This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/20/2021
n the early 1990s, the St. Louis-based Megacards commenced releases of card issues under licenses secured to reproduce vintage baseball photos. Among these were those copyrighted by Francis P. Burke whose originals date to the early 20th Century. As an ambitious departure from the company’s standard card issues, Megacards sponsored the production of limited edition enlargements for several of the images – all of them generated individually from their original glass negatives. The merit of these renderings derives, in part, on their numeric serialization. (But none of these, we’re told, ever approached the completion of their serialization.) Of greater import, though, is their high-energy subject matter – then fully enhanced by the quality fiber-base material by which they’re delivered. Borne on the most advanced technology of the day, these enlargements project a quality of detail that maintains utmost clarity – with not a hint of “grainy” compromise. All measuring 19 1/2? x 15 3/4?, they are indeed devised from the original negatives, and guarantee the utmost in aesthetic display.
Prior to the arrival of Judge Landis and Babe Ruth, the reputation of baseball constantly struggled to maintain respectability. In the broadest sense, the face of the game was largely groomed by the presence of Christy Mathewson. This Francis Burke photo of the champion New York Giant hurler (estimated to date to 1907) lends comfort to the admirer that there was indeed legitimacy in the National Pastime. The iconic Mathewson character, vital and upright, mastered the perfect balance of competitive determination and personal virtue. Serialized “206/975”, EX/MT-NM with mild to moderate creasing along the lower margin.