Swedish Target Balls

Other Swedish balls include a cobalt-blue ball embossed SANDVIKS GLASBR HOFMANTORP.

1 and 1a: "Mauritz" on one side, "Widfors" on the other. This is a two-piece-mold ball with no other embossing. Up until late 2006, there were only two known examples of this ball from Sweden; then, about four more surfaced; in 2007, five more were sold by one dealer.

Swedish Target Ball 001 Swedish Target Ball 002 Swedish Target Ball 003
1. 1a. 2. The second Swedish target ball that we are aware of. The ball is embossed around the middle "A. TH. NYBERG GOTEBORG." This light-blue ball is from the Swedish seaport of Goteborg.
Swedish Target Ball 004 Swedish Target Ball 005 Swedish Target Ball 006
4. A Swedish dealer said this about the ball marked "A.TH. NYBERG GÖTEBORG" (the Swedish spelling of Gothenburg). "Nyberg operated an iron goods store in Gothenburg and sold some weapons, ammo and related items. However, this was not their primary focus. For this reason the Nyberg ball is a rarer ball than the Widfors and the Bastman. The old man who had the Bastman balls has never seen or heard of a Nyberg ball and he has been collecting for over 40 years." 5. This rare two-piece G. A. BASTMAN / STOCKHOLM in light amber has a neck similar to the MAURITZ WIDFORS ball. English collector John Hargreaves noted: "I would imagine that the Bastman and Widfors balls were made at the same glasshouse, thinking that they both have the wee mouth opening and no neck." 6a. This G. A. BASTMAN ball is darker than ball No. 6,  and with an even shorter neck. "I have been told G. A. BASTMAN was a gunmaker in Stockholm, Sweden in the 1880s," the ball’s owner, Mike O’Malley, added. "I found it interesting that it has the same type of neck as the Mauritz Widfors" ball.
Swedish Target Ball 007    
6b. The reverse of 6A; bold embossing, large letters, and rare. A great ball to have. As of March, 2010, there are only three of these balls known to be in U.S. Collections.