W H Brine co

[cubsrno1]

I have a couple of early gloves from this company. One is a sewn web and the other a single loop. I have heard of James Brine out of Boston, but i cannot find any info on W H Brine also out of Boston. Are they the same company? Does anyone have any info about this?

thanks
joel

[mikesglove]

William Henry Brine was the nephew of James W. Brine. James was part of a family business, Brine Bros. & Co. They were general and athletic clothiers in the Cambridge and Boston area in the 1870's. Brine Bros. & Co. disbanded and the Brine family split into six independent stores selling general clothing, athletic outfits and equipment to the many schools in the area by the 1880's. Some of the family members did well and others did not. James Brine was very successful and became a well established supplier of athletic goods. William Brine worked for his uncle James and in 1922 William left his uncle's employ and established W.H. Brine Co. William sold athletic goods and eventually specialized and became renowned in Soccer and Lacrosse gear. W.H. Brine was bought out by New Balance in 2006.

Here are a couple of W.H. Brine gloves




Another of the Brine brothers, J. B. Brine put out an athletic goods catalog in the late 1880's. I found it on JD's website.

J.B. Brine went bankrupt in 1891 and his inventory was sold to J.F. Morrill Co. That is John Morrill, the star ballplayer and inventor who eventually went into the sporting goods business himself. J. B. Brine went on to find work as a manager of an A.G. Spalding store.

After William Brine left to form his own company, James W. Brine applied to the patent office in 1922 to protect the logos that he had been using informally since 1895.


here is a stellar early James W. Brine glove showing both logos.



A couple of early ads.




A colorful 1924 catalog


The "Doak" model at top and the "Demon" model below


A nice early glove box


Another stellar Brine glove with a later style cloth patch. Note the interesting variation of the rainey trap web, sewn to the forefinger and laced to the thumb. Pretty cool.



Here is another Brine "Bill Werber" glove, the "Checker" model


Here are couple of Brine gloves with the "Checker" patch The model below is one of Brett's beauties.


The rare "Herb Pennock" model below.




I really dig those "Checker" patches and have been trying figure the reasoning for them. The Bill Werber "Checker" model helped me by identifying how a glove is advertised, such as a "SureCatch" or "SpeedBoy" model. So let's say "Checker" is meant to advertise the glove in some way. it may be best to be a New Englander to figure it out and near an Ivy League school. Lacrosse had a long history was way popular in schools such as Harvard. In Lacrosse, the position of "Checker" keeps the "Dodger" (the one with the ball) from getting past. Makes sense to me but I'm from the west coast and not to be trusted. Who knows, maybe it had something to do with Checker Cab. Anyway James W. Brine Co. remained successful and changed hands through six generations of the Brine family. In 2004 the name was changed to Brine Sporting Goods and continues today

[Bill247]

Here'a a close up of the label from another Brine/Werber/Checker. I've seen the glove in a 1935 catalog without the Bill Werber endorsement.

[mikesglove]

here is another Brine "Checker" model with "Bill Werber" endorsement. This was sold on ebay recently. Looks to be the same model as the USCG glove above. Interesting tied wrist strap.

[vintagebrett]

It's possible the name derived from lacrosse but as a New Englander, I can't offer any assurance that's where it came from. Hopefully someday some catalogs will turn up that will help solve the mystery!

[Bill247]

Here's what the second Brine/Werber looks like after a little clean up.[img][/imIMG]http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa441/Bill247PR/BrineA6BillWerber2-4.jpg[/img]g]

[mikesglove]

Bill, that's a good job of getting rid of those marks at the heel. If you have an illustration and description of the "Checker" glove from a 1935 catalog, please by all means post it here.

[mikesglove]

here is a nice pair of W.H. Brine handball gloves. The dark brown seam protectors at the finger crotches was invented by Bert Kennedy in 1926. He was one of the principals of KenWel Sporting goods.