This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/27/2023
Charles Conlon snapped some of the most iconic baseball photographs of the pre-WWII era. Indeed, the way we think of baseball’s early days is thanks to Conlon’s prolific and artful lens. Conlon photographed Babe Ruth countless times, from the beginning of his career as a pitcher in Boston, through his glory years with the Yankees, and finally his last season with the Braves in 1935. This extraordinary piece is an original Charles Conlon negative picturing the Babe in a batting pose in his final big league season. The aging Ruth looks odd in his gaudy Braves uniform, but his famous easy follow through is still there. The negative has notations along its top edge and some minor surface wear. However, none of this detracts from the historical value of this Ruth-Conlon image. The negative comes with its original paper envelope, complete with period notations describing what it depicts on one side and a crossed out title on the other. A wonderful photo of the game’s greatest slugger taken by the game’s greatest photographer.