St. Quentin Van Cutsem Target Ball

St. Quentin Van Cutsem glass target ball. Marked "Van Cutsem- St. Quentin." Collecting Glass Target Balls is a small but slowly growing genre of collectible, especially popular today among well-to-do hunters and gun enthusiasts, but considered more of a novelty attraction among serious bottle collectors. Target balls had a brief but colorful life, bursting on the scene around 1876 before fading out altogether by 1895. During that small window of time these specialized glass balls, that are not all that dissimilar in size and shape to glass Christmas tree ornaments, were thrown or catapulted from spring-loaded traps to be hit by shooters. They’d explode in the air in a feathery, dusty cloud, much as a flying bird would. In fact, target balls were introduced because the natural bird population was declining.