Lot # 75: 1890 New York Giants Players' League Cabinet with Ewing, O'Rourke, Keefe, and Connor - Ex-Larry Twitchell Estate

Rare team-composite cabinet card of the 1890 New York Giants of the short-lived Players League. This is just the second example of this particular 1890 Giants team cabinet card we have ever seen and it comes with the provenance of originating directly from the personal collection of former 19th century Major League player Larry Twitchell. The cabinet features portrait images of 10 uniformed team members, all identified in print alongside their respective images: Tim Keefe, Roger Connor, Buck Ewing, Jim O'Rourke, George Gore, Danny Richardson, Mike Slattery, Gil Hatfield, Art Whitney, and William Brown. The printed text reads "Giants of the Players League 1890." The attractive design of the card has the portraits displayed within a diamond-shaped area, while three corners of the mount showcase illustrations of various pieces of baseball equipment. The fourth corner, in the lower left, displays the photographer's credit, "Copyrighted by F. B. Wood 1890." Any material relating to the one-year-only Players League is exceedingly rare, especially photographic pieces. The Players League was formed in 1890 by Major League players who had become dissatisfied with their treatment by the team owners. Their greatest grievance was the reserve clause in their contract, which basically bound a player to one team for his entire career. The leader of the movement to form the new league was John Montgomery Ward, one of the top players of his day and president of The Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players. The preceding year, Ward led an open revolt against management that resulted in the formation of the renegade league. Unfortunately, financial miscalculations caused The Players League to fold after just one season and most of the players simply returned to their old clubs. Larry Twitchell was a member of the Brotherhood in 1890 and played with the Cleveland Infants that season. The photographic portion of the cabinet is light in some areas, with a few of the names only barely legible (Gore's name at the top has completely faded away). It also displays light soiling. The deckle-edged mount (4.25 x 6.5 inches) exhibits only light handling wear along the edges, a small crease on the top edge, and a tiny chip of paper loss on the blank reverse. In Very Good condition overall. This is an exceptional and rare photographic image of this one-year team, featuring four prominent Hall of Fame players, originating directly from a member of the short-lived Players League.