Tennis Antiques P/U...interesting statue of Bill Tilden

[CarltonHendricks]

www.SportsAntiques.com
Last January Net54 member Ben Levinsohn/IronHorse2130 bought a tennis collection and offered them here on the memorabilia section. I picked up this c1930's statue of Bill Tilden plus a very rare Victorian tennis board game. The Tilden was done by McClelland Barclay who was a big name illustrator...who was killed by a torpedo while working as a combat artist for the Navy. Tilden had a very troubled personal life but is considered by some to be the greatest tennis player ever. He won the U.S. Open five years in a row plus many other international tournaments..although never won the French Open. He dominated tennis the first half of the 1920's as an amateur then became pro in 1931. As far as I recall it's the only statue of Tilden I've ever seen.. It's not titled but the face and girth are unmistakable...He was 6' 2"

Was glad to get the board game too as I collect the Victorian sports games and had never seen a tennis one. Thanks Ben!. I did a big feature of them on my home page if you want to see more info, link above.