Peck & Snyder and first baseball glove patent?

[mikesglove]

Carmi recently contributed a 1882 Peck & Snyder catalog to the library section of JD's web site http://www.baseballglovecollector.com The fingerless glove illustrated was different than other pictures i have seen. The laced back is super cool.



The advertisement included patent information from 1878. Given Doug Allison's experiments with catchers gloves in the 1870's, this patent has to be one of the earliest. The patent description identified this as a sports glove and included an option for a half-fingered model. The patent was submitted by Austin C. Butts. He was a glove manufacturer in East Orange, New Jersey. He began business in 1874 and developed a thriving trade in fine leather hand gloves and sporting gloves. He used different materials depending upon the use, kid glove leather, castor, buck and fur. he became known for the quality of his workmanship and eventually operated in a three story building and had numerous employees. He developed a patent for boxing gloves in addition to his baseball glove patents.


The 1878 patent was improved in 1883 by Austin Butts with a more efficient way to cut out the leather forms. A business industry periodical in Essex County, NJ. touted his new invention of the open back sports glove.


Andrew Peck and Irving Snyder joined forces after the Civil War mainly in the manufacture of baseballs. They grew into Peck & Snyder Sporting Goods and sold sports, gymnasium and recreational equipment.


Around 1869 they began to take photos of the various professional baseball teams and used the back of the cards as advertisement for their business. Peck & Snyder used various locations on Nassau St and at the corner with Ann St. in New York City. Baseball card collectors consider these photo/advertisement cards as the first baseball cards and there is a lot of discussion on the net54 forum.



below is an 1874 newspaper ad


Irving Snyder joined A.G. Spalding's world tour in 1888 to promote baseball. Snyder wanted the opportunity to expand Peck & Snyder's Sporting Goods market into foreign countries. A.G. Spalding eventually purchased Peck & Snyder Sporting Goods in 1894. Spalding took over the Peck & Snyder building in New York as their new offices. The 1937 Spalding catalog below has the old Peck & Snyder address of 105 Nassau St. written on the cover.

[softball66]

Peck & Snyder was obviously a "player" in the sporting goods business in the immediate post civil war era. I remember from the baseball novel "If I Never Get Back" by Darryl Brock, part of the story was about the teams deciding if they were going to use a Peck & Snyder "dead ball" or a "live ball" for one the games they were about to play.
Have any of these laced P&S gloves turned up?

[vintagebrett]

There was a peck & Snyder catalog on eBay within the last year that was super cool. I don't recall there being gloves in it but there was a baseball called "dead red" and it was indeed red - I thought I saved a picture but can't find it right now.

[mikesglove]

Here is an 1877 ad that lists The "Red Dead" ball that Brett mentions among other sporting goods items . Pretty cool bat! No mention of baseball gloves yet. The A.C. Butts glove patent was a year away. Boston pitcher A.G. Spalding mentions fellow ball player first baseman Charles Waite donning thin men's dress gloves for a game in 1875. That style glove was eventually sold through Peck & Snyder and may be related to the A.C. Butts patent and his glove manufacturing company. The Peck & Snyder headquarters in NYC. was very close to the Austin Butts factory in New Jersey. One thing about Peck & Snyder was their early involvement in all types of sporting goods. They were well positioned to readily accept and include baseball equipment in their catalogs.
Here i

[deebro041]

Oddly enough i just read this tonight in Preston D. Orem's book Baseball 1845-1881. The Dead Red Ball was introduced August 1 1870. Trying to upload scans but having issues lol.
Dan

[mikesglove]

Below is a billhead from 1886. It may be for catchers gloves?

[mikesglove]

Here is a link to a full sporting goods catalog from Peck & Snyder in 1873. It is pretty cool. There are a lot of baseball items, in color no less!https://archive.org/stream/pecksnydersencyc00peck#page/n3/mode/2up

[mikesglove]

The Peck & Snyder catalog link above was a little early for gloves. There were two interesting bats however. The ad below is for a Lyman's Patent bat. It is a really zany concept incorporating a lignum vitae sliding weight inside the bat. I could not find any info on the patent or the inventor but it seems to be circa 1870. The ad below came from a 1871 Chicago Cubs scorecard. The bat looks to have been manufactured by a firm in Chicago and sold through a local hardware store. Both businesses were destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire in October 1871.


Peck and Snyder of New York subsequently marketed the Lyman bat in their catalog.


Another Zany invention was the Hill Patent Spring Bat. Slots were cut longitudinally through the barrel. This was an attempt to give the struck ball some spring action. Rubber or rawhide could be placed in the slots to dampen the spring affect to suit the ballplayer. The end of the barrel was capped by a metal band.


Below is the patent for the Spring bat in 1866. Seems like a really early bat design. I don't collect bats, but both the Lyman and Hill models seem incredibly rare and desirable.