Lot # 122: 1895 Cleveland Spiders World Champions Imperial Cabinet Photograph with Cy Young (Exceedingly Rare)

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There are only a small handful of these left in existence. The name Spiders itself emerged early in the team's inaugural NL season of 1889, owing to new black-and-gray uniforms and the skinny, long-limbed look of many players (thereby evoking the spider arachnid). The 1895 National League Cleveland Spiders finished in second place but went on to defeat the Baltimore Orioles in 5 games, to claim the Temple Cup (world title, predating the World Series), to this day remaining the franchise’s only world championship. This was Young’s 5th season as a pro. He recorded 35 of his all-time leading 511 wins, to 10 losses. He of course led the league in wins this season and won an additional 3 games in the Temple Cup - by today's standards would surely have been MVP. The formal studio photograph captures seventeen members of the club posing together, with all of the uniformed players identified in print along the base: Cy Young, Jesse Burkett, Bobby Wallace, Chief Zimmer, Chippy McGarr, Harry Blake, Cupid Childs, George Cuppy, Jimmy McAleer, Ed McKean, Patsy Tebeau (Capt.), Eddie O'Meara, Phil Knell, Jack O'Connor, and George Tebeau. The two other gentlemen pictured in formal attire are team owners Frank D. Robison and his brother Stanley Robison. Frank and Stanley Robison purchased a second team – the bankrupt St. Louis NL franchise – and sent all of the Spiders' top talent to that club, including future Hall-of-Famers Young, Burkett, and Bobby Wallace. The resulting Spiders roster finished the 1899 season 20–134, a record which remains the worst for a single season in major league history. The Spiders were subsequently one of four teams contracted by the National League that year. Partly in response to the Robison brothers' actions – which effectively ended the Spiders franchise – the practice of "syndicate ownership" was later banned. The photographer's credit and copyright notice appear in print along the base of the mount: "Copyright 1895 by John H. Ryder of Cleveland, Ohio." There is minor material loss to the perimeter. The image itself and names printed at are crystal clear, remaining in amazing shape for anything from this time. This is a needle in the haystack of baseball antiquity. The imperial cabinet has been matted in such a way that only the photo and player identifications are visible. The matting measures 25 x 22 inches. The visible portion (inside the matting) of the photo measures 19 x 16 inches.