Orvie Overall Album & Cartoon, ca. 1910
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GUEST:
This is a cartoon. It's about my great-uncle, who was a pitcher for the Chicago Cubs World Series in 1908. My great-uncle's name was Orval Overall. He actually was with the Cubs 1905 through 1913, and this was sent to my great-grandmother. He had been with the Reds and apparently was not doing well, and the Cubs bought him cheaply, and the cartoon is saying that the Reds wish they hadn't sold him and had him back again.
APPRAISER:
And this piece right here?
GUEST:
This is a scrapbook which shows pictures of my great-uncle and family. This picture is of Frank Chance, manager, and apparently, they were friends, because there's pictures of them going hunting together.
APPRAISER:
First, the cartoon here, by an artist named Briggs who did a number of cartoons for the Chicago newspapers of the day. Now, Orvie Overall was a fan favorite. He probably did his best pitching in the 1908 World Series, in which the Cubs defeated the Detroit Tigers. Orvie actually won two of those games in that series. And basically, as you said, this depicts the owner of the Reds, Herrmann, selling the overweight, I guess, Orvie Overall (laughs) to the Cubs, and then having him pitch stellarly and him being quite angry afterwards. It's a great piece, and Briggs is a well-known artist, and I'd probably estimate this itself at around $500. Just it being a Briggs cartoon. The book here is a little more interesting, in my opinion. It has photographs of a number of his teammates with the Cubs, including Frank Chance, and also Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown, who's a Hall of Fame pitcher
GUEST:
Oh!
APPRAISER:
and one of the better pitchers of the day. And here's a great photograph of your great-uncle pitching for the San Francisco Seals, a Pacific Coast League team, which has quite a bit of popularity, especially in the Portland, San Francisco, along the West Coast.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
Here's a picture of Jimmy Archer and your great-uncle. It's a beautiful collection. I'd estimate the whole thing at around $1,500 to $2,000.
GUEST:
(chuckling) Oh, wow.
APPRAISER:
Yeah. It's a lot of fun.
GUEST:
That's surprising.
APPRAISER:
There's a lot of history here.
GUEST:
That's, that's great. My brother had thrown this away and I took it out of the garbage can and so I'm very glad I took it out.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, I'm sure.
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