While the eyes of the world have been on the 2012 London Games, the Olympic influence did not leave the auction scene untouched.
Firms were understandably keen to capitalise
on the opportunity presented by such a mega-event, including two
London auctioneers who mounted specialist sales of Olympic
memorabilia in the immediate run-up to the Games.
Graham Budd (17.5% buyer's premium)offered 601 lots in
association with Sotheby's at their New Bond Street saleroom on
July 24 and
Bonhams (25/20/12% buyer's premium) put another 216 lots under
the hammer in their Knightsbridge rooms the next day.
At the Graham Budd sale, demand was
strongest for the rarer items dating from the 1896-1924 period,
with the strongest results for medals, although posters also proved
popular.
London 1908 was understandably popular, but
other early Games items attracted high interest.
From the 1928 Amsterdam event onwards there
was increasing commercialisation of the Games so many items from
later Olympics are more common and produced in larger numbers.
The earliest lots in Mr Budd's sale related
to the inaugural revived event in 1896. They included the first
three issues of Pierre de Coubertin's (founder of the modern
Olympic movement) original publication Bullétin du
ComitéInternational des Jeux Olympiques 1894/95 (today
known as the Olympic Review). Described as "scarce",
it made a low-estimate £6000.
An 1896 Athens silver medal fetched £15,000
(estimate £15,000-18,000). No gold medals were actually awarded at
this first Games - winners were given a silver medal.
Christie's have another one of these in their September 3
London Sale, estimated at £20,000-30,000. It was supposed to be
given to the winner of the boat race but was never presented after
rough seas and strong winds meant the event was cancelled.
First London Games
The 1908 items really got the sale going,
with interest high considering it was the first of the three Games
to be held in London and the sale was held to coincide with the
third version. Vendors who had maybe retained items in the family
for many years were tempted to consign.
The Olympics were held in White City, West
London, after the Italians said they could not afford to hold it in
Rome following the 1906 Naples earthquake. Just 22 countries took
part in London and Great Britain took 56 gold, 51 silver and 38
bronze medals - a haul surely never to be repeated.
A very rare opportunity came up on July 24
to buy a complete set of cased gold, silver and bronze medals all
awarded to GB competitors and proved to be the stand-out lot. They
were designed by Bertrand Mackennal and produced by Vaughan of
Birmingham. The gold went to Charles Sydney Smith for water polo,
the bronze to bantamweight boxer William 'Wally' Webb, but the
silver was for the GB team in the intriguing 'team single shot
running deer' competition - which featured, as you may have
guessed, a deer-shaped target making ten runs of 75ft lasting about
four seconds. The set made £17,000 against an estimate of
£15,000-20,000.
A collection of memorabilia featuring a
cased gold medal and winner's diploma for boxer Richard K. Gunn
fetched £10,500, just above low estimate. Gunn holds the record as
the oldest man to have been crowned as an Olympic boxing champion
at the age of 37 years and 254 days. He had come out of retirement
to take part (an 1896 retirement which was actually at the request
of the ABA because he was far too dominant...).
Making £10,500 against an estimate of
£8000-12,000, a 1908 gold medal awarded for rugby showed that
antipodean dominance of the game is not a new phenomenon. The
recipient was unknown. The touring Wallabies team provided the only
real opposition to a GB side which was effectively the Cornwall
county team, and won convincingly 32-3.
The badges worn by officials at the White
City stadium are rare but have occasionally come up at auction and
proved popular. The July 24 sale included a silver-plated and blue
enamel marathon judge's badge which made a low-estimate £8000.
A marathon steward's badge went for £4200 at
Special Auction Services near Newbury on September 1-2 last
year.
The 1908 event was famously the occasion
when the disorientated Dorando Pietri was disqualified after being
helped when he collapsed close to the finish line, but was later
given a silver-gilt cup by Queen Alexandra.
All the 1908 lots mentioned above went to
overseas private buyers.
Along with the rarity value of the earlier
Games, which of course means many items were the first ever
awarded, as events were added to the roster - or taken away - and
participants became the first to win particular events for their
countries, there are also some remarkable stories adding to the
appeal.
Stockholm Games
The background to a 1912 Stockholm gold
medal reflects this, contributing to an £11,000 hammer price
against an estimate of £4000-6000. It was awarded for the 100m
freestyle relay to swimmer Jennie Fletcher - who had become
Britain's first female Olympic swimming medallist when she took a
bronze in the individual event.
Fletcher described swimming as her "greatest
pleasure and no encouragement was needed for me to compete in polo,
diving or swimming". A society where suffragettes were just
starting to have an effect was not so eager, though, and she had to
get special permission for her brother Ben to be allowed to pace
her - there was no mixed swimming. In 1908, after much
deliberation, it was decided that a competition for ladies could be
held, but uncertainty and a late decision meant there were not
enough entries and those events were cancelled.
Reinforcing the interest pre-1928 was a gold
medal from the 1920 Antwerp Games in the original box of issue. A
UK private buyer paid £11,000 to shatter the £2000-2500 estimate,
even though the recipient is unknown. However, it is believed to
have been in Britain since 1920, so is presumed to have been won by
a British competitor. GB won 15 golds at Antwerp.
The 1912 and 1920 medals mentioned above
went to overseas private buyers.
Posters
One poster sold for a low-estimate £4200,
also to an overseas private buyer, was for a Games that never
really took place: the 1916 Olympics, cancelled because of the
First World War. A national Olympics was held in Amsterdam instead
and although deemed unofficial, Pierre de Coubertin had declared:
"If an Olympiad is not celebrated, its number remains", so it
became known as the VIth Olympiad. Another poster for a Games
suspended because of war, that of Helsinki in 1940, was sold for a
low-estimate £2000.
An official poster for a Games that
definitely took place, Paris 1924, featuring saluting athletes,
made £7200 against a £2000-3000 estimate, bought by a UK private
buyer.
As Mr Budd acknowledged, the later items did
not have the same pull as the earlier Games. A 1936 Winter Olympic
Games cased bronze medal and diploma presented to Guy Dugdale for
the GB four-man bobsleigh, inscribed
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, did go for £15,000 to an overseas
private buyer but this was under estimate. GB won three medals at
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, including, amazingly perhaps, gold in the
ice hockey.
This was the first sale Mr Budd has held
dedicated solely to the Games, although his regular sporting sales
have featured many Olympic items.
The timing - held just days before the
Olympic opening ceremony - boosted interest, although over half the
lots failed to get away in the end. He said there was a very good,
busy atmosphere in the room, with three TV crews joining the many
international buyers from countries such as the US, Australia and
China. With Bonhams holding their Olympic sale a day later many
international buyers would have been in London, also ready to
attend the Games perhaps, and many lots went to private buyers
actually in the room.
"There were a lot of collectors who had
previously not been on our radar, so that aspect was very
pleasing," said Mr Budd.
The sale total was £314,630 hammer, with 262 (45%) lots
sold.
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