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For a lifelong baseball fan and collector, it may in fact prove
to be the find of a lifetime.
I've been collecting baseball memorabilia since the age of
eight, when I first discovered Topps Baseball Cards at Schuler's,
the neighborhood drug store. Since then, I've expanded my collecting
pursuits to include autographs, original art, game-used equipment
and even bobblehead dolls. I've also become an amateur baseball
historian, researching the origins of baseball in Chicago and
the city's first star, Adrian C. "Cap" Anson. This
website is the fruit of my labors. I hope it does adequate justice
to Anson's memory. I never expected to be rewarded for creating
it, but sometimes fortune smiles.
Such was the case when in April of this year the opportunity
of a lifetime stumbled into my lap. I was looking through eBay
auction listings as I so often do when an item caught my eye
and sent shivers down my spine. There in a listing was a first
edition copy of Anson's biography "A Ball Player's Career,"
a remarkable and rare book in its own right. Yet what had my
heart racing was a photo of an inscription on the first page
of the book. There in beautiful, flowing fountain pen was the
inscription "May 28, 1906. To my little friend Edwin D.
Wrenn. Adrian C. Anson."
Why did this simple inscription have my pulse pounding? To
answer that question, I must stress just how rare and desirable
authentic Anson autographs are. You can read all about Anson's
career on this website. What's important to remember is that
his career ended 108 years ago. The rarity of his autograph
is due mostly to age. Anson's career ended before collecting
baseball players' signatures was a common practice. The demand
for his autograph is fueled by his stature as the 19th century's
most recognized star, his membership in the Hall of Fame, and
his affiliation with the Chicago Cubs (then the White Stockings).
These factors, combined with the rarity factor of his signature,
have driven up the value of his signature to startling heights.
The most basic certified cut signature carries a value of $1,000
to $1,500. An inscribed book page, cut out of his autobiography,
sold for $2,088 (with buyer's premium) in April of this year
through Robert Edward Auctions. The last inscribed book to be
offered at auction sold for $2,981 in June of 1995. Anson's
autograph on an original period photo portrait is valued at
$7,000 to $10,000 and on a single signed baseball $35,000.
It should also be noted that this particular example happens
to be the rarest of the rare in that it is a full name signature.
Anson seldom signed his full name of Adrian C. Anson. Usually
he shortened it to A.C. Anson. Finding a full name signature
is highly unusual. It makes sense, however, that Anson would
sign a copy of his autobiography, a book he was immensely proud
of, with the more formal full length signature. And while all
Cap Anson autographs are valuable, the greatest prices at auction
are achieved by full length signatures.
So it's no wonder that when I saw the eBay listing
and accompanying photographs that I was excited. But my twenty
plus years of collecting have also instilled in me a healthy
dose of skepticism. I know that a large percentage of autographs
are forgeries and fakes. And that if a deal appears too good
to be true, it often is. The listing was attracting few bidders
and was receiving little in the way of bids due to a poor listing
and lack of proof of authenticity. Yet there were a number of
factors about this listing that had me curious to learn more.
For one, the inscription was definitely in an
authentic first edition copy of Anson's book. Published in 1900,
"A Ball Player's Career" was the first baseball biography
ever published in book form. The distinctive green binding and
cover art were present, the pages toned as expected from age,
the title pages accurate. The condition of the book was poor,
with an extremely damaged spine, but still all the pages were
attached and in good condition. It seemed unlikely to me that
an autograph forger would go to the trouble of locating a copy
of this rare book and incur the expense of obtaining one, which
can cost from $100 to $500, depending on condition.
Secondly, the inscription was remarkably similar
to the one sold at auction in the April 30, 2005 Robert Edward
Auctions sale. That page carried the inscription "Chicago
Dec. 25th 1901. Merry Christmas to my old friend Emma B. Ross.
Adrian C. Anson." Besides the similarity of the signature,
I had the handwritten word "friend", and the numerals
"190_" to compare between the two inscriptions. The
eBay listing photos compared very favorably to the Robert Edward
lot.
With those facts in mind, I contacted the listing
party to learn more about the book. I discovered that it had
been purchased by a man whom frequented thrift stores, garage
sales and auctions in search of rare books. He had found this
book in 1995 at a Salvation Army thrift store in Lasalle-Peru,
Illinois and purchased it for $1.00. He found the inscription
and knew the book was worth holding onto. He himself had seen
the Robert Edward Auction listing for the page like the one
in his book, and the listing's $400.00 reserve price. It was
at that point that he decided to place it on eBay.
I made plans to meet the seller and see the book
in person. I traveled two and a half hours from my home in Lake
in the Hills, Illinois to the tiny town of Sheffield, Illinois
where the man and book resided. We met at his house and after
talking a little bit about baseball and books, he showed me
his find. In person, it more than exceeded my expectations.
The paper of the book and the ink of the inscription had just
the right amount of toning to account for the almost 100 years
that had passed since Anson signed the page. The inscription
was neat, crisp and altogether superior in quality. There was
no doubt in my mind that I was holding onto a book that the
great Anson had also once held in his mighty hands and signed
with his pen.
The owner and I negotiated a deal that made us
both quite happy. He made a tidy profit on his $1.00 investment
while I had added to my baseball memorabilia collection an item
that I would otherwise never have been able to afford. Of course,
my purchase carried some risk. It was still possible that I
had purchased a forgery. I myself had little doubt about the
signature's legitimacy, yet I knew third party verification
would be required for others to be convinced.
But first, I did some research on the mysterious
Edwin D. Wrenn to whom the book was inscribed. I wrote to the
City Clerk of Chicago and was able to obtain two documents of
interest. The first was the 1900 state census listing an Edwin
D. Wrenn living in the city of Chicago with his father William,
mother Lillian and two brothers in the South Township. Edwin's
date of birth is listed as Feb. 1893, making him seven at the
time of the census and thirteen at the time the book was inscribed
to him. The second document was the 1940 state census showing
Edwin as the head of household living in Downers Grove Township
in the west suburbs of Chicago. He is listed with wife Marjorie
and sons Edwin D. Jr. and Louis W.
In an internet whitepages search, I found a listing
for an Edwin D. Wrenn III currently living in Northern Illinois.
I phoned this man and he did indeed turn out to be the grandchild
of one Edwin Duffield Wrenn born in Chicago in 1893. Edwin III
informed me that his grandfather had passed away before he himself
was old enough to remember him (Edwin I having passed sometime
in the late 1950's), but that he did know that his grandfather
was indeed a Chicago Cubs fan, a trait that he had passed down
to his father, Edwin Jr.
My thoughts now turned to third party authentication
of the signature. The leading authenticator of historic baseball
signatures is Professional Sports Authenticators (PSA) of Newport
Beach, California. PSA is used by many leading auction houses
and baseball memorabilia dealers to verify an item's authenticity.
A certificate of authenticity from PSA serves as proof positive
for most collectors that an autograph is genuine.
Encouraged by my research, I took my book to Professional
Sports Authenticators (PSA) at the Chicago Sportsfest Convention
in June of 2005. PSA is widely considered the leading authenticator
of historic baseball autographs. PSA is used by many leading
auction houses and baseball memorabilia dealers to verify an
item's authenticity. A certificate of authenticity from PSA
serves as proof positive for most collectors that an autograph
is genuine. PSA's renown sports authenticator Steve Grad personally
inspected my book and its inscription. He took detailed notes
and digital photographs. I did not get the results of his review
the day of the show, as he took his findings back with him to
compare my item to exemplars of Anson signatures in the PSA
archives.
On the afternoon of July 5, 2005, the results
of PSA's investigation into my item reached my mailbox. My assessment
of the book was correct. The inscription and autograph were,
in the professional opinion of PSA's most senior authenticator
Steve Grad, signed by Anson's own hand. Here is a copy of the
Letter
of Authenticity that I received.
When I hold the book in my hands, the ghosts of
the past come to visit me. I can imagine a little thirteen year-old
boy happily handing his book up to Anson to sign, and Cap obliging
with a wink. A satisfying and warmhearted quality pervades Anson's
choice of words "To my little friend." It is gratifying
to imagine the joy this book must have brought to little Edwin,
the young baseball fan looking up to his towering sporting hero
as the once great athlete scribbles him a memento of their meeting.
How the book eventually found its way from Edwin
Wrenn's hands to the shelves of a Salvation Army thrift store
in Lasalle-Peru is a tale lost to time. Did Edwin keep it in
his possession until his death? Did he hand it down to his son
Edwin Jr.? These are questions that will likely never be answered.
Thankfully, it survived and its reemergence into my hands has
once again allowed Adrian Anson to bring great joy to one of
his admirers.
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