Vintage Baseball Glove Questions

[aelefson]

Hi
Thank you! I thought it was a little too big (and cheapish) to be a salesman sample but I wanted to find out because I have never seen what a sample looks like. I really appreciate the scans above. I was still curious if anyone knew an approximate date on the glove. When did plastic begin to be used for gloves?
Thanks,
Alan

[william_9]

Alan, I would venture to guess that your mitt is a 1930's child's glove. To the best of my knowledge, there wasn't any plastic being used in gloves prior to the 30's. They are fairly common at antique shops. I've never seen an adult sized Winfield glove. They may be some kind of mail-in promotional item or something to that effect.

I've seen a few of the Spalding gloves shown above. They pop up from time to time. I think they are kids gloves. Most often, they have wear that is consistent with heavy use. Much more abuse than would be expected on a sample. When you can see sweat marks, it's been used a lot. Spalding's line of kids gloves had a high and a low end as well. The above example looks like a near high-end glove. The top of the line would have leather piping, most likely folded instead of rolled to save on cost.

[aelefson]

Thanks William! I really appreciate the information you provided. I always have difficulties determining approximate dates for gloves.
Alan