RARE Antique 1915 Draper and Maynard D&M Old Leather Dog Ear Football Helmet 16H

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RARE Antique 1915 Draper and Maynard D&M Old Leather Dog Ear Football Helmet 16H:
$225.49

RARE Antique 1915 Draper and Maynard D&M Old Leather Dog Ear Football Helmet 16H
A great original piece of early sports memorabilia, this sale is for an original antique Draper and Maynard leather football helmet, model 16H. According to the internet research I could locate, this 16H model helmet was produced by D&M between 1915-1920. I was unable to find any others like it online. Two other D&M model 16H helmets I found both had a different design.
The most obvious difference I noticed between this particular helmet & those D&M helmets attributed to the 1920\'s are the size & shape of the dog ears. The ears on this helmet look longer & straight (not tapered) next to the face. There are also differences in the number of holes and number of crisscrossed leather bands along the head.
The helmet is in good condition for it\'s age & is pliable. The leather is creased & shows some scratches (it looks old!) but is free of tears. No replaced or missing pieces, no repairs. The original felt lining is also intact, although it is discolored & soiled. The elastic chin strap is missing. There is a hole on the top of the center leather band that has an impression around it... it looks like it once had a button or emblem of some kind over it. Being unable to find any other helmets exactly like this one, I don\'t know if that hole is original, or was added later. I haven\'t cleaned or polished the leather or felt & it needs cleaning. The Draper and Maynard logo is impressed on the center of the back neck band, with the dog logo & the model 16H is impressed below the logo.
The helmet measures 21.5\" in circumference, around the interior. (It looks like an adult size, not a child size.) In the interior, there are old ink initials of the original owner written on the fabric bands around the felt. Measuring straight (not following the taper of the head) from the end of the dog ear to the helmet top, the helmet measures 9.5\" tall. Good luck on this very cool 100 year old D&M football helmet!
About Draper and Maynard: Jason Draper and John Maynard started out as glove manufacturers in Plymouth, New Hampshire. The area around Plymouth was known as \"Glove Hollow\" as in 1835 local resident Alvah McQuesten perfected a method of tanning leather with the local Hemlock bark. Nathaniel Draper joined McQuesten in the glove business & upon his death, Nathaniel\'s son Jason took over the business.
John Maynard joined the business when he married Jason\'s sister. He persuaded Jason to move to Ashland, where they built a larger factory & became partners in the business. The glove business was declining by the early 1880\'s, when professional baseball player Arthur Irwin (from the Providence Grays) walked into the factory & requested that the company make him a special padded glove for baseball. Irwin had broken two of his fingers & had hand crafted a padded glove from a large horse driving glove, filled with padding. He stitched a couple of fingers together to support his broken fingers. Irwin\'s fellow baseball players were interested in the glove & Irwin realized that there was a market for padded baseball gloves, so he approach Draper & Maynard with the idea. This was the birth of D&M sporting goods. By the 1920\'s approximately 90% of the sporting equipment used by major league teams was produced by D&M. The dog on the logo was Jason Draper\'s bird dog Nick.