Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

While researching the 1941 Wilson "Streamline Kurv-Form" patent I found the patent illustrations included a variation for an outward facing seam.
This patent variation is beautifully crafted in the early 1950's "Andy Pafko" model 2080
The out-seam was nothing new in glove manufacturing. I ran across dozens of patents in just a short time online. From the beginning of the patent era, Hand and work gloves used this construction. I chose this one example because it is so well illustrated and such a great design! This 1909 work glove below is wonderfully detailed and features out-seams of the fingers and sturdy reinforcements of the palm seams.
This leads to my favorite glove of the 1910-20 era, the Goldsmith model TB "Illustrated Lion Pocket" glove. This model was Goldsmith's top of the line model circa 1917-1922
These gloves are shown at http://www.baseballglovecollector.com and are from John Graham's collection. I read in this forum that he has a book out featuring pictures of his collection. If these gloves are any indication, It must be a pretty awesome book.

That Illustrated Lion Pocket is an incredible glove. If I remember right he also has an outward seam Stan Coveleski model featured in his book. I like the Wilson model a lot, too. I have a Spalding Marvel Professional model that I'd swear is the same glove except for the seams. It even has the the same stamping for the Seamless Thumb patent.

Here is the Goldsmith TB "Stan Coveleski" model with the same out-seams. It is a later version than the "Illustrated Lions Pocket" model. The sewn leather finger webbing is more apparent here and the grommet web is a newer feature.
Your Spalding and Wilson gloves do look close to identical. I guess if they shared the same patent stamping, there could have been some sort of a licensing agreement.

Along the same lines, OK was making in gloves with the raised seam on the back as well

The out seam characteristic showed up on many youth model gloves since the manufacturing was simpler and cheaper. This circa 1925 4G model was near the bottom of the Reach catalog and listed as a youth model. This is from a current ebay listing

It seems odd that the out-seam was used on both the cheapest and also top of the line gloves. The glove below is a circa 1968 Wilson Al Kaline "Personal Model" 2014 featuring out-seams and is near the top of the Wilson catalog. Go figure! This is from http://www.sportsartifacts.com and is under $50

Good observation Mike. Could be done for one of two reasons. On the low end, it cuts down on the amount of time and effort that the workers have to put in to turn the gloves right side out before sewing in the padding and a liner. On the high end, it would allow the maker to use heavier or stiffer leather that would otherwise not be possible to turn right side out.

Yes, that makes sense to me William. I owned a similar model 2014 "Al Kaline" model shown above and it indeed had very thick leather.

vintagebrett wrote:

Along the same lines, OK was making in gloves with the raised seam on the back as well

One thing unusual about Brett's OK glove is that the Out-seam is rolled and not showing exposed edges like the Wilson gloves. It is possible that the OK design came from a Jacob Dubow patent of 1943 featuring rolled leather out-seams. Compare the finished seams of the OK glove above with the rougher look of the exposed seams on this Wilson BallHawk 4 below

here is an ad from 1912 for a J.A.Peach out-seam glove

A great looking crescent pad glove from ebay with out-seams. It has a nice thick suede or buckskin front and a smooth leather back, leather piping and wool lining. Interesting to compare this good quality glove with the low end Reach 4G glove posted earlier. This glove was bidded up into the $200-$300 range before the seller ended the auction early. nice reverse button and strap below

double posted

A unique glove recently re-listed on ebay that reflects the 1888 patent of Joseph Sauer.
The patent stated that the basic glove was constructed with an out-seam method because there was no inner lining and the outward seams would keep the inside of the finger stalls smooth. Layers of Heavy chinchilla cloth were sewn to both the inner and outer palm with the inner palm finally covered with soft doeskin and the outer palm with heavier buckskin. The outer facing of each finger stall was layered with chinchilla cloth and a layer of buckskin was then hand sewn to the side and top edges of the finger stalls. A laborious process. This is really a rare example of early glove construction. The patched repair to the front pocket area hurts the value of the glove somewhat since one of the the prominent features, the stitched palm, is hidden and/or damaged. If I owned the glove I would undo a few of the repair stitches and peek under to see how bad the damage to the pocket.

Mike, great post. I love it. I disagree however. I don't think it was made under the Sauer Patent. I think it was an early left-handed glove turned into a righty. Notice it doesn't have an asbestos or wool lining. I think it's a neat homemade or early repair glove made from a lefty. Great folk art type glove though. Anyone else agree?

JD

I don't know, JD. The piping is turned and the raw edge is where it should be - on the inside. Also, the way the seams are laid out, you'd have a reversed overlap on the outside of the glove if it were turned inside out (the thumb especially). Make sense? My thought when I saw it come up originally is that it was an old repair gone way wrong. Now that I've seen the patent, I'm reconsidering that. It still has some really primitive repairs, but it may be that the those weird finger pillows are original, which is a huge surprise to me. Good detective work Mike!