Smooth gutty golf balls are among the rarest, and most frustrating, pieces of 19th century golf memorabilia. Smooth gutties are an integral part of the history of the game - before golfers and ball makers realized that a smooth ball didn't fly as well as balls with virtually any other knicks or markings. The frustrating part, however, is that it is extremely difficult to authenticate a smooth ball. For this reason, known authentic smooth gutties often trade for substantial sums, while undocumented examples are a tough sale. On the extreme side, an authentic Paterson smooth gutty was sold not too long ago for a reported $200,000!

Offered here is the finest, and best documented, smooth gutty that we've ever encountered. This smooth gutty was part of the famous Harry B. Wood collection. Wood himself has dated the ball to 1848. It bears the well-recognized small paper label bearing Wood's handwritten notation. These labels were created by Wood in order to display his grand collection of memorabilia in the late 1800s and very early 1900s. Many of Wood’s original labels have, quite reasonably, aged poorly over the past 100+ years. But not this example, which is practically mint. Harry B. Wood began his collection in 1868, just two years after the Royal & Ancient announced their own intentions to assemble a museum. Few golf antiques share the provenance and history of items from the Harry B. Wood Collection.

This 1840s smooth gutty is unused. In fact, it still retains its untrimmed seam ring from the moulding process. 

**This exact ball appears to be depicted as Ball #10 "Smooth Gutta Ball 1848" on Plate II (between pages 6 and 7) of Harry B. Wood's "Golfing Curios and 'The Like" (1st Ed., 1910), a photo of which is shown to the right.