Take, for example, Lot 77. Thirteen books made up a lot that was valued at £550-750, but as the three books identified in the catalogue were a copy of Hilton & Smith’s The Royal and Ancient Game of Golf [1912], a rebound copy of Horace Hutchinson’s Famous Golf Links, 1891, and one of 250 large paper copies of the Golf book that he produced for the Badminton Library [1892], one wonders what criteria were used in arriving at that guide price. My onder turned to awe when I learned – courtesy of an editorial piece in a recent issue of Bookdealer, whose editor, Barry Shaw, is a golf enthusiast – that the lot also contained a copy of W.E. Hughes’ Chronicles of Blackheath Golfers.
I have no idea of the condition of this 1897 book, but the last auction record I have – a copy in rubbed original cloth with one plate detached – is $2000. Readers will not, therefore, be at all surprised to hear that this job lot made rather more than expected – £3500.
Among those books that were offered separately was the copy of W.W. Tulloch’s The Life of Tom Morris, 1908, which made £600, and one of 250 large paper copies of the Reverend John Kerr’s The Golf Book of East Lothian [1896] that was bid to £1800.
Score cards that just don’t make sense
UK: FOR some odd reason, the books in the golf memorabilia sale held by Christie’s South Kensington (Buyer’s premium: 17.5/10 per cent) on February 28 were mostly offered as job lots – and it would seem that a number of those lots contained books that should, and in sales past, certainly would have been offered separately.
