Drifting Off To Sleep???

[okdoak]

Really enjoying this discussion! I collect mainly from the 1930-60s so most of this info is new to me. Hope to hear more. When I bought this Reach glove years ago, I assumed that the back of the middle finger had been replaced. If so they did a perfect job of it. Maybe it was dyed?



[/img]

[Number9]

I've seen those harlequin patterns before, in fact I think I've seen them in Reach advertisements. As far as I can tell they are the way the factory made them. Not sure what purpose, if any, they served. Definitely fits the strange glove category.

[okdoak]

Thanks for the input Number9! I'd love to see an ad or catalog page showing the glove. All the stampings are long gone so I don't have a model number for it. I looked thru JD's catalogs (the color pictures of those gloves are beautiful!) on his site but it looks like I'm going to have to dig a little deeper. Anybody on the forum have an ad or catalog listing that shows a Reach glove like mine?

[Number9]

If I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure I saw the ad on ebay. It was a larger magazine sized page, not the smaller Reach catalog. I'm pretty sure it was a hardware store or sporting goods distributor catalog. If I have a few minutes tonight I'll see if I can find it online.

[softball66]

Showing color in glove catalogs was not that common up until the 1930s.
Prior to that time, the colors had to be dropped in "mechanically" and not through process color as we had later on with color separated imaging.
Some of the old catalogs had color covers but were black ink only inside and it was rare where color was shown on the gloves. When it was done as on some of the old Reach and Spalding catalogs, it really enhanced the looks of the gloves. I will look too to see if I have "harlequin" type picture being used.

[okdoak]

I went back to JD's site and saw that there are two Spalding harlequin type gloves pictured. They look almost identical to my Reach in pattern and have the same black and tan leather scheme. One has the opposite pattern as mine (middle finger is tan and the rest are black) while the other has the two center fingers, thumb, and wriststrap in black. Great looking gloves! I'm assuming that Spalding made the Reach gloves at that time?

[vintagebrett]

Here is a color catalog page from Goldsmith in 1915 - JD might be able to offer some others - I think I've seen some early Reach catalogs that had the color insert.

[lileague]

Not as old as others discussed, but I remember docglove posting a photo of a 60's - early 70's Rawlings catcher's mitt with actual fingers. Maybe a prototype? I haven't found the photo, yet. Very strange looking glove.