Smooth gutty balls typically date from around 1850, when golf balls made from gutta percha were new to the game.  Examples of smooth guttys are more rare than feather balls and extremely difficult to collect. The period of time when golfers used smooth gutty balls was short. 

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.  On this ball, no paint remains.  The surface of the actual gutta percha itself is covered with fine cracks that appear 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 obvious when viewing the ball from arm’s length, but when you zoom in to view the ball, as I have with all of these images, the oxidation cracks are easy to see.  The ball is 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.

This is an outstanding ball!