Show your favorite 19th century bat

[Archive]

Posted By: John Harrell

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.

John

[Archive]

Posted By: Dan Bretta

I like my Victor Sporting Goods bats - I love the winged baseball.

[Archive]

Posted By: John Harrell

Dan,

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.

John

[Archive]

Posted By: Dan Bretta

John, I have two of them...I edited my pics to show both. #97 and #99.

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.

[Archive]

Posted By: Clint

This is the only 19th century bat I own. It was actually made into the early 1900's as well.

[Archive]

Posted By: John Harrell

I love the old ring bats!! Yours is unusual as not too many show rings low on the handle.
Here's one of mine.

John

[Archive]

Posted By: Clint

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.

[Archive]

Posted By: John Harrell

I never saw or heard of his auction. Would love to see pics from his catalog.

John

P.S. I edited the incomplete bat pic I posted previously.

[Archive]

Posted By: barrysloate

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.

[Archive]

Posted By: Clint

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.

[Archive]

Posted By: John Harrell

Clint,

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.

John

[Archive]

Posted By: Rob L

Townball bat:



Reach ring bat:



Unknown maker, this one has a repair on it with square nails:



Rob L

[Archive]

Posted By: Dan Bretta

This bat has always had me curious as to it's age. There are no manufacturers markings and it is 33.5" long.

[Archive]

Posted By: John Harrell

Your bat looks untapered which, with the flat end, I'm thinking would put it in the 1870-80 range.
Here's an oval townball bat, 30 inches long.

John

[Archive]

Posted By: Clint

John, here's a couple more bats from that auction.

[Archive]

Posted By: Clint

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.

[Archive]

Posted By: John Harrell

Clint,

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.

John

Here's an 1860's bat with a thin barrel and very heavy, made of hickory.

[Archive]

Posted By: Mike H

This is a 36 1/2 ring bat from the 1890s
[IMG][/IMG]

Next is a Spalding ring from the same period
[IMG][/IMG]

I'm not sure of the date on this bat. Could be 1890s or early 1900s
[IMG][/IMG]

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
[IMG][/IMG]

[Archive]

Posted By: Greg Theberge

very cool bats guys

[Archive]

Posted By: Joe K.

37.5 inches STANDARD ring bat.