the image and set against the blazing red background that serves as Cracker Jack's most notable visual trait. But here we finally get the full view, the eleven-time American League batting champion held in sharp focus in front of the background blur of White Sox Park, shortly before team owner Charles Comiskey slapped his own surname on the marquee.

Beyond the double-decker grandstands in the photo being a perfect match to this state-of-the-art stadium built in 1910, the studio stamp of "Burke & Atwell, Press Photographers, Chicago" at lower left validates the Windy City attribution. The photo is unusually and impressively large for the era (approx. 10.75x8.25") and presents exceptionally well, with a vertical editing line just to the left of Cobb's form, and a small chip to lower border. Verso is entirely blank. A few very minor wrinkles are apparent when angling the surface against the light, but the photo could easily be matted and framed to a NRMT appearance, discounting the aforementioned cropping line. Encapsulated by PSA/DNA, Type 1. LOP from family of Cobb's former teammate.