(BASEBALL DEAD BALL ERA) Original artwork for a cigar box l

Sale 2174 - Lot 51

Price Realized: $ 2,880

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000

(BASEBALL--DEAD BALL ERA.) Original artwork for a cigar box label depicting Hans Wagner. Watercolor and gouache on paper, 4 1/2 x 6 inch image on 8 x 12 inch sheet; very minor edge wear on sheet not affecting image. Np, circa 1909?

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The great Pittsburgh shortstop Hans "Honus" Wagner is perhaps most remembered today for his baseball card. He refused permission to release a 1909 cigarette card with his image; the few surviving copies are now worth hundreds of thousands. Although Wagner and his employers apparently viewed cigarettes as disreputable, he enjoyed cigars and chewing tobacco, and his face appeared on several cigar boxes over the course of his career (DeValeria, Honus Wagner, 239).
Here is the original art for one of these cigar boxes. It depicts Wagner in front of a stylized game in progress. The pose may look familiar, as it is identical to the famously rare baseball card, which was in turn taken from a 1905 photograph. However, though Wagner''s name is prominently displayed in the artwork, the name of his team has been scrupulously omitted, suggesting that the Pittsburgh management was not part of the endorsement.
One of the printed labels featuring this design was sold for $17,250 at the famous Halper sale (Sotheby''s, 23 September 1999, lot 2167), where it was assigned a 1909 date. with--another piece of cigar-box art, apparently by the same artist and acquired at the same time, featuring dancing women in exotic costumes.