Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>John Harrell</b><p>I like odd shaped or unusual 19th century bats. Do you have a favorite? If so, I'd love to see it. Here's one of the first 19th century bats I picked up and still one of my favorites. This old oak monster must weigh 3 lbs at least and I really like the flat barrel end of that time period.<br /><br />John<br /><br /><img src="http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa161/jvharrell/Oak1880sbat-1.jpg">

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>Dan Bretta</b><p>I like my Victor Sporting Goods bats - I love the winged baseball.<br /><br /> <img src="http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b331/nudan92/Vintage%20Baseball%20Memorabilia/victorbats001.jpg"><br /> <img src="http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b331/nudan92/Vintage%20Baseball%20Memorabilia/victorbats004.jpg">

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>John Harrell</b><p>Dan,<br /><br />I have a Wright, Ditson, & Victor youth bat and have seen other Victor bats, but i don't recall seeing the Flying Baseball. Great bat.<br /><br />John

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>Dan Bretta</b><p>John, I have two of them...I edited my pics to show both. #97 and #99.<br /><br />About 4-5 months back there was a victor ring bat on ebay - I think it sold for $1400. That was the most beautiful baseball bat I have ever seen. I should have saved the pics to my computer.

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>Clint</b><p>This is the only 19th century bat I own. It was actually made into the early 1900's as well.<br /><img src="http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z186/ksfarmboy/S5000121.jpg"><br /><img src="http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z186/ksfarmboy/S5000122.jpg">

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>John Harrell</b><p>I love the old ring bats!! Yours is unusual as not too many show rings low on the handle.<br />Here's one of mine.<br /><br />John<br /><br /><img src="http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa161/jvharrell/BatPicturesII005-2.jpg">

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>Clint</b><p>Great bats John. Did you ever see the auction for Mark Rucker's memorabilia? He had some incredible 19th century baseball items including several bats. My copy is buried somewhere but if I find it I'll post some pictures.

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>John Harrell</b><p>I never saw or heard of his auction. Would love to see pics from his catalog.<br /><br />John<br /><br />P.S. I edited the incomplete bat pic I posted previously.

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>barrysloate</b><p>Mark sold his collection in 1995 through Bill Mastro. In those days, catalogs were thin and items were not well photographed. I'm not sure it would be easy to scan the bats from his collection clearly.

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>Clint</b><p>Well after trying to find this catalog for 6 months bingo! John here is one of the bats I was talking about. I'll post more tomorrow. Mark had some incredible 19th century baseball memorabilia with over 450 lots including bats, cdvs, cabinets and much more.<br /><img src="http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z186/ksfarmboy/old.jpg">

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>John Harrell</b><p>Clint,<br /><br />Great bat!! The evolution of bat shapes fascinates me, which is why I got into old bats in the first place. This is a great example of the 1870's time period, with the straight taper. I've got a couple from that period but none with painted rings.<br /><br />John<br /><br /><img src="http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa161/jvharrell/BatPicturesII034-1.jpg">

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>Rob L</b><p>Townball bat:<br /><br /><img src="http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f258/loefflerrd/1850cEarlyFlatMushroom32InBaseballB.jpg"><br /><br />Reach ring bat:<br /><br /><img src="http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f258/loefflerrd/c1880s-90sReachRingBat.jpg"><br /><br />Unknown maker, this one has a repair on it with square nails:<br /><br /><img src="http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f258/loefflerrd/c1880shomemadebatwithsquarenailsfor.jpg"><br /><br />Rob L

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>Dan Bretta</b><p>This bat has always had me curious as to it's age. There are no manufacturers markings and it is 33.5" long.<br /><br /><img src="http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b331/nudan92/Vintage%20Baseball%20Memorabilia/unkbat006.jpg"><br /><img src="http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b331/nudan92/Vintage%20Baseball%20Memorabilia/unkbat004.jpg"><br /><img src="http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b331/nudan92/Vintage%20Baseball%20Memorabilia/unkbat003.jpg">

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>John Harrell</b><p>Your bat looks untapered which, with the flat end, I'm thinking would put it in the 1870-80 range.<br />Here's an oval townball bat, 30 inches long.<br /><br />John<br /><br /><img src="http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa161/jvharrell/Ovalbuntingbat.jpg">

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>Clint</b><p>John, here's a couple more bats from that auction.<br /><img src="http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z186/ksfarmboy/ob.jpg">

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>Clint</b><p>I bought this from an old baseball bat dealer who aquired it from a long time collector. He had some great bats and I passed up a Ty Cobb for this. I thought it was a baseball bat at the time but it may not be. It's 42 inches long.<br /><img src="http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z186/ksfarmboy/S5000124.jpg">

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>John Harrell</b><p>Clint,<br /><br />It's a bat, I'm fairly sure. Back then the only restrictions on bats were diameter (2 1/2 inches early and 2 3/4 inches later) and 42 inches in length, which is still the length maximum today. Those looonnnggg bats are very unusual. Longest one I have is 40 inches.<br /><br />John<br /><br />Here's an 1860's bat with a thin barrel and very heavy, made of hickory.<br /><br /><img src="http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa161/jvharrell/1860sbat.jpg">

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>Mike H</b><p>This is a 36 1/2 ring bat from the 1890s<br />[IMG]<img src="http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q304/mjkm90/IMG_0138.jpg">[/IMG]<br /><br />Next is a Spalding ring from the same period<br />[IMG]<img src="http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q304/mjkm90/IMG_0142.jpg">[/IMG]<br /><br />I'm not sure of the date on this bat. Could be 1890s or early 1900s<br />[IMG]<img src="http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q304/mjkm90/IMG_0144.jpg">[/IMG]<br /><br />This is the first bat I added to my collection. It came from a barn sale in central Indiana back in the early 90s for $8.00 It looks like a town ball bat, but is round. No sure way to date it but it looks mid to late 1800s<br />[IMG]<img src="http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q304/mjkm90/IMG_0143.jpg">[/IMG]

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>Greg Theberge</b><p>very cool bats guys

Show your favorite 19th century bat
 

Posted By: <b>Joe K.</b><p>37.5 inches STANDARD ring bat.<br /><br /><img src="http://img460.imageshack.us/img460/9286/mmm051je9.jpg"><br /><br />