Offered here is a smooth gutty that bears large owner’s initials carved into the ball.  It’s a documented fact that sooth gutty’s flew straighter and farther once they had a few hack marks on their surface. These initials are only on one side of the ball, but it’s a good bet that the ball would fly better than if it did not have any initials. Even so, its doubtful the purpose of the initials was to make the ball fly better, or they would be other marks on all sides of the ball.  Rather, these are the initials of an owner who wanted to keep his ball from getting mixed up with any others that might be just like it, which would be all other smooth gutty balls in similar condition.

Also providing a witness to the genuine nature of this ball is the number of strike marks on its surface, exactly what you want to see, along with the aged character of the gutta percha as explained below. Genuine smooth gutty balls are actually much rarer than feather balls and far outnumbered by not-so-genuine examples. This one is a good one, and a tremendous piece of history!

Robert Patterson's invention of the smooth gutty ball in 1845 changed the game, and the change proved to be gigantic. By 1850 the gutty ball had taken hold and the feather ball was on its way to obsolescence.  Compared to feather balls, gutta percha balls were easier to make, cost one-fourth the price, were more durable, went farther, rolled truer, were more accurate, and were impervious to wet weather—what was not to like!

Because Patterson's smooth gutty ball was easy to replicate, other makers were soon producing their own. It wasn't long before golfers figured out that a smooth gutty with strike marks flew better than one without. By the mid-1850s, ballmakers were marking up the surface of every gutty they sold.

Smooth gutty balls were formed one of two ways - either by hand or in a mold. During the earliest days of the gutty ball, smooth molds did exist but not many. Robert Patterson made one to produce his smooth gutty. His brother recalled that Robert then made molds to sell to dealers in the trade (see TCA2 v2 p762). By the mid-1850s, most ballmakers were using smooth molds.

Smooth guttys used in the late 1840s/early 1850s were typically painted. Today that paint will be old and brittle, often cracking and falling off the ball. This ball however, was not painted. The surface of the actual gutta percha itself is covered with fine cracks consistent with the age of this ball.  The cracking and crazing in the gutta percha is actually oxidation, not abuse. The oxidation to these materials is not really visible when viewing the ball from arm’s length, but when you zoom in to view the ball the oxidation cracks are easy to see. The ball is not damaged, it’s just old, and the surface of the ball has dried out over the past 170 plus years. The vast majority of the remaining solid gutty balls made in the 1890s do not exhibit age-related oxidation to the degree of this ball.