Exquisite Signed Large Format Batting Portrait from the Peak of The Bambino's Mythical Career!The Bambino's fame was never greater than at the time this photograph was signed. His record-setting 60 home run season (a record that would stand for 33 years) and World Championship 1927 still fresh in everyone's minds, Ruth spent his offseason out of the limelight of New York and spent a good amount of time on hunting expeditions. In particular, Ruth often embarked to North Carolina, where he found a friend in William B. Blades, Jr. (son of business magnet William Blades Sr.) and bonded with Blades over their mutual passion for hunting. Ruth and Blades would go out hunting ducks and deer on Blades' massive boat, aptly named "The Decoy".
Appreciating Blades' hospitality, The Bambino had this extradordinary 11.75" x 16.5" photograph developed for his friend and beautifully inscribed it as follows: "To My Pal W. B. Blades, Thanking you for the wonderful time on 'The Decoy', Wishing our friendship lasts forever, From your friend, Babe Ruth, Jan 15, 1928." It should be noted that while large format photographs are a commonplace now, it was a custom order project in the 1920s, which would have required special ordering by Ruth from a lab equipped to develop photographs of oversized dimensions. Hence, Ruth photographs of this size are extraordinarily scarce and were only issued to close friends and associates at Ruth's request.
During the authentication review process for this piece, James Spence III, Vice President of James Spence Authentication (JSA) remarked that this was one of the finest Ruth photographs he'd ever seen, in turn obliging to take a photo with the piece as showcased in this listing.
The photograph has been bonded to a photographer's mat of equal size (likely done at the time it was developed to keep it from getting damaged), and despite being 90+ years old, the photograph stands in overall very good condition with minor handling wear along the edges and Ruth's black fountain pen signature and inscription maintaining desirable dark hue even to this day.
A testament to it's desirability, this photograph was originally apart of the historic Barry Halper collection, and comes with a Letter of Provenance from the buyer who originally acquired it from Sotheby's historic sale of the Halper Collection in the 1990s. From the prime date of the image and autograph to the extraordinary size to the superb provenance, you'd be hard pressed to find a more impressive Ruth signed photograph. Accompanied by dual Letters of Authenticity from James Spence Authentication (JSA) and Beckett Authentication Services (BAS).