Antique Sports Uniforms & Equipment

[softball66]

I just received a "review" copy of "Antique Sports Uniforms & Equipment"
which for hobbyists interested in 19th and early 20th century equipment and YES, gloves, this is a breathtaking book. Not since Krause produced Dave Bushing's equipment book, has there been anything to address the turn of the century sports tools. This does it in fine fashion.
The sub-title for this splendid book is "1840 - 1940, Baseball, Football Basketball and is written by Dan Hauser, Ed Turner and John Gennantonio.
John has been a long-time glove and baseball equipment collector.
178 pages of striking photos, 12 pages of gloves including the lovely leather tip glove that I once owned and now valued at $7,000-$8,000. No, I didn't sell it for that.
The book is published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 4880 Lower Valley Road, Atglen, PA 19310. Contact info: www.schifferbooks.com, perhaps for ordering information. Well worth your dollars.
(oh I was a little surprised, the book was printing in China! LOL!)

[vintagebrett]

Joe, have to disagree with you a little here. I bought the book from the publisher a couple weeks ago and was very excited to check it out. Upon receiving it, I was disappointed. It's a glorified auction catalog with little to no descriptions of the items. In terms of gloves, I was very disappointed in what they chose to include (with the exception of the leather tip) - most of them are poor condition and aren't really all that interesting. JD's site has a better collection of gloves assembled and it will cost you a lot less to look at them anytime you want. I did learn a little about football equipment from the book, since that is another focus of the book, but was disappointed in the basketball section. Did get a kick out of seeing a bat my dad fixed for Doug Wolk and I subsequently sold on eBay in the book.

[softball66]

Brett, I agree in part. On the whole, the book and pictures are nicely done better'n anything we've previously had. On the gloves, it seemed to taper off after the first few pages; you and J. D. have got better looking samples of quality gloves. Several more collectors on the forum do also.
The point I'd like to make is that the quality of the book, the images and the inclusion of all sports and all equipment, make this worth while endeavor. It may not make everyone's expectations.
And while it's not up to some of our standards on the items presented perhaps IT WILL ENHANCE the value and attention paid on our gloves, just like the auction catalogs do.
Dave Bushing's Krause book is more informative if that's what you're looking for.
Nothing wrong with that in my books.

[ebbets55]

Thanks for the lead Joe. I'm gonna go pick it up. I'm always in the pursuit of good reference material and hadn't heard of this one.

JD

[vintagebrett]

The one bad effect I can see if the pricing of the gloves. Unless your read the beginning of the book, where it says that prices reflect items in excellent condition, you might be taken aback by what some of the gloves are listed at, considering the condition of the ones in the pictures.

I agree that is definitely another resource to add to the collection but I think the price ($50 from publisher, about $35 on amazon) may be a deterrent for some.

[softball66]

Page 46 of this book shows a "workman's" glove that to me is not a workman's glove. The point of being a workman's glove is that the glove should look likea worker's glove and should be narrow in width, no splayed fingers, no or little padding. The author seems to suggest that just because the glove doesn't have a web and is early (no crescent padding) is that it's a workman. A workman or brakeman didn't use a glove like that. So it doesn't resemble. The workman glove is better exemplified on Page 43 but without the crescent.
Pricing is confusing and misleading without the caveat . Right Brett!