This lot features one of thirty-four original cartoon artworks created in 1877 by Buffalo artist Christopher Smith (known locally as "Christo Von Buffalo"), all of which are being offered individually in this sale. It is important to understand that these thirty-four original artworks represent the very first baseball cartoons and, collectively, are the most historically significant such offering to ever appear at auction. All the artworks have remained in the sole possession of the Smith family since 1877 and have never before been offered for sale, either publicly or privately. Lelands is proud to have been chosen to offer these artworks to the collecting community for the first time. A more detailed history of the artworks, as well as further information about Christopher Smith, follows each lot description. 

LOT DESCRIPTION

Original India ink-on-paper cartoon artwork, by Christopher Smith, documenting the game played between the Buffalo Bisons and Auburn on August 13, 1877. Signed by the artist, "Christo," in the lower right corner. Like he did for every cartoon, Smith listed the date along the top border of the mount and the score of the game along the base. This game ended in a 1-0 Auburn win and the illustration pictures a member of the Buffalo club giving an Auburn player a close tonsorial "cut." The drawing has been rendered on paper (8.5x6.5"), which in turn is affixed to a larger cardboard mount (10.5x8.5).

HISTORY

Unlike many of the rites and traditions associated with our national pastime, the origins of which remain shrouded in mystery, the history of baseball cartoons is well known. The art form began in the summer of 1877, when Christopher Smith, known more familiarly to his local fans as Christo Von Buffalo, began recording the daily diamond exploits of his hometown Buffalo Bisons during the club's inaugural season. The Bisons were a professional club founded in August of that year and played an independent schedule against other professional and local clubs before joining the International Association in 1878. Smith, who ran a paint and sign shop in town with his brother, was hired by the club as its official scorer. An amateur artist, he also began drawing a cartoon that commented upon that day's game. Upon completion, he displayed his illustration in the window of Joseph Garson's clothing store in downtown Buffalo, where it could be seen by all the city's "cranks." When signing his artworks, he used the shortened signature "Christo." Because the artworks were shown publicly, all have condition flaws consistent with their former manner of display, including tack and/or staple holes in the corners, small corner tears/chips/abrasions, and minor surface wear. 

Buffalo compiled a record of ten wins, twenty-seven losses and three ties in 1877. We do not know if Smith produced a cartoon for all forty games that year, but only thirty-four of his original cartoons have survived, all of which are offered in this sale. (Thirty-two of the cartoons comment on games, the other two provide commentary on the upcoming schedule.) Smith continued drawing Buffalo baseball cartoons in subsequent years, some of which were later published as cabinet cards, but none of those later originals have survived. (Today, those published baseball cabinets featuring Smith's artwork are exceedingly rare, with a recent offering of one at auction in 2022 realizing a final sale price of $7,200.) Unfortunately, Smith's cartooning career ended abruptly upon his untimely death in 1879. His short two-year career as a cartoonist is the main reason why his name is not more well known today. Research has failed to find any baseball cartoons preceding those drawn by Christopher Smith, thereby establishing him as baseball's first cartoonist.

For more information about Christopher Smith we encourage bidders to read Joseph Overfield's excellent biography that was first published in the 1981 Baseball Research Journal and which can now be accessed online at the SABR website (link: https://sabr.org/journal/article/christo-von-buffalo-was-he-the-first-baseball-cartoonist/). Overfield's article pictures many of the cartoons offered in this sale. Included with each lot is a copy of an article about Smith's cartoons published in the July 3, 1938, issue of The Buffalo Times, plus a copy of a letter to our consignor's family from the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996 in which the Hall enthusiastically requested a donation of the thirty-four cartoons (obviously, the family declined).

Estimated domestic USA shipping cost only. Does not include handling or insurance: $31.04 Please feel free to contact us for a more accurate shipping cost.