Photos shot on location at Brimfield Acres North May 2011

Comparison of original painting to Harpers Weekly woodcut print

Original painting found at Brimfield

1902 Harpers Weekly woodcut print

Recently spotted the Harpers Weekly print above as I surfed eBay...Scrolling at the speed of light as usual I caught just a quick  glimpse of something that looked very familiar. I backed up to it and immediately remembered seeing the original painting at Brimfield back in 2011. 

I was very taken with the painting when I saw it. The dealer was asking $500.00 and was firm on the price. I considered it very carefully but ended up leaving it, basically because it was ping pong...which I've always regretted...One look and I knew it was illustration art...but for what publication I had no clue...Finding this woodcut was like finding a needle in a haystack...In the late 19th - early 20th century there were tons of magazines that hired illustrators to paint scenes for stories...It was a regular industry...To find the illustration in a magazine would take looking thru decades of every magazine from back then...And that would probably be about 200 -300 different magazines...In other words it would be nearly impossible...Then came eBay...But even then...I've been surfing eBay regularly since I found the painting in May 2011 and this was the first example of this print I've seen.

By the way FYI for anyone interested...The print is still up for sale as I prepare this feature...see link to the listing below.

The painting was signed Albert de Ford Pitney...Not a household name illustrator but he held his own among the bevy of them. A cursory look-sie on the internet didn't turn up any solid biography of him but I was able to scrape together a little on him...see references below...

A little background on the artist
Brief Biographical sketch 1	Brief Biographical sketch 2	List of other works

3/26/17

Please note: A speical update to this story has been added

The owner of this painting has been located

SEE ADDENDA CORRESPONDENCE BELOW

From: Steve Grant 
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2016 1:50 PM 
To: Carlton Hendricks
Subject: No subject given 

name: Steve Grant

comments: Just came across your Antique of the Week from last August, the ping pong oil painting by Pitney. I bought this painting (not the print) on eBay in 2012 for about $2700. As a ping pong historian I recognized the image immediately, and there was heavy competition for it among fellow collectors on eBay. Quite interesting to see your photos and to learn it was once sitting on the grass at Brimfield! I am the author of Ping Pong Fever---the Madness That Swept 1902 America.I'm still wondering why the oil painting was created. I would think an illustrator would normally just make a pen and ink drawing. Do you have any thoughts on this? I can understand that the artist would like to make an extra profit by selling an oil painting. But then how was it converted into a magazine illustration? Thanks, Steve Grant

b1: Submit

_________________________________________________________

On Tue, Jun 28, 2016 at 1:16 AM, Carlton wrote:

Hello Steve....
Carlton Hendricks here...Your email made me very happy...Just knowing where that painting ended up is exciting...You made the angst greater though LOL....for not buying it for the $500.00.....darn....oh well...

As I've always understood it...at least the major magazines such as Century, St. Nicholas, Harpers, Leslies, etc. commissioned paintings for their stories...then made prints of some type which they bound into their stories...In the world of Illustration art collecting...many of the painting I've see were black, white and grayish.....not color...I seem to recall it was cheaper or easier in some way to reproduce the black and grayish works....that's my cursory knowledge about it.....but that's scant.....there must be a better answer for your to pursue...But whenever I see one of the black grayish paintings I always assume they are illustration art...I’d recommend contacting an illustration art dealer to get the right scoop...

I have a football one I'll attach which was done for a story in the Nov 1898 issue of St Nicholas....As I recall it was hung in the St. Nicholas offices...and has a tag on the back claiming it as Century property...refers to it as a drawing....but it's a painting....

http://www.sportsantiques.com/pg4brimstory.htm 
Very nice to meet you....above is a link to the full story of when I found your painting....although I'm reluctant to show it you...since the ping pong aspect is kind of disparaging....seeing when I wrote it I felt readers would not take ping pong collecting serious....my apologies....

Finally...Would you mind if I posted your initial email to me as an addenda at the end of my August 9th - 15th 2015 Sports Antique of the Week feature on your painting?

One last question....you said you recognized the image immediately....where had you seen it?
Kindly -Carlton

______________________________________________________________

From: Steve Grant
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2016 6:07 AM
To: carlton
Subject: Re: No subject given


On Tue, Jun 28, 2016 at 1:16 AM, Carlton wrote:

Very pleased to hear back from you, Carlton. Thanks for the additional information and the photos. Cool magazine label on the back of your painting.


Ha ha, well we ping pong collectors (and serious table tennis players) are used to disparagement, don't worry. But it's an Olympic sport!


I now realize that I bought the painting in 2011, not 2012. From your photos, I see that some (undisclosed) repairs were made in the months after you saw it. Your photos show streaks of lost or cracked paint across the bottom. Those were no longer there when I bought it. You will recall that the painting already had (fully disclosed) repairs to two of the faces when you saw it, evidenced on both the front and back. I figure those were probably done many years ago (but now I'm not so sure), and they were not so skillful.


You can view the painting in our collecting magazine: http://www.ittf.com/museum/TTC62.pdf . Note that the article that followed was about yet another similar illustration of the time, which I happened to use for the cover of my 2012 book. A number of similar illustrations were seen in U.S., London, Paris and Italian magazines, books and newspapers, all in 1901-1902 when ping pong was a huge craze led by "high society." Naturally these are all well known to us serious collectors, from eBay, from our collecting magazine, and from the ITTF Museum website.


Yes, you can post my email (and any part of this email), though you might want to omit the lines that revealed my ignorance about illustration processes. From further study, I now understand that photomechanical processes were well in place by that time. One thinks also of the Normal Rockwell original paintings that were used for cover illustrations. Of course, unlike Rockwell, there was no need for Pitney to bother with color. Yet there is light pink coloring in the dress at left and in the hair flower of the woman at right, which I'm guessing is original.


Our discussion has removed any small doubts I had about the painting itself being original. I now understand that Harper's probably owned the painting.


If you come across any more original ping pong art (or trophies, etc.), please let me know!! I see that your site mentions McLoughlin board games---that firm was one of the ping pong set makers in 1901-02, nice box graphics.By the way, I own about 100 Topps baseball transparencies that I bought at their 1989 auction, but you seem to be more interested in "display" items. (Check 1989-1990 Sports Collectors Digests for Steve Grant Limited Editions display ads that sold 8x10's made from these transparencies---these photos are still available!)


Thanks again.
Steve

End of email correspondence