Hunt July 14-15 Auction - SportsAntiques.com's Top 32 Picks

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Posted By: CarltonHendricks

http://www.sportsantiques.com/Hunt7_14&15_08/Hunt7_14&15_08.htm
Please know I've posted my top 32 picks with photos, for the Hunt July 14-15 auction on my site SportsAntiques.com, see link above. Below, please see my overview.
Thanks -Carlton
P.S., Thank you Leon for permission to post this!

Auction Overview
By Carlton Hendricks

Some might consider my top pick for this auction to be unusual, Lot 833, a terra cotta architectural ornament of a catchers mask that once graced the front of Yankee Stadium (estimate $4,500-$6,500.00). Particularly in light of Lot 80, the Babe Ruth Yankees cap (estimate $150,000.00-$200,000.00), and Lot 860 the Lou Gehrig Yankees warm up jacket (estimate so high you have to request it). But my likes are based on practicality. That is, your average bear won’t be bidding on the later two. If you like antique baseball decoration, where do you go from there? Say you get it and hang it in your living room. Friends come over and ask about it…you tell them…oh yeah, that came off the front of Yankee Stadium. That’ll generate a good 10 seconds of silence before they continue….awesome piece! Presumably there‘s another one out there somewhere, based on the photo of the front of Yankee Stadium Hunt posted with listing.

I wouldn’t say it’s David’s strongest auction for display pieces, but it’s got some horsepower. The three statue lots, 146, 148, and 153, are certainly formidable. Antique sports statues seem to be growing in popularity. If you take a look at my coverage of the Hunt booth in my 2003 National Sports Collectors Convention story you’ll see Lot 153 is the same example David had back then. You can see it’s got the same scratches on the wood base, and the little flattened area on the front of the metal base. Which means nothing in relation to it’s importance, which is very high.

Lot 73, the Gehrig leather satchel is fantastic. It looks like the same one offered in the Leland’s August 2006 auction. Actually it was my top pick for that auction. Lot 145 is great, one of the neatest baseball shaving mugs I’ve seen. I think that may be part of a c1900 set of baseball themed porcelain, of which I have a large plate/charger that I got lat summer in at the Adamstown Antique gallery during my pre convention wanderings. Mark Steinberg has a beverage pitcher from the set.

I know there is a strong contingent of pennant collectors on Net54, so I included seven pennant lots, which they may not really appreciate actually! At any rate, it’s a good auction, good luck bidding. -Carlton

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Posted By: Mark

Thanks Carlton, as always...

Regarding the Mug - Lot #145, I was also looking closely at that one, and believe it to be from the same set.

I was pleased to see the pre-auction estimate of $1,000 - $1,500. I am confident that both your Plate and my Pitcher are superior pieces to the Mug, so I guess we each did pretty well, respectively!

Looking forward to checking out the Hunt's write-up on your website!

Edited to post a picture of the matching 1900s Pitcher...

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Nice preview Carlton, but you left these two items off your list.

http://tinyurl.com/64svef

http://tinyurl.com/5cwdbp

I'd love to have either one of those albums.

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Posted By: CarltonHendricks

http://www.sportsantiques.com/Hunt7_14&15_08/Hunt7_14&15_08.htm
Please know I posted the closing prices on my top 32 top picks. My #1 pick, the 19" x 14" CIRCA 1923 YANKEES STADIUM TERRA COTTA CATCHERS MASK ARCHITECTURAL ORNAMENT sold for $7,500, a grand over the high estimate. The Ruth hat sold for $285,000.00. The Gehrig warm up jacket sold for $325,000.00.
-Carlton

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

I'll start this off by stating that I really love vintage uniforms/caps, etc. I've never owned any game-used memorabilia outside of a few balls, but one thing has always bugged me about this area of collecting. Why does the big-name stuff always seem to show up? Ruth, Gehrig, Clemente, Mantle, etc. Where are all the Frenchy Bordagarays? Do they all have their jersey numbers torn off and replaced with the numbers 3, 5, 7, etc.? It's always troubled me. I've certainly heard my share of troubling stories over the years in this regard. Keep in mind that I don't say this to point fingers at any specific individual, and certainly trust my friends at Hunt--that's not my point. It just seems to me that we should see an equal proportion of lesser-name players' vintage uniforms more often than we do.

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Posted By: brock

Jodi,
Yoy need to remember if a auction is filled with lower named players they won't get alot of money. So they search for anything that deals with the big guys because it brings in the most money.

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Posted By: Mark

The common player uniforms turn up as well... they just are not featured in the Big Catalogue Auctions, or publicized as often. Same exact scenario as for autographed pieces....

In a Hunt, Lelands, REA or Mastro Premier Auction, you will see a lot of Ruth/Gehrig/Cobb/Foxx/Ott signed items. But nothing signed by Nelson Potter, JC Martin, Paul Schaal, Don Mincher, Jeff Cross, Steve Renko, Paul Lindblad, Mike Torrez, Sonny Jackson, Johnny Temple, Rudy Minarcin, Tony Cuccinello, Rueben Amaro, Les Moss, Tony Perez, Bobby Tolan, Charlie Hough, Oscar Melillo, Joe Foy, Joe Gibbon, Ollie Brown, Ellie Hendricks, Clay Kirby, Mike Heath, Ed Stroud, Ron Hansen, Stan Rojek, or Joe Azcue.

I have game-worn flannels of every player listed above. The big auctions simply don't accept consignments under a pre-determined dollar value, so you have to know where else to look. It's pretty much as simple as that, whether you're talking cards, autographs or uniforms.