Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

What were/are your favorite additions to your collection and/or your best finds of 2011?

I added a lot of great items this year (subtracted a few as well) but my three favorites are my white leather Horace Partridge and two Bon Tober glove boxes.















My three best finds this year at the flea market and antiques shows weren't gloves but they were pretty interesting:
1) Late 1950's H&B Whitey Ford game used baseball bat
2) Early 1990's Chris Mullin pro model Golden State Warriors jersey
3) Late 1890's Spalding salesman sample wooden box

This glove was for sale with box on ebay in the mid to late 1990's. Not a lot of memorable gloves came through ebay at the time. Most of my best gloves were coming through other collectors, dealers and shows. So this one stood out and The bidding stayed incredibly low all the way through which amazed me. I thought I had a real shot at it and put in a strong bid at the last seconds feeling pretty confident only to find I was the under bidder. The winner was a memorabilia dealer in the New York area. To say the least, I was disappointed. To get a second shot at it in 2011 really surprised me.

Before: the back view shows some discoloration of the leather , a really crusty black button and dirty patch, The lining looked like it was deteriorating somewhat.


After: the glove was really dried out. A little saddle soap and Vaseline brought the leather back. The lining is actually pristine as you can see from the photo with an interesting feature indicated by the red arrow. What looks like a crease is actually a circular sewn palm where the padding is reduced in the pocket area. That was cool. I went over the patch a half dozen times lightly with Q-tips and water. The royal blue and gold patch is one of my favorites. The logo button cleaned up nicely.


Before: The front leather was mottled somewhat and the heel lacing was missing a section at the end.


After: again, the leather was really dry and the saddle soap and Vaseline evened it all out. I found a short piece of matching lace and filled in the missing heel lacing.

In the 1990's, I was so into KenWel gloves, I wrote an article about them in "The Glove Collector" newsletter. At the time, they were my favorite brand because of their innovations. I had a nice collection but never had a decent early model. I would look through my photocopies of old ads of the "Neverip" patent and the funky early cloth patch, wishing one would turn up. And then this pristine version basically falls in my lap in 2011. I still appreciate the seller for contacting me.

Hell of a job on that Goldsmith! It baffles me why a proper cleaning like that isn't done more often before a glove is auctioned. Imagine how many more bidders would have participated. In its former state, I never really liked that glove. Now, it has real eye appeal!

Wow!
That Goldsmith is incredible! Love, love, love it.
Well done on the cleaning!

I have never been a fan of left handed gloves so I find it funny that my favorite pick ups this year are all lefties. All where picked up within the last few months.

First is this 1890's webless crescent. My favorite glove.


A very nice white Spalding crescent.


This one is a definite sleeper. A D&M G41B. I dont ever recall seeing one, ever. According to the 1925 D&M catalog on JD's glove library, it it the black version of the white G41. This is in fantastic condition!
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Wow, those are some stellar gloves! I think I picked up fewer gloves this year than previous years, but I filled a few from my wish list. My favorites:
Thos. Wilson Goose Goslin and a Ken-Wel with the cool early patch from Brett at the National.




Reach King Patent (first one I've owned) and Spalding Professional Model from Richie, who I hope can still keep a hand in the hobby cuz he's one of the good guys.

2011 was an exciting year for me.

On the buying front, I was lucky enough to get a great deal on this Simmons American Duck web fielder's glove. Big thanks to Bing on this one! (Sorry I couldn't find you and your wife at the National. Although, I don't think Joel and I wanted to run into you based on the picture you showed us....ok maybe your wife )


On the trading side of things, I was fortunate enough to pull off some fun trades with some great guys in the hobby. Picked up a very nice Tryon full web from Jared, a mint Hutch in the box Pep Young from the Rebel, a great GC Alexander Speed Model from a Doomsdaydefensebuckle-backLuckydogkinda guy, and picked up a Ken Wel Bucky Harris (story later) from my local friend Robert Moreno.

My favorite non glove item was a panoramic I picked up at a local show. This thing is HUGE! More than 4' in length! This is by far the largest panoramic I have ever seen in person. Oh and some guys named Grover Cleveland Alexander and Dazzy Vance happen to be in it. I did a little research and this was when GC and Dazzy barnstormed together. A ball signed by both at the game was auctioned a few years ago and I would kill to have that in my display. Quite a year!


Biggest Highlight this year was going to the National in Chicago and meeting forum members/collectors especially Joel and Richie (The Boz). Thanks fellas it was a great time!

I'd like to see the other side of the white Tryon full web glove. It is real nice looking. it has the same style reinforcements as Brett's Schelmzer Arms glove.

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Looking back, it feels like I picked up more quality gloves this year than any other I can recall which I am very thankful for. After much internal debate, the gloves that seem to jump out at me the most -- for various reasons -- are a black Elmer Riddle, olive buckleback full web, Stall & Dean Marty Callaghan, John Graham's webless, and Richie's Spalding perimiter-stitched full web.



I also went full tilt on football helmets and actually picked up most of these over the year, including the beauty Spalding moleskin flat top in the middle front. The irony is that I picked up most of these from fellow glove collectors, who I respectfully refer to as the fickle three (you know who you are!).


Thanks again everyone, and I look forward to some big trades in 2012!

GloveCrazy wrote:
I also went full tilt on football helmets and actually picked up most of these over the year, including the beauty Spalding moleskin flat top in the middle front. The irony is that I picked up most of these from fellow glove collectors, who I respectfully refer to as the fickle three (you know who you are!).

I'm glad I can help out in building your early football helmet collection!

I have to include these in my favorite pickups for 2011. I really love these gloves!

An early catcher's mitt. American Mitten crescent in very nice shape. Thanks to the other member of the fickle three.



I tried to pick this one up earlier this year with no luck but I finally got it. Thanks Richie!