Between the Covers

Unbound. Oval gold-toned platinum print of the future tennis champion, then eight year old Bill Tilden with his mother. Image size 3.5" x 5" at widest points, on a larger card mount. Some light rubbing on the image, very good or better. Signed by the photographer in lower right margin beneath the image (Kuebler"). Captioned on the verso in pencil in a contemporary but unknown hand (the first word eroded): "[Selina] Tilden & Jr. 1901." Tilden was born into a wealthy family and lived in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. The Kuebler brothers were prominent Philadelphia portrait photographers. Tilden lost both of his parents at a relatively young age, a loss he combatted by devoting himself to tennis, becoming for many years the consensus best tennis player in the world. Largely rejected by his father, he later engaged in several relationships with younger men, that resulted in scandal and some jail time.

Item #448411