Decades and decades before any golfer ever heard the acronym "COR," a few spring faces clubs were produced. This spring face putter uses six rivets to hold a corrugated steel face in place over a hollow head.  Spalding’s 1903 catalog states their spring face iron clubs were capable of delivering incredible distance AND that the ball will land “dead” when “approaching the green from a distance. “  That’s quite a combination, especially if it were true!

Introduced in 1902, Spalding spring face irons were offered in Spalding’s American catalog between 1903 and 1919.  This spring face club, however, is a putter, and has its original Spalding-stamped shaft and a replacement leather-wrap grip.  There is 1 1/4" of whipping low on the shaft to repair a small crack, the tip of which can be seen below the whipping on the back side of the shaft.  One could easily remove the whipping, apply a little glue and then rewhip to make rock solid, if that has not already been done.  But as is, the club presents well.

Some of the scoring lines are worn, and there are no stamps on the back of the head, but the rivets that hold the spring steel plate on the face are visible both there and on the face. The stamps have likely worn off from the head being cleaned in years past, but there is not question that this is a rare Spalding spring face putter, and still looks good. Condition as shown in the images.

TCA2 Vol 2 p 415