What Is A Workman Glove?

[david bushing]

I just bought a bunch of Yankee bats from Ingstrup and used to buy some great stuff from Pruitt. I remember buying a game worn Edd Roush Reds hat from Diebold and sold a lot of stuff to Andres. Kashmanian, I think, still has his entire collection, would be worth a small fortune today, including an original D&M bat rack. the list sure brings back a lot of fond memories. Dave

[mikesglove]

There is a new write-up on workman's gloves at http://www.baseballglovecollector.com. It is on Jim's Blog. This forum thread started in 2008 and it is interesting to compare this with Jim's Blog of April 2015. One thing about the pre-sporting goods workman's gloves is the difficulty in evaluating and authenticating. One would almost have to trace it back to the hand of the player. The tintype below from the 1880's is a baseball team photo. The catcher in the center of the picture has a pair of workman's gloves. They look like ordinary utility or hand gloves.



I found this photo of a Victorian era glove that is remarkably similar to the ballplayers glove above. It is unlined with a button closure in the front. The majority of the glove is made with out seam construction so it would be comfortable on the hand. The really unique feature is the finger stall construction, something shared with the ball player's glove above. The finger stalls have a front and back section seamed with side panel gussets. This was standard practice with hand gloves of the era.



Jerry mentioned in Jim's blog that he has seen only a few true workman's gloves. I sifted through JD's site and found only one definite example. That glove is below. It is a sporting goods ball glove and was paired with a fingerless throwing glove but it has what JD described as that "dual purpose" look. Definitely baseball but not far from a general utility function. The telling thing to me was the old style finger stall construction of this glove with front and back panels seamed with side panel gussets. That is rare to find in any early baseball glove.

[Number9]

That's exactly what I had in mind when I mentioned catcher's gloves from the 1880s and 90s when JD asked for a definition. It's clearly a "glove" with a baseball function. I don't think that makes it less of a workman style, but it exists on a fuzzy line. If you exclude the padding, it looks just like a work glove. That, along with era of manufacture, are the primary factors for me.