Original glass plate negative of New York Giants pitcher Christy Mathewson taken by noted Chicago photographer Francis Burke. Mathewson is pictured warming up on the sideline prior to a game at Chicago's West Side Grounds. Based upon the uniform style shown here this image was taken between the years 1904 and 1907, a four-year span in which Mathewson won 110 games. This is a classic Mathewson image and one that is well known to collectors because it was used for both Mathewson's 1909-1916 PC578 Max Stein Postcard and his 1910 PC796 Sepia Postcard. The negative (7x5") has cracked completely along the right border and is held together by clear tape. Additionally, a large chip affects the upper right corner. A small white label is affixed in the upper right corner of the reverse. Despite the obvious flaws, Mathewson's image remains unaffected and presents beautifully. VG. 

Francis P. Burke (1871-1949) was a prominent Chicago newspaper photographer whose work ranged far beyond baseball. He took thousands of images of immigrant life in Chicago and, in 1912, opened a photo studio with Henry A. Atwell (1879-1949), known as Burke & Atwell, that specialized in theatrical, magazine, and newspaper images. Sometime prior to 1929, Burke severed his partnership with Atwell and opened another studio known as Burke & Koretke. Burke had been the Cubs official photographer in the early 1900s but was later replaced by George Burke (in a story that has been told many times, and which may be apocryphal, Burke lost his job as Cubs photographer simply because a Cubs employee couldn't remember his first name and mistakenly confused him with George Burke). Nevertheless, he was still a frequent visitor to the ballpark and between the approximate years 1909 to 1916, Burke earned extra income by selling his baseball images to various Chicago-based businesses, including Rueckheim Bros. & Eckstein (Cracker Jack), Max Stein, Novelty Cutlery, Crystal Pure Candy Co., Carl Joseph & Co. (tailors), Royal Tailors, and Irwin Howe's Baseball Correspondence League of America, which published a "Pitching Course." To baseball collectors, Burke’s images are ubiquitous and instantly recognizable. Despite the range and relative scarcity of his work, his baseball images are arguably among the best of the deadball era.