What would you choose?

[Rob D.]

Originally Posted by perezfan

Rob D...

Amazingly beautiful Ring and Balfour Original Artwork. Maybe stunning is a better word for them both. Is there a story behind how you found the Balfour artwork (and which piece you acquired first... the Painting or the Ring?)

Unbelievable posts by all so far... perhaps Mike H. will let us post 3 additional favorite items to this thread, come February...

Mark,

I got a call from a gentleman in either 1996 or '97 who was retired in the New England area and saw an ad I had placed in some hobby magazine (maybe VCBC?) for vintage Cleveland Indians items. He said that for years he was one of the main designers/artists at Balfour, and when he retired he took much -- if not all -- of his work with him. He explained that when a team won the World Series and chose Balfour to produce its championship rings, the company would present 3-4 sketches of possible designs to the team's ownership. He said he kept all of the designs that eventually were chosen by the clubs through the years.

I forget now what all he had, but he said the list included a lot of Yankees rings from the 1950s and '60s, along with designs of some All-Star rings. He knew what he had, figuring that the Yankee pieces were worth the most and at first wasn't even sure he wanted to sell any of them. This was just before it was common for folks to e-mail scans back and forth, so all I was going on was his descriptions of the artwork. After a couple more calls during the next few weeks he agreed to sell me the 1948 artwork for $600. I was a bit nervous, because though I had an idea of what I was buying, I had yet to see anything. But when it arrived I thanked my lucky stars that he had contacted me.

I never even asked about buying the rest of the collection, and I keep expecting to see pieces show up in an auction, but I never have.

The ring was acquired in a Jerry Smolin About Time auction in late 2001. I'll always remember when it was because the auction ended about a month after 9/11. I think that the timing of the auction and the mindset of our country at the time played a part in keeping the price down. I know that I paid far less than what I expected, something that doesn't seem to happen very often.

The one thing I'm missing that would complete the trifecta is a presentation box the rings came in. If memory serves, Leland's auctioned one in the mid-1990s, but because that was before I had either the artwork or the ring, I didn't give much thought to bidding on it.