When was the last time you saw an original 19th Century team cabinet photo depicting one of the original four professional Cuban baseball clubs during the Cuban Baseball League’s initial decade of existence? To the best of our knowledge, one of these has never before been offered at auction. What’s even more incredible than the offering presented here is the fact that we also have another one of the three remaining Cuban professional baseball team cabinets offered as the next lot, Matanzas, also from 1888. This exceedingly rare 1888 Fe team image depicts ten team members dressed in full uniform and posed sitting on a bench in front of stadium fencing. We have been unable to positively identify any individual ballplayers pictured because quality images from that period are not available for comparison. However, we do have the team roster for that season consisting of the following players: Domingo Alvarez, Luis Alvarez, Nicolas Bartolome, Evaristo Cachurro, Manuel Cadaval, Juan Chapi, Francisco Delabat, Alejandro del Castillo, Ramon Garcia, Francisco Hernandez, Ramon Hernandez, Adolfo Marin, Angel Michelena, Gaspar Molina, Juan Rodriguez, Francisco Salabarria, Hilario Severini, Tomas Tejeiro, Jose Teuma and Jose Valdes. After a decade of dominance, this Fe Ball club finally dethroned the Habana team and was the Cuban League title winner for the 1888 season. The undisputed star of the Fe team was starting pitcher, Francisco Hernandez, who won ten of the ball clubs 12 victories that season. The team photo itself measures 6.5x8.5" w/team name and date in a banner at top. As issued, the photo is mounted to a cardboard backing and housed inside a mat w/team name and dated printed on bottom margin. 9.25x11.5” overall. Cardboard backing is missing a .5x1.25” piece at upper left-hand corner, which does not affect the team photo at all. Backing has other wear/age, writing on the reverse. Good. Mat has trace of age, Fine. Photo has a few tiny indents on the left blank margin. Team image is quite bold and distinct. Fine. Richard Merkin Collection.