The auction begins with a diverse range of BOXING items (Lots 7 – 19) and, in particular the rare book signed by Tommy Burns in 1908 (Lot 8) is the first such example we have seen.
The popular Commonwealth & Empire Games section features an individual diving Gold Winner’s Medal (Lot 24); award medals are rarely seen, so that was a pleasant surprise when it arrived for sale.
The cricket section (Lots 27 – 350) is particularly strong, especially in relation to the Melbourne Cricket Club. Lot 27, an extremely rare 1861 edition of the Club Rules leads off the section which includes a collection of rare and early Annual Reports starting with 1890-91 (Lot 35), an 1893-94 leather Membership ticket (Lot 36), the first of the membership medallions (Lot 48) and a fabulous collection of later issues and associated documents. Sydney Cricket fans don’t miss out as we also have the first SCG membership badge (Lot 45) for you to add to your collection.
A set of privately re-bound Wisdens from the estate of the late Essex cricketer, Percy Perrin is offered by individual year (between Lots 41 and 138) and should help some of you fill in gaps in your collections.
Other highlights of the cricket section include a fabulous collection of Test-Player cricket caps including Clarrie Grimmett (Lot 126), Dudley Nourse (Lot 161), Intikab Alam (Lot 219), Zaheer Abbas (Lot 224), Doug Walters (Lot 228) and many more, all beautifully displayed in custom-built boxes.
An amazing recent discovery – a match-used Don Bradman bat from the Bodyline Series (Lot 150), was a surprise consignment from New Zealand and we are very proud to offer this important piece for the first time.

The Australian Rules Football section (Lots 351 – 452) is also full of interesting and rare pieces. The Champion Footballer Series postcards, all Carlton players (Lots 356 – 361) are very rare and it’s delightful to see more than one at a time; and in great condition! The 1923 Essendon Premiership Medal (Lot 363) is also a rare and beautiful reminder of how long our great game has been played at such a high level. It’s almost the centenary of that Premiership! Speaking of Essendon, there is also a nice group of The Weekly Times postcards which date from around 1910, which features players from that club (Lots 428 – 432) and again, condition is fabulous for these.

One of our favourite lots while we were writing and photographing items for this sale was Lot 466, a very early riding crop associated with the Tasmanian Turf Club, a wonderful piece which recognizes “Swiveller” who won several important races around 1878 – 1880. There are some nice Olympics items (Lots 483 – 498) and the sale concludes with a fabulous 9ct gold cigarette case with an inscription for Pat O’Hara Wood (Lot 501) a very successful Australian tennis player from the 1920s.

We hope you will enjoy leafing through the pages of the catalogue, which we try to make as interesting, informative and attractive as possible. If you can make it to the viewing we will be pleased to show you all the wonderful material we have been able to assemble on this occasion and, of course, we are already inviting consignments for our next Sporting Memorabilia catalogue. Give us a call if you’d like to discuss your collection, your single item or your library. We’d be delighted to hear from you.

Contents

001-006 General
006-019 Boxing
020-026 Commonwealth & Empire Games
027-350 Cricket
027-044 Cricket – 19th Century
045-138 Cricket – 1900-1927
139-187 Cricket – The Bradman Years
188-303 Cricket – 1949-2019
304-336 Cricket – Cigarette & Trade Cards
337-350 Cricket – Team Sheets & Autograph Pages
351-452 Football – Australian Rules
351-424 Football (Australian Rules)
425-451 Football (Australian Rules) – Cigarette & Trade Cards
452-452 Football (Australian Rules) Footy Records
453-453 Football (Rugby League)
454-455 Football (Rugby Union)
456-461 Football (Soccer)
462-463 Golf
464-479 Horse Racing
480-482 Motor Sports
483-498 Olympics
499-500 Rowing
501-502 Tennis

Featured Lots