Beautiful Old Black Cloth Tape Ball sunderland Sold in the old red

Sold in the old red cardboard box I found them in

but sturdy and stable and stands flush to the ground

but it feels rather more like a lobster boat in spirit

The bottom of the piece is signed "Lorenzens Lantz Nova Scotia

oil on board

Beautiful Old Black Cloth Tape Ball sunderland Sold in the old redI had one other ball like this several years ago, and learned that sometimes when the leather skin came off a baseball softball, people would wrap the center in black cloth tape like this. To me it's like a more succinct and visceral version of a rag ball, wounded and wound, looking almost as if coated in tar. A beautiful and evocative thing. Approx 3" in diameter and in good, tightly wrapped condition.