Sports memorabilia in demand

Press, 10 February 1986, Page 28

Sports memorabilia in demand

By

MIKE HEDGE

NZPA-AAP London The language of golf is anything but poetic. The colour and irreverence induced by a missed putt or wayward tee shot are reasons why a book of golfing verse is enough of a rarity to command a price of £17,000 ($45,000).

Another reason is the spiralling market for sports memorabilia.

The book which set the record price for a sporting memento at auction was a 1743 edition of a collection of “heroic poems of the links” collectively entitled “The Goff,” by Thomas Mathieson.

The Mathieson history is obscure and his works have not been hailed in literary circles, but in

auction rooms round the country he is the symbol of a boom.

Mathieson’s only known work was sold by Phillips at a recent auction in Chester to a client described as an enthusiast, rather than a collector.

According to Peter Johnson, of Phillips, the appearance of the enthusiast as opposed to the antique collecting set is a refreshing side to the prosperous new trade in sporting items. “The crowd which comes to our auctions of sports collections is definitely the healthiest group we have,” Mr Johnson said.

“The number of sun tans is considerably more than at some of our more traditional sales.”

As well as healthy appearances, the sporting buyer has a healthy pocket. “One cricket fan paid £4OOO ($10,600) for a run of about 15 copies of Wisden because he needed three volumes to make up his set and another paid £BOOO ($21,000) for a more complete series.” Phillips pioneered the sale of cricket memorabilia and its catalogues include every imaginable item associated with the game.

Australian interest in the comparty’s sporting goods auctions has been extremely high.

“Australians have plenty of money and they are very keen to buy back their own items,” he said.

“Bats and anything else used by Australian cricketers go for good prices to Australian buyers all the time.” The biggest price paid for a cricket bat was £l2OO ($3180) for a willow belonging to Jack Hobbs which bore the inscription: “I used this in’ the Surrey v. Middlesex match at Kennington Oval on August 9, 1930, when I passed W. G. Grace’s aggregate record of 54,896.” Cricket provides the greatest volume of items but golf is steadily taking a greater share of the market. “We are offered no end of autographed cricket bats but we find the most universal market is in golfing goods,” said Mr John Badly, of Sotheby’s.

“We conduct a golf sale in July each year to correspond with the Open Championship and it has proved to be of enormous interest particularly with clients from Japan and the United States.” As much as £2OOO ($5300) has been paid at Sotheby’s for pre-1840 golf balls made of leather and stuffed with feathers. Mr Badly said individual clubs sold for as much as £5OOO ($13,250) and hickory-shafted putters regularly went for £lOOO ($2650) to be used

by their buyers, who said they gave a better feel than modern steel-shafted clubs. Paintings of sporting scenes are also in demand. “There is very little pictorial history of sport pre--1900,” Mr Badley said. “The few paintings of cricket or golfing scenes fetch very high prices because of their rarity." But the memorabilia king is the legendary Dr W. G. Grace. The England cricket captain of last century has

been cast in bronze, carved in marble, portrayed on the Iron legs of pub tables and modelled as a door stop. A bronze bust of W. G. now fetches as much as £4OOO ($10,600), pottery tiles bearing his bearded countenance have been sold for £l6O ($424) and his letters to clubs to organise games have gone for £7O ($186). ‘ At that rate an autographed photograph of a winning Australian Test captain should make at least six figures.