Football

Leather football with hand stitching. Printed with the tradename 'The Craftsman', this was made by J. S. Gould Ltd.

This football was made by J. S. Gould Ltd, a family-owned luxury leather goods manufacturer on 55 Dalston Lane, Hackney. We think by its style that the ball dates from the 1950s. The company was set up in 1895 by migrant Joseph Simpson Goldsilver shortly after his move to London. From his name (Goldsilver, Gold and Gould are all recorded in official documents), and where he came from, it is likely that he was Jewish. At first he worked from his tenement building ‘2 New Buildings’ in Whitechapel, then from his home at 51 Middleton Street in Hackney, until finding permanent premises on nearby Dalston Lane by 1921. After Joseph’s death in April 1921, the company passed to his widow Rebecca Gould, until his younger son Ernest Peter Bernard Gould took over the business in 1930, aged just 16. Rebuilt after the Second World War, J S Gould Ltd remained in Ernest’s hands until at least the 1990s, although in its latter years 55 Dalston Lane was used as a builders merchant. In the 2010s the post-war building was redeveloped into up-market apartments and a coffee shop. A stone marked 'J. S. Gould Ltd' remains at the front of the building, with the lettering 'Est. 1895' beneath it.