VintageTennisBalls.com is my personal project to bring some type of order to all the different types of tennis cans and containers that I have discovered during my collecting frenzy. I had never realized how many different cans existed, and was soon trying to organize them with photos and any other information that I could find. My primary focus will be vintage tennis ball containers, but I will also include many of the newer pull top metal cans and plastic tubes.
Finding it difficult to describe a particular can to someone over the phone, I decided to develop a typing and a numbering system for cans. The typing system is an effort to make it easier to describe the physical characteristics of the container. It’s much easier to say it’s a “Type 1” can than to explain – “It’s a flat top American can where the top will not fit back on the can once it has been opened, not flat like the flat English can where the lid will fit back on the can.”
An advertisement from 1905 reads:
“The game that quickens the eye, steadies the hand, and sets the whole body tingling with a delightful exhilaration, depends on the ball.”
The pages inside will expand upon that ‘delightful exhilaration’ by paying homage to the decades of old tennis balls that were so essential to the sport we love so much today. There is nothing like an old tennis can, box or ball to give you a taste of tennis from a bygone era. That’s why they are so collectible.
So… whether you are collecting tennis balls, searching for info on antique tennis, or are simply looking for a bit of nostalgia, you’ve come to the right place.
Vintage Tennis Balls is looking to be THE place on the Web for information about antique tennis balls, boxes, tins, and other containers. If you have any suggestions or comments, be sure to write to me at VintageTennisBalls.
The mCat numbering system allows for further database organization.
Happy collecting,
Brad McCall