William Read & Sons mitt

[vintagebrett]

Here is the recent mitt that popped up on eBay. It looks like it could be the model from the catalog page posted above - I would date it to the mid 1910's as I have a 1920 catalog that has no baseball equipment and the logo is just READ. Mitt is large and well constructed but has some major cracking issues to leather on back - front leather is soft and suppple. The tag is neat and different from the earlier models that had the blue sun pattern.

[vintagebrett]

Here are some snippets from a Fall/Winter 1919 Wm Read catalog. Not sure they were still making baseball equipment at this point - most of the items are hunting related but they do have a few footballs, boxing gloves, etc. - not large line like the catalog I have from 1910.

[vintagebrett]

I added a gallery to my website with William Read items

http://www.playokantiques.com/william-read-sons/

[vintagebrett]

Been a while since I've updated to this thread - hard to locate nice items in this day and age. As all things come in spurts, here are four things I've picked up in the past month, 3 of which came together as a group.

First is an empty Wm. Read & Sons baseball box. Has a great label and nice eye appeal. Thanks to Number9 for helping me acquire this beauty.

Next is an awesome handheld scorer that is dated 1909. It's pretty small but has spectacular eye appeal and is still functioning.

This white leather full web shows some wear but still displays well - lining feels great on the hand as well. Patch is awesome too.

Saving the best for last, this incredible 1B mitt - it's very large and super well constructed. I've attached a side view just so you can see the unique build on it. An absolute forever keeper.

[mikesglove]

I like the big roll and double welting. Nice find!

[okdoak]

Love the tag on your Read glove and the grommet web on your mitt. The graphics on that scorer are outstanding, too.

[rosajr]

Wonderful, beautiful items, great items to be shared among the glove collectors but also of great historical significance. Great job as usual Brett!!

[vintagebrett]

Thanks guys! Happy to share them

[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.

I did some more research on the inventor Arthur Ferry. He was a traveling salesman living in Chicopee Falls, MA. He worked for a time with his brother Lewis Ferry who owned an insurance agency. Lewis Ferry was an original investor in the Overman Wheel Co. when it moved to Chicopee Falls in 1882. Arthur Ferry was an employee at the Overman plant in 1895. He is listed in the Chicopee Falls Directory. He had three baseball related patents, the mitt. a catchers mask and a baseball stitching clamp. The Overman Wheel Co. began as a bicycle manufacturer and started a line of sporting goods in 1893. When Overman went bankrupt in 1898, The sporting goods division was sold to Charles Whitney and became Victor Sporting Goods. I am not sure if the Arthur Ferry patent of 1906 was bought by Victor, William Read or another manufacturer.

I think the identity of the manufacturer of the mitt may lie with the unique stitching pattern above the wrist opening.

[mikesglove]

Here's a few mitts that share that feature.
A Pennant model

A Stall & Dean model

A J.C. Higgins model

[Number9]

I've been saying it for years, much to Brett's delight, but Wm Read and Stall & Dean overlap in a lot instances. I think it makes sense that S&D were the primary supplier for Wm Read. I wouldn't say they had no other suppliers for their baseball goods, but I think S&D was the source for much of it.

[Number9]

Mike, curious, do you have patent info for the stitching clamp patented by Arthur Ferry?

[mikesglove]

I looked through the catalogs of S&D and WM. Read during the 1904-06 period. The descriptions, illustrations and artwork are near identical for the catchers mitts. I was hoping to find an S&D mitt illustration with the button wrist strap. No such luck.
William, here's the baseball stitching clamp illustration. it's a Canadian patent.

[Number9]

Interesting. Thanks, Mike!

[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.

Here's a 1908 Edw. Tryon version featuring the Ferry patent wrist strap.


Here's a Tryon/Wm. Read mitt from ebay. it's one thing to restore a heavily used mitt that is mostly there and another thing to tackle a restoration of a mitt that has been heavily modified. This one is definitely in the later category. The good news , if you can call it that, is the sewn strip on the wrist opening where the Ferrry patent wrist strap once was. The heel lacing is more or less there. The rest of the mitt is pretty much a mess. The original button wrist strap is long gone, replaced by a reinforced buckle arrangement. The work looks to have been done by someone with a commercial sewing machine, a saddle or shoe maker. In addition, the whole front of the glove has been overlayed with a piece of leather. The original grommet web is long gone, replaced with leather patches.https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Antique-Leather-Catchers-Mitt-Pillow-Baseball-Glove-Turn-of-the-Century-/254446866223?&hash=item3b3e370f2f:g:EPsAAOSw19Jd7Jo5&autorefresh=true