This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/25/2023
[ERDNASE] ANDREWS, Milton Franklin (1872 – 1905). Portrait from “The Man Who Was Erdnase.” Providence: Rose & Sands (Ye Rose Studio), ca. 1900. Half-length sepia tone portrait purported to be the “expert at the card table,” in jacket, vest, and tie, in cabinet card format on printed studio mount, 7 1/4 x 5 1/8”. Faint skinning in upper margin, stain at rear; very good. One of only two known copies. Since the publication of Erdnase’s famous treatise on “advantage card play,” in 1902, speculation has been constant as to the true identity of the author. Martin Gardner first discovered Milton Franklin Andrews in the 1940s, after conducting extensive research and interviews regarding Erdnase’s identity, and published his findings in True magazine in 1958. Andrews was a gambler who died by his own hand in 1905 just as police began closing in to question him about a murder investigation. In 1991, Gardner’s complete findings were released as the book The Man Who Was Erdnase. This portrait supposedly of Milton Franklin Andrews was published as the frontispiece to that volume. But the real identity of Erdnase remains a mystery, as intervening decades have revealed other candidates whose backgrounds and abilities – both as writers and card cheats – lend credence to the idea that they authored the book, not Milton Franklin Andrews.