Sport memorabilia

When American amateur golfer Robert E Hunter won a gold medal at the 1904 Olympics he could not have ever envisaged that the next chance to compete in the Games would be 2016.

An embossed brass belt buckle discovered in the back garden of an old English cottage is a reminder that the very first Australian side to tour England was one made up entirely of Aborigines.

Timing is everything in sport and at auction. With New Zealand firm favourites to retain the Webb Ellis Cup on October 31, this is surely the moment to sell the jersey of a legendary All Black.

Sports specialist Graham Budd struck gold in his latest sale by setting an Olympic torch auction record.

A new twist has emerged in the long-running story of the ‘six sixes’ cricket ball.

Bonhams are to hold golf memorabilia sales in Scotland starting in June.

This Football Association of Wales 1893-94 Season green velvet cap with braided gilt wire tassel and embroidered dragon, will appear in the November 21 sale at Halls of Shrewsbury.

It is doubtless the source of a little irritation, or perhaps amusement, to members of the men-only Flyfishers Club of Piccadilly that the two largest salmon ever caught with a rod and line in British waters were both landed by women.

A pair of running spikes that belonged to double Olympic 100m and 200m gold medallist Usain Bolt sped to a £25,000 price at a Birmingham charity auction.

An Olympic blazer and a painted diploma belonging to Ada Smith, a bronze medal-winning gymnast from Leigh near Wigan, will be up for auction on August 16-17 at Adam Partridge auctioneers of Macclesfield, Cheshire.

A recording of players from Newcastle United and Blackpool discussing the forthcoming 1951 FA Cup Final is being offered by Eighteen Eighteen Auctioneers in Kendal, Cumbria, on May 29.

Posters of St Moritz, Davos, Gstaad continue to dominate at ski sales in London.

SOTHEBY'S will sell the earliest rules of club football on July 14. They are part of a lot which includes the historic archive of the world’s oldest football club, Sheffield FC.

THE 1953 FA Cup Final will forever be known as the Matthews Final.It was while playing for Blackpool against Bolton Wanderers that the legendary winger Sir Stanley Matthews (1915-2000) gave his career-defining performance and won the only major honour of a long career.

WHEN bidders turned up at the first Indian Premier League cricket player auction in Mumbai last month, it was an antiques auctioneer from England they found on the rostrum.

A WEEK is a long time in politics, but nowadays the same can be said of sport. As soon as we read about a premiership player confirming his commitment to one club, the next day we see him signing for Chelsea.

A Christie’s South Kensington sports sale of November 23 saw a bid of £5500 on a programme for the 1897 F.A. Cup Final at Crystal Palace in which Aston Villa completed a League and Cup double by beating Everton 3-2.

EXCEPTIONAL golfing collectables can still command exceptional prices.

WHEN Mount Vesuvius erupted in 1906, the problems that beset the 1908 Olympic Games had begun. Rome, the intended host city for the games, was forced to withdraw and London stepped in with an offer to take over. A 68,000-seat stadium in White City, completed Athens-style at the eleventh hour, became the location for the fourth modern games.

THE first outing for Sotheby’s associate Graham Budd Auctions (15% buyer’s premium) offered a large range of sporting memorabilia in a 885-lot sale held at Sotheby’s Olympia on June 9. Football was the most represented sport, contributing to well over half the total number of lots.