the $33,000 19th century fingerless glove

[mikesglove]

This glove was so new looking, that at first glance I thought it was a reproduction. I guess $33,000 buys the real thing in near mint condition. This glove recently closed at Legendary Auctions. Murphusa has the other auction results in the "Gloves of Month"(December) section

The patent date of April 15, 1890 inside the glove on the palm refers to inventor George Kohler as assignor to A.G.Spalding .

The design of the glove being cut from one piece of leather and wrapped over from front to back with finger holes cut in the middle is distinctive and clever. The auction example shows this well. The Spalding glove as it was manufactured included improvements to the Kohler patent. The thumb seam especially is more elegantly conceived and placed. The patent drawing shows the thumb opening sewn as part of the perimeter seam and the actual Spalding glove shows the thumb hole being cut away from the perimeter seam.

The Spalding catalog of 1890 below shows both the Spalding "patent" throwing gloves for sale as part of a set with the catching gloves. The throwing glove in the ad seems to be close to a duplicate of the glove recently auctioned.

[Mr. Mitt]

Mastro acquired the glove from the 1999 Halper auction, here is the link to the original sale;

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/Lo ... lot_id=323

[mikesglove]

I'd love to see an image of the Barry Halper glove from the 1999 Sotheby's auction.

[Mr. Mitt]

I can not locate one. Unless someone snapped a pic at the live Halper auction themselves, a "before" image does not exist. I've contacted Sotheby's, Lifson (who consulted for Sotheby's at the time) as well as Halper's archivist and struck out. There is no question, though, that it is the same glove in lot 323.

[mikesglove]

There was a book published of that 1999 Sotheby auction of the Barry Halper collection. I think it may be multi-volume. I have seen it advertised at on-line used booksellers and even Amazon. It may contain the picture of the glove. I am only curious because the description of the glove in the 1999 Sotheby auction is at odds with the Spalding glove recently sold.

"Long before the well-padded gloves of the twentieth century, fielders suffered with minimal protection for their hands. This thinly padded 1890's Spalding glove provided some small relief to fielders in the days before more generously padded gloves were designed and produced. This is an extremely rare early glove style. one of the thin leather wrist straps has broken, and the threaded seams along the sides of the glove and the thumb piece have unravelled, causing the thumbpiece to separate from the glove." (from 1999 Sotheby ad)

[vintagebrett]

I'll let Mr. Mitt extrapolate but according to Legendary Auctions, there was restoration work done on the glove. Of course you would have had to contact them to find that out because it wasn't printed in the very detailed description.

[Mr. Mitt]

It was not pictured in the double volume Halper catalog and those I've spoken with who saw the glove at the time, all passed on bidding because of its condition. Legendary confirmed it is the same glove, down to the lot number. Given this, as well as your statement that the two descriptions are at "odds" with each other, what is your conclusion?

[Mr. Mitt]

After researching the glove and its provenance as much as I could, coming to the same conclusion that you'll eventually come to after assembling facts, I was a bidder on the glove.

[murphusa]

It was a Huntington glove with the printing scrubbed off

[ebbets55]

That's great Murph. I'm rolling. However, I think the Huntington gloves are nicer.

JD

[Number9]

Murph, really? Thank you JD.... but don't encourage him.

[mikesglove]

After reading the posts regarding the fingerless glove sold at Legendary Auctions, I was intrigued and looked into other auction houses for some other interesting gloves. Robert Edward Auctions had some nice ones. Some of the earlier REA auctions may have been discussed on this forum before. I looked through the forum archive but couldn't find any mention of them so hopefully this won't be all old news. In 2006 a matched pair of 1880-90 gloves sold for $20,880. Beautiful examples!

Interesting that the REA website archive didn't show the photo of the actual gloves, only a vintage picture of a ball player.

In 2007 this 1890's webless crescent sold for $2643.

Note the one piece face above and a similar era glove with the thumb seam as shown below, from http://www.baseballglovecollector.com) It seems to me the one piece face with a completely diverted thumb seam was a superior design, but it didn't take hold till the 1940's

Way back in 2004. a great looking white webless crescent glove sold for $2875

Beautiful job of restoration on the glove above. Ink on a white glove is tough to remove.

[mikesglove]

In 2007 REA had a Fred Tenny 1905 baseman's mitt and 1897trophy ball up for auction.The mitt below is the "Reach Professional" model game glove

There was some some dispute about ownership of the mitt and ball so Rob Lifson, the President of REA, removed it from auction. After a little research, I found this highly entertaining article in Sports Illustrated about Rob Lifson and REA. The Fred Tenny mitt is mentioned http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/the_bonus/12/09/nash/index.html
The mitt did come back up for auction through REA in 2010 on consignment from the Tenny family and sold for $11,750

[Kenny Wel]

That is a very interesting SI article. Makes me glad not to be rich enough to own anything that might be a forgery! Peter Nash is still listed as a member of SABR.

Ken

[okdoak]

That is an intriguing article, Mike, and the Fred Tenney mitt is incredible. Peter Nash has a website that deals with fraud and theft in historic baseball memorabilia(!) I've been following it for a while and assumed that he was one of the "good guys", but now I'm not so sure. Even if I had the means to collect in that area, I'd be afraid to trust any of them. Here is the link:
http://www.haulsofshame.com/index.php