A Spalding worth blowing your horn about

[Richard Lodge]

It's not quite a fishing reel "go-with" but there are some cool old referee's nickel-plated brass horns out there, mostly made in England. This one is marked by the A.G. Spalding Co.

[Mike N]

Anything AG Spalding is very cool in my book; I love the baseball logo, especially on their small burgundy cardboard fly boxes. But that, Richard, is beyond cool.Wow.

[David Lehmann]

That's cool. Is it a bike horn or fan horn? Condition looks magnificent!

[RonG]

That's a cool looking item I hadn't seen before. You could bring it to the ORCA convention to announce the start of new events. That would get everyone's attention.

[Ron Mc]

I would guess it's a fox horn.
Now you need a rolling pack of American fox hounds.

[Richard Lodge]

It's a horn used by referees in sporting events. There were quite a few different makers and different designs. It has a reed inside the mouthpiece so it's more of a "blaaaaaattttt" sound than a typical ref's whistle.

[RonG]

Richard, do you know what sporting event would use this horn?

[Richard Lodge]

Here's another ref's horn. This one, made by Lowe and Campell Athletic Goods, has a leather strap so it fits on your hand. This one is just 3 1/2" long. The Spalding horn is 6" long.

[Richard Lodge]

As for sporting events, I'm thinking it would be used by a soccer referee, or another field sport like lacrosse, rugby or field hockey. Definitely early 1900s is my guess.

[RonG]

I went to look in our Library to see if we had a Spalding catalog. We don't and I'm surprised. If one of our members would let us post a copy that would be great. I did find the horn in a page on a 1927 Spalding catalog on eBay now. It' says it's a referee horn.

[Richard Lodge]

Interesting, Ron. I was putting in the first quarter of the 1900s, so I was in the ball park, so to speak. I bet Spalding catalogs are pretty rare but one would be jammed with cool sporting goods of the era!

[Mike N]

There’s a horn on eBay made by Rawlings in England. The collector gene in each of us almost made me buy it for $20, but it is missing the mouthpiece. See what you started, Richard…

[RonG]

Hey Mike, don't try to justify anything you collect. Just have fun and learn about new things. Now I have to find one.

[Mike N]

I did find this blurb at footballarchaeolgy.com

[Richard Lodge]

I saw that one without the mouthpiece, Mike. It's all yours. Maybe John Elder can make a mouthpiece for it?

[Reel Geezer]

I used one of those when refereeing high school basketball games in the 1950s.

[Richard Lodge]

We want game photos, Phil!

[kyreels]

In this previous post about the Spalding Horn, I pointed out the similarities to boat fog horns. You could collect a bunch of these viewtopic.php?p=115043&hilit=boat+horn#p115043

[Mike N]

Richard,
Here’s an AG Spalding matchbook cover from Cincinnati, currently offered on eBay, that might strike your fancy. The 4-digit phone number leads me to believe it’s WW II-era.