Wednesday, April 01, 2009

The Seamless Baseball

Here is a interesting photo from the Shorpy photoblog from 1925 featuring a seamless baseball created by inventor Samuel Castle and patented in 1883.
The lack of seams is achieved by repeated dipping in gutta percha (a natural latex) which builds up a durable leather-like surface.
Apparently, the ball was found in the archives of the patent office while they were doing some housecleaning. Below is a copy of the patent. If you click the photo it will take you to more patent information.

Old Judge: Brooklyn Rarities

Lew Lipset, proprietor of the Old Judge Auctions, is currently running his April offering. Lew is one of the old sages of the vintage card hobby. Few people have as much knowledge and experience with old cardboard as this man. He was the writer of The Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards that originally came out in 1983 that focused on pre-WWII Baseball cards and, subsequently, ran the Old Judge Newsletter for 10 years beginning in 1985 that updated information from this volume.

Enough of the hero worship, though, below are a couple of nice Brooklyn Dodger items. The T3 Turkey Reds set is one of the more gorgeous of pre-WWII cards. You have to see one for yourself to truly appreciate the artwork. A couple of years ago at the National Convention in Anaheim I had a chance to see proofs in mint condition of the original set and they blew me away. Those cards truly deserve to be hung on the wall of a museum. This lot consist of 3 Brooklyn teammates: Bill Dahlen, Tim Jordon and Matty McIntyre. I have yet to ever add one of these cards to my collection, but I do have a handful of the boxing version of these cards- known as T9's.

Here is a cabinet card produced by Joseph Hall Studios in Brooklyn that features the 1890 Brooklyn Bridegrooms (Dodgers). These rarely ever come up for auction. 17 different players are featured.