lemon peel or not
 

Check out this item I found on eBay: http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item...230169&alt=web. Does anyone think this was a lemon peel or not

I think it's a 19th century homemade leather ball constructed in the lemon peel style. Construction on these balls varied as they were home made. Whether it was used for baseball, who knows. I think many balls were made for play in that period - some for baseball, others for a variety of informal games of play or toss. Looks like someone ended it early with an offer. It does have that classic look for display purposes, and the red I have not seen before.

Joe the thing that confused me was the hardness of the ball from the description

I didn't even pay attention to that. I assume they mean it's firm, as opposed to the softness of a bean bag. I doubt it's as hard as a modern day baseball.