‘Calamity’: Old Football Injury

American football, which evolved from soccer and rugby, was developed on college campuses in the Northeast beginning in 1880. The first intercollegiate “football” game, between Rutgers and Princeton in 1869, actually had been a soccer match.

The early games were violent and filled with excessive pushing and shoving. They attracted crowds of fans. Some 40,000 attended a game in 1893.

James Bowen, a mechanical-bank designer for J&E; Stevens of Cromwell, Conn., created a cast-iron football bank named “A Calamity,” which featured three players. The ballcarrier moved forward when a coin was placed in the slot. At the same time, the two defenders moved, and the three figures’ heads clashed.

Few of the banks have survived. The bumping probably damaged the figures.

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Q: I have a mission-style wooden wall clock with an eight-day wind and a brass pendulum. Pasted on the back is a label with printed instructions and the name “The National Clock & Mfg. Co., Chicago, Ill.” What can you tell me about it?

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A: The plain, rectangular mission style dates your clock to about 1910.

The National Clock & Manufacturing Co. in Chicago did not manufacture clocks but sold models made by some famous companies, including Ingraham and Sessions.

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Q: I have a figurine of three little girls in Dutch costumes. Their dresses are decorated with a windmill design. On the bottom of the figurine is the word “Delft.” What can you tell me about the figurine?

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A: Delft is a tin-glazed pottery that has been made since the 17th century. It is decorated with blue on white or with colored decorations.

Most of the pieces sold today were made in Holland after 1891. Those pieces are marked with “Holland” and the factory mark. Pottery marked with the word “Delft” alone was usually made in other countries.

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Q: The backs of my spoons are marked “P.B. Sadtler & Son.” Can you tell me when and where this silver company operated?

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A: Philip B. Sadtler was born in 1771 in Germany. He immigrated to Baltimore in 1799. By 1800 he had opened a shop in Baltimore that later became “Philip B. Sadtler & Son.”

Your spoons date from sometime before 1860. Philip died that year, and his son, George T., and grandsons, George W. and C. Herbert, continued the firm under the name “George T. Sadtler & Sons” until 1923.

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Q: What is the difference between solid gold and 14-karat gold?

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A: The terms used on jewelry to explain gold content are covered by several laws.

Pure gold is “24-karat gold.” If it is “14-karat gold,” it is 14 parts pure gold and 10 parts other metal.

“Solid gold” means it is not hollow. The piece also should include a karat mark.

“Gold filled,” “gold overlay,” “rolled gold” and “electroplated gold” are terms that indicate the metal object has been covered with a thin layer of gold.

“Gold wash” or “gold flash” means an even thinner coating of gold.

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Q: The vintage hats we have seen at antique shows often have “size 22” on a tag sewn inside.

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A: A “size 22” label inside a hat is a clue that the hat was a machine-made woman’s hat. It probably was made after World War I.

Women’s hats in the United States are sized using inches. The 22-inch size is the most common.

Mass-produced and machine-made women’s hats were made at the end of the 19th century.

Most hats were not precisely sized until the 1920s.

If you wish other information about antiques, include a self-addressed, stamped (55 cents) envelope, and the Kovels will send you a listing of helpful books and publications. Write to the Kovels, The Los Angeles Times, King Features Syndicate, 235 E. 45th St., New York, NY 10017.

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Current Prices

Current prices are recorded from antique shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary by location because of economic conditions.

* Cookbook, “Swift’s Little Cook,” Swift & Co., lift chef’s hat to reveal recipes, 36 pages, 1900: $25.

* Fiesta fruit bowl, chartreuse, individual, 5 1/2 inches: $30.

* Advertising bookmark, No. 1 Penny Chocolate Candies, yellow with red trim, celluloid, circa 1890: $55.

* Depression glass tumbler, pink, Queen Mary pattern, footed, 5 inches: $60.

* Harold Lloyd doll, jointed, celluloid, flesh color, right hand holding white straw hat, Japan, 1920s, 4 inches: $75.

* Wiener Werkstatte figurine, dachshund, curled up and sleeping, white glaze, gray collar, circa 1910, 9 inches: $290.

* Disneyana, salt-and-pepper shakers, mushrooms from “Fantasia,” Vernon Kiln, 1940s, 5 inches: $300.

* Cocktail dress, black lace over nude silk bodice, Mainbocher, Size 12, 1950s: $410.

* Tall, eight-day, case clock, date and second hand, oak, Glasgow, Scotland, circa 1812, 81 inches: $2,200.

* Gustav Stickley writing desk, No. 720, oak, pigeonholes, two drawers, 1910, 30 inches: $2,760.