Sol White's History of Colored Base Ball to make $20,000?

Sol White's History of Colored Base Ball (1907) is among the highlights of a sale at Hake's Americana & Collectibles.

It's expected to make $10,000-20,000 on March 17-19.

Sol White Baseball
Sol White was the captain of Negro league team the Philadelphia Giants

The book tells the story of African-American baseball, a subject that was almost entirely ignored at the time. White was himself key to the development of the black leagues.  

It includes rare photographs of stars such as Andrew "Rube" Foster, who would go on to found all-black team the Chicago American Giants in 1911 and the Negro National League in 1920.

Alex Winter, president at Hake's, commented: "This book was so ahead of its time, and it just never turns up at auction.

"A copy was not even in the legendary Richard Merkin collection, which is well known for containing items of tremendous rarity pertaining to the Negro Leagues.

"When we announced we would be auctioning other pieces from the Merkin collection some years ago, we immediately started receiving calls from people asking if this particular book was in the collection, and remarkably, we had to say 'no.'

"Other examples of this title have sold for more than $20,000 in the past, and if any of the images shown in the book were individual 8 by 10 photos, I have no doubt they'd sell for anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 apiece."

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