TOC Peerless Baseball Uniform

[vintagesportscollector]

Picked up this turn of century uniform earlier in the week. It arrived today and I’m pretty excited about it. It’s a Peerless brand and I am dating it c. 1905 based on all the features. I also have a Peerless catalog from 1905. It’s a small size, probably youth, but it’s still very desirable for me. It has some great features, and some features I don’t currently have in my uni collection. I believe the E. & M. stands for East Moline, ILL.

- Full Collar
- Full Length Sleeves (rare) (I have full collar unis, and I have a full length sleeve unis, but I don’t have the combination of full collar and full length sleeves)
- Quilted padded pants
- Web Belt
- Peerless brand, also know as “Ratsch’s Peerless” (rare and desirable)

http://www.geocities.com/vintagespor...erlessUni.html

The seller had no idea what she had. The auction description was poor and the pictures were terrible. There wasn’t even a picture that showed the jersey clearly. I was hoping it would go pretty much unnoticed, but some people did find it and I ended up paying $480. I feel it could have gone much higher with a better auction. The seller was so shocked at how high it did go that she didn’t even charge me for shipping and insurance!!

-Joe

[Swoboda4]

Joe-Great uniform in terrific condition. Have you seen quilted pants before in vintage uniforms? Why would there be an "&" between "E." and "M." if signifying East Moline? Catalog is great also. Sorry for dumb questions just getting into Vintage stuff(Modern/present day G/U items are losing their innocence).
Robert

[vintagesportscollector]

Thanks Robert. The East Moline is really a guess, not sure about that and have no evidence. That's just what the seller told me, but I too questoned why there would be a '&' then. Made sense when she said it, as she was from that area, but now that I think about it that could be wrong.

Quilted padding was incorporated into uniform pants in the 1880s and pretty much went out style by 1910. They are rare to find, but all pre-1910 uniforms are hard to come by. This is the first padded pants I have owned.

[vintagesportscollector]

Learned something new in my research in case anyone cares .

Turns out that the "Peerless" or "Ratsch Peerless" Brand was a brand of the Chicago Sporting Good MFG. Co. Chicago Sporting Goods was a mid size MFG who were acquired by Thos. E. Wilson (Wilson) in 1919. I have a early (c. 1900-10) bat with a Chicago Sporting Good MFG. Co label, but haven't seen many items with their label on it. Mastro sold this great adverting PC last year for Peerless Uniforms.

[slidekellyslide]

Hey Joe, I knew that the Peerless name was familiar to me...now I know why...You jogged my memory with that postcard. Now you're going to have to track one down to display with your uni.