Presented is a never before seen image of Abner Boyce, catcher for the Washington club of the National League. The 1888 N173 Cabinets were larger size images of the 1887 N172 Old Judge tobacco set. In the 1887 Old Judge Set, the Boyce images are of his swinging a bat, in the catching position or throwing. There is also an image of Boyce, Wash from the N173 set with Boyce in the same catcher position. However, this offered image shows Boyce in a standing position with “cupped hands,” a popular fly ball image of the Goodwin & Co. photographers. It also has the standard “Copyright 1888 Goodwin & Co.” white lettering legend in the lower left corner. This approximate 4” x 5.75” image is affixed to a very thick, sturdy cardboard mount (just under 6” x 8”) with a Sol. Young New York studio insignia below. The reverse also has the Sol. Young insignia of a lion swinging a sword, with a list of the many studios Mr. Young owned. Solomon Young was a photographer who emigrated to the U.S. in 1882, married in 1892, and opened up his first photographic studio a year later. By the 1910-1915 era, Sol. Young Studios has the number of locations listed on the back of this mount. This indicates the image may be from the era of when the N172 and N173 sets were produced, but the mount is from the early 1900s. This new image is slightly shorter than the usual N173 images, and this example has a large amount of crazing on the front (slight cracks and wrinkles), similar to what occurs on fine porcelain. The edges of the image reveal light chips, and there are two chips of the images surface. The reverse reveals a vertical crease running the length of the mount with the notation “Boyce Wash” written lightly in pencil. This new image of the player Boyce appears to be from the period which the Old Judge images were originally produced since the image does have the “Copyright 1888 Goodwin & Co. NY” lettering in white, while the mount is from the 1910s.

NOTE: While this card is an actual N173 Goodwin and Co. image, this image was likely developed from a cache of original glass plate negatives found in Vermont a few years ago, known as the "Vermont Find." This image was determined to have been developed from those original negatives in the early part of the 20th Century, likely around 1915-1920. While not a period issue from the 1880s, this image is still almost 100 years old, and affixed onto a early 20th Century mount. This coincides with the history of the studio displayed on the mount.

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