William Read & Sons mitt

[mikesglove]

William Read & Sons of Boston MA. was founded in 1826 specializing in military arms and sporting goods. There baseball gloves and mitts are very tough to come by. This particular mitt from the baseballglovecollector.com website caught my attention because of its pristine condition and odd wrist protector.

The inventor of the mitt was Arthur Ferry of Chicopee Falls, MA. with a patent date of 1906. (note the same arrow head wrist strap)

I could not find any reference to Mr. Ferry being an employee of William Read & sons or an independent inventor who either sold or licensed the patent. As a interesting side note, Winchester Sporting Goods bought out William Read & Sons in 1926. Also Chicopee Falls, MA. was the birthplace of Victor Sporting Goods in 1898.

[Rickybulldog]

Keep em' coming Mike. That wrist protector is very neat! Which made me think, how many of those really remained, ripped, or were discarded? Take a look at this:

I think the one mitt originally had one of those (Look at the stitching remnants on the liner). Thoughts?
However, this one is not a crescent while the other has one.

[mikesglove]

that's good eyes Ricky. I see the holes from the stitching also. This mitt also has interwoven heel lacing so the padding can be adjusted.

note the woven lacing around the perimeter. Picture from baseballglovecollector.com in their 19th century section.

[url][/url]

[mikesglove]

Below is a William Read catchers mitt that is really stunning. I had never seen a William Read cloth patch before. The mitt shows the attachment point for the patented wrist protector that was once part of the mitt. The sewn leather band just below the wrist strap once was part of the wrist protector.

The mitt below is from http://www.baseballglovecollector.com and features the original wrist protector as part of the mitt.

[mikesglove]

The Arthur Ferry wrist protector patent was cited as a reference for this 1978 model glove. This style came with a velcro closure a number of years later. A player on my sons little league team had one of these Velcro models and he would put it on and fasten it with such purpose, like he was going into battle.

[vintagebrett]

I uploaded a William Read and Sons catalog from 1905 to the Glove Library at baseballglovecollector.com - it's a very large file as I had to take photos of the catalog instead of scan them. There is some interesting stuff in there but unfortunately the wrist protector is not in it.

[mikesglove]

I ran across this 1916 William Read catalog on ebay and bookmarked it, then just spaced out the end date and missed it. Hope it somehow gets copied and sent to http://www.baseballglovecollector.com

[mikesglove]

I uploaded a William Read and Sons catalog from 1905 to the Glove Library at baseballglovecollector.com - it's a very large file as I had to take photos of the catalog instead of scan them. There is some interesting stuff in there but unfortunately the wrist protector is not in it.

I also found the catalog interesting. I wonder if William Read and Sons was similar to Tryon Sporting Goods in that they had other companies manufacture their gloves and mitts. Some of the patented features remind me of Victor, Goldsmith and D&M. The Victor heel lacing and Goldsmith web lacing of the catchers mitts caught my eye in particular. Jason Draper patented the grommet web and some of the mitts had that feature.

[mikesglove]

Here is a nice William Read & Sons catchers mitt. Seems to have a replacement buckle and strap.

[vintagebrett]

I just uploaded a 1910 William Read & Sons catalog to the library on JD's site. Was very excited to see my glove listed in there. Oh, and there is one super cool one in there that might solve a mystery. I'll let Mike delve into it if he wants.

[mikesglove]

the forum site is double posting for some reason

[mikesglove]

Brett's 1910 Wm. Read catalog was full of mysteries. When this glove was on ebay, I wondered why the square top fingers.

Crescent Glove Flat Top Fingers Fronta.jpg (16.64 KiB) Viewed 83035 times

Model 082 at the bottom of the ad features the square cut fingers for fielders needing all fingers resting on the ground evenly and securely for hard hit grounders. The top model 891 "Professional" glove was tough until I went to 400% magnification and even then I could barely make out the circular stitching in the the pocket.

In 1906, Stall & Dean patented a custom among ballplayers to cut out the pocket area of their gloves.

Stall & Dean offered two models in 1907, the "HC" model with a circular thin layer of leather front and back with padding removed (similar to the Wm. Read model 891 glove above) and model "H" with the hole seamed and open to the palm of the hand.

Below is a Wilson glove presently on ebay with a nicely seamed hole in the palm. Pretty cool looking.

wilson sewn hole.jpg (17.36 KiB) Viewed 83035 times

It is my opinion that Stall & Dean patents were used by Wm. Read &Sons and shared some design characteristics such as the "arrow head" wrist strap and buckle with metal roller. This beautiful Wm. Read buckle back, full web glove appears similar to Stall & Dean gloves of the same era. Notice the hint of circular stitching in the palm area.

[mikesglove]

Here is a front view of the William Read glove above. Notice the circular stitched palm similar to the Stall & Dean model "HC" from the 1907 S&D catalog and model 891 from Brett's 1910 Wm. Read catalog

[mikesglove]

Model 095 below is from an Elroy Rogers patent of 1910. The glove features a partial crescent pad at the heel and running up the pinky.

Full Web With Scar Lacing 1 Front Mike.jpg (18.68 KiB) Viewed 83035 times

Elroy Rogers was part of Victor Sporting Goods at one time. This ad from the Sporting Goods Dealer of 1910 lists his own company, Rogers Sporting Goods in Springfield, MA.

[vintagebrett]

I disagree that other companies were making the gloves from William Read. I don't have any facts to back it up but based on reading through the catalogs and handling a few of the gloves, they aren't similar to Stall & Dean gloves based on my experiences with them. I've not seen a S&D with the rolled leather piping or buckle back. Plus, the leather the gloves are made from are different too - the S&D is thinner.