Sorry, I'm on vacation... The pattern matches up perfectly with modern recreations which favor manufacturing simplicity and durability over accuracy. While it's certainly possible for a homemade lemon peel from the middle of the 19c to have large stitches, most stitches on genuine examples tend to be on the smaller side. The pattern on your ball is very uniform as well, also a sign of a newer ball. There are a lot of outlets for these modern balls with this pattern. To my knowledge, all are made in China and most likely by the same factory. If yours is 20-30 years old, it probably has real leather, and may have even been made in America, but I can't say for certain. Real leather will tone and/or darken with time and use. Yours probably started life as a brown ball and developed its surface over the course of a game or two, maybe longer. I wouldn't rule out the possibility of additional aging if someone were inclined to deceive after the fact.
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