Initially produced by Slazenger in 1891, the Trueflight gutta percha golf ball was advertised in the 1 April 1892 issue of Golf as "a hard well moulded and finely nicked ball capable of withstanding much hard usage and painted with so much care as to secure immunity from chipping." That would seem to be the case as, 128 years after that ad was run, this Trueflight remains in pristine original condition, with over 99% of its original paint. Of course, this ball appears to have never been hit.
Tip: When you zoom in on an image of a nice, even unused golf ball
on this site, all kinds of paint chips and cracks can appear and it
looks like the ball has been through a war zone. This is because the
ball is being magnified exponentially beyond its original size. When
viewing the ball in your hand, however, those same chips and cracks
appear quite insignificant, which they are, and are usually not even
noticeable. The best indicator of what a ball will look like in real
life is when you size the ball on your screen to the same size as an
actual golf ball - usually 1.68 inches in diameter.