Target Balls: an introduction to items made to be broken

In more than one area Alex Kerr has made a name for himself; he is widely read as the shotgun editor of Guns and Ammo magazine, his sports equipment store in Hollywood is world famous, he is the son of the founder of Kerr glass, and has one of the top fruit jar collections in America.

And, if you mention the words “target balls” to most collectors, one name comes to mind: Alex Kerr.

For an introduction to a unique area of collecting – items made to be destroyed – read on.

By Alex Kerr

Target balls are a form of the glassblower's art that does not under any classification of collecting, as we know it today. They are not bottles of any type yet they were produced in almost the same manner.

I know of no other type of glass articles, which is as difficult to locate. In seeking them out I have ended up with offers of lightning rod balls, Japanese fishing floats, Christmas tree ornaments, witches' balls, dentists alcohol lamps and even a few bottles.

This situation exists because about 99 percent of those people who have a target ball do not know what it really is.

Fortunately, most of them were attractive enough to be kept. Many ended up where lots of people thought they belonged – on Christmas trees. I have received many throughout the years with hairpins or other pieces of wire inserted into them in order to form necessary loop to use them as a tree decoration.

Trying to research the makers of these items is one of the most difficult tasks of all. A few have patent dates on them, but only a very small amount of these were produce by the patentee. So far I have only uncovered four which have the name of the maker on the ball. As in most cases the patentee was seldom the maker.

Target balls were sold through three channels:

- The manufacturer who had his own patent;

- A name brand such as Bogardus, who designed his target ball and sold it through sporting goods wholesalers;

- Glassmakers who sold them directly from there glass plants to wholesalers. Plain target balls fitted mainly into this category.

Very seldom did the glassmaker illustrate a glass ball in his ads. However, many ads for these appeared in many sporting magazines of the day.

Some of the popular brand names, such as Bogardus and Ira Paine, had their target balls made by several different glassmakers throughout the country as well as some Bogardus balls made in England.

So far we only know of three countries that had glassmakers producing target balls: the United States, Canada and England.

Many beautiful colors of target balls were made. As these balls were to be thrown into the air to be shot, they had to be easily seen. Very few were made in aqua or clear glass, as they were most difficult to see against the sky.

The most popular color was amber, with medium blue following a close second, and purple or amethyst a distant third. In fourth place were various colors of green.

In addition to the above-mentioned colors there were some balls that were almost black, some Vaseline glass and a purple that was almost black.

Some of the balls are plain and some have patterns or very high embossing. The idea behind this was to have the ridges of the pattern (the high embossing) to keep the shot from ricocheting off the target ball and not breaking it. Obviously, this type of ball was more expensive to make as the molds were more expensive than molds for plain balls.

Target balls had to be made to do two opposite things:

They had to be strong enough to withstand the impact of starting it through the air at approximately 60 miles an hour and not breaking;

They had to be easily broken when hit by only one small lead pellet.

Target ball collecting, as an investment can be one of the riskiest forms of glass collecting. Unlike bottles and jars, which seem to still pop up here and there, target balls, which may be rare or as yet unheard of, may still be found in large quantities.

In a sense, they were one of the early forms of nonreturnable bottles, as they were made to be broken. Because of this the only balls kept were those which were picked up off the ground after they were missed or those that were left over from a shooting match and kept in storage.

The use of target balls in competition covered only a few years, as the clay pigeon was perfected within four or five years after target ball shooting became popular.

The main use of target balls after the invention of the clay pigeon was in Wild West shows such as Buffalo Bill's, in which Annie Oakley was the main attraction.

Shoots were often held on farmland near towns, and broken glass littering the ground proved harmful; grazing cattle, sheep and pigs cut their noses when feeding in these areas. Pigs even fed on broken clay pigeons which proved to be poisonous to them.

IRA PAINE'S FILLED BALL PAT. APL'D FOR

In some locations gun clubs shot over lakes or ponds and many target balls have been recovered by skin divers.

The occasional finding of target balls in large quantities often makes a once comparatively scarce item suddenly available in great quantities, such as from barrels of 100 to 200.

Obviously, when this happens, a scarce target ball becomes more common and less valuable depending on the quantity found. As of this writing, barrels full of plain amber Bogardus and N.B. Glassworks (English) have shown up in this manner.

Fortunately, no one really knows how many target balls exist in their various types and prices range from extremely low to very high, depending on how scarce the ball may be in a dealer's area.

I have seen them offered for 10 times as much in an area where target ball shooting was non-existent, as in areas where shooting was common.

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