"unXld" Sporting Goods

[mikesglove]

I was curious of the history of this old child's glove, an "unXld" Sporting Goods model. The abbreviation "unXld" for unexcelled was quite common even before the turn of the century for all sorts of items from fertilizer to knives, fishing poles, household flour and even cap guns and fireworks. Northfield Knives trademarked the name in the early 1900's. Their name included hyphens, "un-X-ld" which allowed other companies to forgo the hyphens and use the abbreviation at will. Here are a few early 1900 "unXld" products:









The most likely source of the glove may be from the Horrocks & Ibbotson Co. They manufactured fishing gear and took over Winchester's fishing line after Winchester's bankruptcy in the early 1930's. I found a Horrocks & Ibbotson fishing gear catalog and it included a fishing reel with the "unXld" branding. The catalog contained a full range of other sporting goods including baseball equipment. Unfortunately there were no images available of the contents of the catalog so this is just my best guess.