English Target Balls

1 through 5: Here are five color variations for the ball we call the "Shooter" ball. It has, embossed on two sides, a man shooting a gun. While relatively common, it remains a popular ball.

English Target Ball 001 English Target Ball 002 English Target Ball 003
1. 2. 3.
English Target Ball 007 English Target Ball 015 English Target Ball 004
4. 5. For reasons unknown, the green and blue examples are more cruely blown. 6. Sapphire blue, small square pattern with blank center band. This ball comes in the standard size as well as a smaller "gallery size."
English Target Ball 005 English Target Ball 006 English Target Ball 008
7. "W.W. Greener St. Marys Works Birm'm & 68 Haymarket London", medium saphire blue, diamond pattern. This ball comes in a variety of colors. Greener was a major English gunmaker. 8. "N.B. Glass Works Perth - N.B. Glass Works Perth", medium sapphire blue, the variant with all the "S"s backward and the "P"s upside down. This is the most common English ball. 9. Pale aqua, almost clear, "E. Jones Gunmaker, Blackbourne Lancs". The center band is difficult to read. Is it an "E" or a "T" or an "L" or ... ?
English Target Ball 009 English Target Ball 010 English Target Ball 011
10. "N.B. Glass Works Perth - N.B. Glass Works Perth", cobalt blue, the variant with all the "S"s. backward and the "P"s upside down. 11. "N.B. Glass Works Perth - N.B. Glass Works Perth". This is the varient with the small flat base. Pale aqua, almost clear glass. It is "relatively common." 12. "N.B. Glass Works Perth - N.B. Glass Works Perth", (note the smaller lettering). This is an uncommon variant.
English Target Ball 012 English Target Ball 013 English Target Ball 016
13. Teal green color, star, fern and pinwheel pattern all around ball. This one-of-a-kind target ball was dug in a dump on Christmas Day, and since it looks like a Christmas tree ornament, it got the nickname "the Christmas ball." Sadly, it has a large crack. 14. Around the center band is E JONES BLACKBURN LANCASHIRE, with the usual hard-to-read lettering. (Some claim the name is F. Jones, or T. Jones.) 15. With "swirled-starfish" design on both sides, embossed "FOR HOCKEY'S PATENT TRAP" in a circle on one side. Once rare, it is a bit more common these days, and is found in light aqua to dark green-aqua. Hockey balls are smaller than normal, designed to be tube fed onto Hockey's patent ball trap.
English Target Ball 017    
16. Amber is a common color in the U.S., but almost unknown in England. This is one of a batch of maybe six that were found.