Show Your Early Baseballs

[perezfan]

A few more...

The last pic features some early, albeit "less ancient" Baseballs. Hope these are still appropriate for this thread!

[aelefson]

Very cool Mark! Thank you for posting these. I like the hybrid, the belt ball, and the multi color one the best. I grew up in Stoughton MA which was the home of Elias Drake who supposedly made the first figure eight ball (but never patented it). It is really cool to see a hybrid as if someone was working to figure out which stitching method was best. Kevin, please show yours when you have time.

[Bill Rayburn]

I am really enjoying this thread. I have been trying to learn more about early baseballs and this will be a great help. Mark, I have never seen a "hybrid" ball, that is really special.

[1880nonsports]

on the shelf. Really just looking for a larger belt style (and of course anything unusual). Including a neat early trade card/ticket featuring a golden lemon peel....

[aelefson]

Very cool Henry! I also really like the trade card/ticket. I do not have many illustrations of old baseballs in my collection. I think I have several woodcut advertisements for baseballs for sale beginning in the 1870s but none earlier.

For any of you who posted already or plan to post, any cool backstories with the balls? I am always curious where they were found. I remember reading about one being found within the walls of an early house in Massachusetts several years ago.

Alan

[Kzoo]

Mark and Henry...... Just curious, as I have several early baseballs.... do you guys 'clean up' the leather a bit to get some of the 'shine' in the pictures? Maybe just a damp cloth? They look great and if there's a process, it might work on mine as well. I'll post some pictures soon. Thanks...........Matt

[1880nonsports]

I never touch them. On a shelf in a cabinet. Imagine at some point I'll have to dust them - but 100% I would never introduce any cleaning agent. As to how they were handled before me - out of my hands.... Now if I could just find the right glove...

[pedodds]

Henry,
Can’t get any nicer balls than those! Congrats!
I might have a belt ball to trade?
I’ve never been able to purchase a 19th century baseball/football trade card. So rare! They seem to get swallowed up before they make it to auction?

Originally Posted by 1880nonsports

on the shelf. Really just looking for a larger belt style (and of course anything unusual). Including a neat early trade card/ticket featuring a golden lemon peel....

[todeen]

Originally Posted by 1880nonsports

on the shelf. Really just looking for a larger belt style (and of course anything unusual). Including a neat early trade card/ticket featuring a golden lemon peel....

Hey, that's great woodwork behind the balls. What kind of shelf/cabinet do those sit on? Show a pic of the furniture.

[pedodds]

Hey Mark,
As always impeccable displays! Excellent memorabilia in those displays as well!
Thanks for sharing!

Originally Posted by perezfan

A few more...

The last pic features some early, albeit "less ancient" Baseballs. Hope these are still appropriate for this thread!

[pedodds]

Scrolling through these images I am seeing lemon peels with alternating colors of red and brown. I have one that alternates red and green. I was told that the reason was that some teams would color the balls their team colors. What do you guys think? Is that correct? I have found the multicolored lemon peels to be small in diameter compared to most lemon peels. Could another reason be that the colored balls were youth/child balls similar to 19th century youth/child bats?
Thoughts?

[todeen]

Originally Posted by perezfan

A few more...

The last pic features some early, albeit "less ancient" Baseballs. Hope these are still appropriate for this thread!

Mark I like how you displayed that glove standing straight up. Is that a home-made glove holder? How'd you get it to stand that way?

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by todeen

Mark I like how you displayed that glove standing straight up. Is that a home-made glove holder? How'd you get it to stand that way?

Hi Tim...
The white glove is perched on a wood glove stand. I got it from a fellow collector named Paul Montesano, who might be a member here. I believe Paul makes these himself, and used to sell them periodically (both directly and on eBay). They were very reasonably priced, as I recall.

If you (or someone you know) is handy, they actually look pretty simple to make. It's just two prongs and a flat oval base. I'll follow up with a pic shortly...

[todeen]

Originally Posted by perezfan

Hi Tim...



The white glove is just sitting on a clear tabletop easel. These are available on eBay, Amazon, and some of the craft stores like Ben Franklin, Michaels and Hobby Lobby.



Here's are links to just a couple of examples...



https://www.ebay.com/itm/Acrylic-Boo...oAAOSweqperJUL



https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Acrylic...AAAOSwXahbWVS7



They are available both with and without the vertical "lip" in the front. The one you referenced with the white glove does not have the "lip".



Hope this is helpful!

Ingenious!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[perezfan]

Here's the wooden glove stand. Pretty simple... 2 prongs and an oval base.

I like to use these for my favorite gloves, which I rotate on display. I already know these pics will post sideways, and nothing I do will fix it.

Hope the sideways pics aren't too distracting, and that this is helpful.

[Huysmans]

Originally Posted by perezfan

Here's the wooden glove stand. Pretty simple... 2 prongs and an oval base.

I like to use these for my favorite gloves, which I rotate on display. I already know these pics will post sideways, and nothing I do will fix it.

Hope the sideways pics aren't too distracting, and that this is helpful.

Well displayed as always Mark!

[aelefson]

Hi-

I want to thank everyone again for sharing your incredible early baseballs! I still have questions I will post about some of them but they are all amazing to look at.

My antiquing hot streak continued a few weeks after this post as I found yet another lemon peel ball at an outdoor antique show in NH. It came from an Americana collection that was put together in PA more than 30 years ago. The dealer who bought the collection had two lemon peel balls. One was small and very similar to the one I bought from a board member in the spring. The other was large (very close to a modern baseball). I bought the large one but I had to pay a steep price (800 range). I am very happy to have a large lemon peel and am amazed that I found two within weeks of each other.

Alan

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by Huysmans

Well displayed as always Mark!

Thank you Brent.... hope all is well!

[ruth-gehrig]

Incredible baseballs and amazing displays!!
One of my old baseballs that has always been interesting to me is this early figure 8 that has another figure 8 "shell" around it. I've had the ball probably 15 years and when first purchased I had hoped that underneath was a lemon peel that someone tried to modernize by placing a figure 8 covering on top of. I've been able to carefully move the ball around and have found the stitch pattern underneath to be figure 8 as well. I guess instead of repairing the ball someone just decided to place a new covering on top.