BASEBALL

ANTIQUE BASEBALL

DISPLAY PIECES

click photo to enlarge

Baseball Artifacts

from

1868 - 1915

collection of author

click photos to enlarge

close ups

These are my antique baseball things. One of the players in the photo that is leaning against the catchers mask is Fred Thayer. Thayer is credited with inventing the catchers mask. It's a photo of some Harvard players. I got that on eBay from scgaynor. I couldn't believe I got it for some ridiculously low bottom fish bid I put on, like a hundred dollars or something. I thought it'd go for serious dough being Fred Thayer. But that's eBay; ya never know! Gaynor is one eBay's most prolific dealers of sports memorabilia. All the serious sports collectors know about him and watch his auctions. But they missed old Fred!. The bat at dead center is of course the Estey bat I wrote about. The pill box baseball cap I got from Josh Evans at a National in Chicago about fifteen years ago. He said he's gotten it from some guy out of Boston. The jersey, catchers mask, and Cornell broadside poster, all came from Mark Rucker, about fifteen years ago as well. I'll go into the statues latter.

ADDENDA

4/30/07

CLICK PHOTOS

9 1/2" tall

Baseball batter and catcher statues by P.Testi

IMPORTANT BASEBALL STATUES

ADDED TO COLLECTION

Above are photos of two baseball statues I recently purchased off eBay from Heritage Gallery of Dallas Texas. There are only a handful of important baseball statues produced before 1920. These were a very welcome addition to my collection, as I'd wanted them many years.

They were sculpted by P. Testi. Each is marked "Copyright 1910, P. Mori, P. Testi, NY." I believe P. Mori was the foundry or foundry technician. The sculptor also did a football player, and a track runner. I have the track runner, which can be seen on the far right of this photo below, it's the bronze colored runner.

Testi also did a public monument somewhere in New Jersey. Can't recall the city as it's been so long since I researched him. Testi also did a pitcher, which you can see in the photo below of a very rare trophy.

These are galvano castings. Galvano castings were made by casting a statue in plaster, then electroplating them with copper, then applying a patina. Since bronze is mostly copper , galvano pieces look similiar to bronze castings. They have a soft feel to them. There are contemporary castings of Testi baseball players, but they are solid bronze. That is how you can tell the contemporary castings from the originals. Below is a very rare trophy which utilized the Testi figures. I have not examined this trophy in person, but they are probably cast in white metal, although I've never actually seen any white metal examples before.

Below a few extra

close up shots of my Testi statues

Further commentary on these items, and the interesting subject of antique baseball display pieces is forthcoming, please check back. Thanks for your patience - Carlton