1850' baseball team players belt
 

Original 1850's baseball team leather belt " woodmont" n0.5
purchased from collector who told me that it been passed down from a south carolina family to him. Fabulous early belt. I examined it, except for the lock, which i think was replaced, look and smells original. Fellow collector. Please look at the belt. Any additional information would be very helpful. It measure 46 1/2 inches. Thank you

Neat belt and certainly resembles an old baseball belt but it also resembles a fireman's belt too. Any way of knowing for sure which it is?

Belt
 

If this was picked up on your Connecticut trip in could be something related to the woodmont fire station in Milford ct which also happens to be station #5

Prob dates closer to 1890's and likely fire/baseball related (possible to be used on both unis)

with the number 5 attached I would say fireman not baseball

That's a nice belt and in good condition. I've casually collected these belts for the past year or so and concur with others regarding dating to late 19th century and multi-purpose. Without provenance, it's difficult to determine true purpose. I think there are 1-2 examples out there which have 'BBC' listed on them...those are beyond difficult to find.

Regardless, these are beautiful displays pieces and Cairns and Bros. were the primary manufacturers...you'll sometimes find them with the brand mark on the belts. Here's the display that I've put together.

A great resource is the NYC fire museum. Do a search for 'belt' and you'll see some superb early examples.

While I am no expert on belts, I would that the belt is almost definitely Fire, or perhaps Police, Dept related. The reason I say this is the cut out around the number 5. It's the shape of a badge. I can't think of any reason a baseball team would have the number cutout shaped like this. I think something more generic, like a star, square, or plain circle could be anything, but a badge is a pretty specific shape.

EDIT: I just went to the NYC Fire Museum website. On page 4 of the search results for "belt" are photos of 3 belts with number loops all shaped with the exact same shield cutout surrounding the number.

1850's baseball players belt
 

Yes: This belt can also be a fireman's belt. Fireman had baseball teams and i believe it to be that. The #5 on the belt tells me that the player wore this number. Since most uniform didn't have numbers on them, they did have numbers on their belt. Legendary auction several years ago sold a similar belt also with a number on the belt that was identified as a fire dept baseball team. Thanks for all your information. In conclusion, this could have come from ct and not sc. Either way a great belt. I am in the process of buying a knickerbocker belt also from the same time period. Will keep you all posted.

Unless I misunderstood this statement, I don't think this is accurate. The #5 represents the station or hose company # as pointed out in a previous post.

If you're somehow able to obtain a period Knickerbocker belt, that would be quite impressive.

http://www.robertedwardauctions.com/.../2006/664.html

Many early baseball teams were comprised of firemen, but this looks quite a bit later than 1850's, and most likely a fireman's belt. Need to do a lot more research on this one.

Probably a Fireman's belt, even Big "Poppi" of Red Sox does not have that large of a waist.

Joe

I agree. I think the number is not a player number, but a station number as Dave stated as well.

From what I've read, as early base ball unis were often patterned from fire and police unis, this is still a really impressive item...

Cooperstown belt
 

The knickerbocker belt will not happen but, i will have a cooperstown belt very soon. The cooperstown belt dates to 1860's. I will post photos when i finalize the deal. Thanks for all information on the belts.

Did a image search for 1880's firemen's belt on google, many images look like yours
Mike