Help with dating 4 older bats - Spalding, Axletree ring, etc
 

Hey guys,
My dad picked up these bats recently, the 3 larger bats in a group, and the smaller reach bat by itself, and was curious if you could help me with dating of them. I believe the Axletree bat to be circa 1890s but I could be wrong, and I don't really have much of a clue on dating the other 3. Also, if anyone can point me towards a good resource for dating bats, that would be awesome as well.

The 4 bats are:
1. A Spalding Axletree ring bat with No O. X. below the Spalding mark. The bat is 35 inches long, has lathe marks, and is in very nice shape except for the very faded rings. There are 2 rings evident at the end of the bat.

2. A Spalding Model 200 bat. This bat is just a hair under 35 inches long, and has the Spalding trademark on both the knob and barrel end.

3. A Hillerich & Bradsby Co Bing-Go No 20 bat, with Louisville BingGo in cursive towards the barrel. The bat is a hair under 35 inches long.

4. A Reach bat with lathe marks that is a smaller bat measuring about 25 inches long. The bat is marked with AJ Reach Co - 87.

Any help would be appreciated.
Keith
Here are some photos of them:

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/p...skin/bats1.jpg
http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/p...skin/bats2.jpg
http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/p...skin/bats3.jpg
http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/p...skin/bats4.jpg
http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/p...skin/bats5.jpg
http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/p...skin/bats6.jpg
http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/p...skin/bats7.jpg
http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/p...skin/bats8.jpg

Bat identification
 

Keith,

You've got some nice examples of Spalding, Reach, and H & B bats.

1. The Bingo bat is from the 1920's and is dated by the "question marks" on either end of the label. You can also find H & B Liberty and King of the Field bats also with the same question marks.

2. The Spalding model 200 would date from the 1910's to the mid 20's. Often the thickness of the handle can help narrow the date. In general, the thicker the handle, the earlier the bat.

3. The Reach 87 is a child's model (the 83 was the adult model) bat from the 1910's to the early 20's.

4. The Spalding Axle Tree bat is from 1880's to early 1890's and is made from an old wagon axle tree. Spalding used to advertise that they would pay for old wagon tongues and axle trees, as they were extremely hard and made excellent bats.

John Harrell

Bat aging
 

Thank you very much for your reply John. I really appreciate it.