1888 Bailey Championship Prize - Sterling Silver Plaque 18”x 15”

[smokelessjoe]

Hi Carlton,

All I can say is Nice Prize!!!!

I am finding all kinds of info on this Bailey Prize... Here are a couple of articles below.

[barrysloate]

Hi Carlton- beautiful piece, and you never expect to find anything like that at an outdoor antique show...but, I have to ask you: for something that special that you wanted that badly, how could you risk losing it over $100, or for that matter wait a month before clinching the deal? You know how easily you could have lost it? Of course, I don't know what he was asking and maybe it was way too high, but I would never quibble over a jugular piece. Just my three cents.

[perezfan]

Carlton:

A landmark acquisition, and congrats!

I had a question about the athlete depicted under the letters "pi". You said that neither Cricket nor Baseball were depicted, but it sure looks like a guy swingin' a bat of some type. Is it Jai Alai, or maybe something else?

Thanks for the great post!

[mjkm90]

I thought the same thing Mark, but upon closer inspection it appears to be a racket sport perhaps.

[doug.goodman]

Fantastic piece. Fantastic post. Thank you.

Doug

[vintagesportflips]

Amazing looking piece Carlton, and the suspense within your tale of acquiring it was great!

[olsport]

Amazing piece Carlton. The find of a Lifetime! The Font of the lettering looks very much like that on the Temple Cup baseball trophy from the 1800s, and also one of the fancy sterling silver lifetime passes for MLB that has the stadium scene on it. I am so amazed that the piece was just sitting around somewhere for over 100 years.

[CarltonHendricks]

Originally Posted by perezfan

Carlton:

A landmark acquisition, and congrats!

I had a question about the athlete depicted under the letters "pi". You said that neither Cricket nor Baseball were depicted, but it sure looks like a guy swingin' a bat of some type. Is it Jai Alai, or maybe something else?

Thanks for the great post!

Mark, It's a lacrosse player. I think there isn't a baseball player because the A.A.U. was not the governing body of baseball in 1888. Haven't had time to do any new research but here's a good synopsis below of the A.A.U.'s beginnings

In 1870 the New York Athletic Club (NYAC) was by far the best known athletic club in the United States. That year they started their series of athletic meets, known as the Spring Games and Fall Games of the NYAC – two per year. Early in 1876, it was decided that a national championship meet was necessary and desirable and the best known meet of the year was chosen to serve that purpose. Thus, in late 1876, the 7th Annual Fall Games of the NYAC became the first national championship meet. The NYAC sponsored the meet for three years.

In 1879, however, a national organization had been formed, composed of many member athletic clubs and known as the National Association of Amateur Athletes of America (NAAAA). They sponsored the 1879 meet and ran the meet through 1887.

In 1888 a rival organization to the NAAAA, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) came into being, quickly became the more powerful group, and held a national meeting in that year. The NAAAA, however, refused to fold immediately and also conducted a national championship in 1888 – thus there were two that year.

The national championship was held under the aegis of the AAU for almost a century. In 1978 the President's Commission on Amateur Sports was able to pass the Amateur Sports Act that delineated how amateur sports should be governed in this country. The AAU, which controlled the majority of the sports on the Olympic program, would see its powers severely crippled. A new organization, The Athletics Congress (TAC), was chosen to oversee track & field athletics. In 1980 TAC held its first national championship and control of the meet has rested there since.
Source http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/dis...cle.php?id=258

[CarltonHendricks]

Here’s the latest updates on the Bailey. Being Christmas eve, I’ll focus on this a little today eve before I launch for Christmas.

I emailed the Manhattan Athletic Club to see if they had a period photo since they won it in 1890.…heard nothing back.

I emailed the New York Athletic Club for a photo….They replied that they had referred my email to their historian, but that he didn’t know of one, and “to his knowledge, there is no photo or illustration of the plaque in question. He will, of course, look into the situation, and if one is located, we will be sure to notify you.”

I emailed Bailey Banks & Biddle. Ironically BB&B are going out of business/liquidating. Naturally a Jewelry store liquidation sale is usually just a sales tactic, but it seems to be for real. BB&B is owned by a large conglomerate of jewelry stores named Finlay Fine Jewelry Corp and according to a story in the Washington Business Journal it’s really going out of business. http://washington.bizjournals.com/wa...1/daily86.html .
Which is kind of ironic I’d find their masthead creation bearing their name at the same time they are shuttering after being in business since 1832. Anyway….I emailed the corporate office and didn’t know what to expect. I got back an email explaining they don’t have a company historian but they gave me the name and phone number of someone at one of their stores who “is familiar with our older items”. I spoke briefly with her yesterday and she was very nice and will be glad to help if she can but was very busy. You can imagine how busy a store going out of businesses at Christmas time must be. I expect to hear from her after the holidays. Initially I asked a courteous “how are you” and she said sad…I asked why and she said because they were closing. I asked her how long she had been with them…30 years she said.

One thing I forgot to mention earlier; not directly related to my plaque but is Bailey Banks & Biddle related, was that the very same Sunday I got the plaque I won a c1908 Bailey Banks & Biddle catalog of sorts on eBay
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWNX:IT
It was listed as a catalog, and sort of is, but it’s more an advertising pamphlet that showcases some of their best trophies of that time. When I say trophy…please know trophies are divided into two types…you have stock cups and such that could be ordered from a catalog and a company would engrave it as you ordered. The other kind of trophy are what is called “Presentation Silver”. These are one of a kind commissioned pieces. Works of art really, that were typically ordered by wealthy individuals of corporate entities. They were usually awarded for major renown events, yachting, auto races, etc. This Bailey plaque is an example of “Presentation Silver. Most of the presentation silver produced in America was done by Reed and Barton, Tiffany and Co., Gorham, and Bailey Banks and Biddle. Actually I featured just such a piece for my May 24th- 30th 2009 Sports Antique of the Week. Anyway, my catalog turned out to be a showcase of BB&B presentation silver produced in the 1908 era. I post below photos of the catalog. Please pay attention to the dimensions of the pieces otherwise it’s hard to grasp their impact…and remember they are sterling.

One more note…In all the flurry of researching my plaque I came across a reference to a trophy called the “Founders Week Cup” that Bailey Banks & Biddle made and that sold in DuMouchelles Auctions in Detroit March 22nd for $128,700. I didn’t think too much about it till I was thumbing thru the catalog and what’a ya know…there is was!

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2...ed-to-auction/

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/6244033

[smokeyjoewood]

I have a large imperial cabinet of the Detroit Athletic Club, AAU champions from 1890. Here is a pic of the very bottom of the cabinet(after removing matting to send for repair, cleaning), somewhere I have a closeup of the trophy in the photo. Will post later if you have any interest.

[CarltonHendricks]

Wow Paul....that's cool...Sure, yes I want to see the whole photo and of course a close in of the trophy...You will definitely want to re-mat it so the title and players can be seen....shame they covered it up all those years. Thanks a lot for posting...waiting for more of it

[CarltonHendricks]

Originally Posted by smokeyjoewood

I have a large imperial cabinet of the Detroit Athletic Club, AAU champions from 1890. Here is a pic of the very bottom of the cabinet(after removing matting to send for repair, cleaning), somewhere I have a closeup of the trophy in the photo. Will post later if you have any interest.

Hi Paul, I'm looking forward to seeing a shot of the whole photo when you get time, thanks -Carlton