Hello guys,
I shared this football as a pickup about a year and a half ago. I picked it up at an estate auction mixed in a box of junk. From the same estate auction, I also acquired about 5 team photos, and a bunch of other ephemera from a school called St. Marks, which is a college prep school in Southboro Mass. In addition, I won a 1907 Yale team photo and a Saint Marks football sweater in amazing condition.

The football was my favorite pickup, and is a Spalding J5 melon ball, but was in pretty poor condition, with the bladder in pieces, and the ball sucked in on itself. The ball has the year 07 painted on 1 side, and on the other the score of a game between St Marks and Milton Academy, and the date October 14, 1907.

Recently I saught the advice of someone who restores vintage sports items, and decided to have him restore it for me. And I must say, I am thrilled with the results. He did fantastic work and updated me every couple of days with the progress he made including photos showing the process.

I love the ball even more now, and it displays so much better, and I love the old melon shape.

I highly recommend the restorer and you can see some of his other work here:
http://home.neo.rr.com/mrshillhomepage/mepage.htm

Below are some before and afters.