Goldsmith Catchers Mitt

[RDPBMW]

What would be the age of this Goldsmith Catchers Mitt? It is signed but I can't quite make out all the letters. The last letters are ler .or ker, the last 2 are er for sure. I inverted the colors on One of the photo's also.
Any thoughts on names also ?

See Photo's

http://home.comcast.net/~rdpbmw/site/?/photos/

[vintagebrett]

Probably a Bill Killefer model

[BretMan]

My best guess: The player endorsement is Bill Killefer. Goldsmith produced Killefer-endorsed mitts as early as 1924 and then right up through the mid-to-late 30's. His mitts didn't appear in their catalogs for a few years after that, then, surprisingly, popped up again in 1941 and that appears to be the last year they were offered.

The earlier models had a model number of "WC", while the later ones carried the model number "BK".

Just to show you how different the world of player endorsements was in those days, Killefer was a fairly non-descript catcher between 1909 and 1921, then a manager for the Cubs (1921-1925) and the Browns (1930-1933), where his teams amassed a .457 winning percentage and never finished better than fourth place.

How that warranted a personal glove endorsement is hard to tell. But it wasn't uncommon to find obscure player endorsements in those days, when the sporting goods industry was in it's infancy and many of their products were marketed on a regional, rather than national, basis.

[softball66]

The Bret and Brett have it right. Has to be a Bill Killifer. And Bret brings up an interesting point as to why all the backup catchers had their names on mitts.
The reason is that there are fewer catchers (usually three on a roster) compared to 22 fielders including pitchers. That's why guys like charlie Silvera, Rube Walker, for instance had their signatures on the store mitts. Seven or eight gloves in a mfg. line and you've got to have catcher names to fill them out. In a way, 1b mitts same way.
And look at the huge buckle on this mitt! It was down the line in quality but once this baby was buckled, it was BUCKLED. Rugged old cookie this one.

[vintagebrett]

That's interesting about filling out the catchers line - I had not heard that but it makes a lot of sense. Is this the reason Wilson kept Schalk and Rawlings kept Cy Perkins on the list for so many years?