Designed for cutting aerodynamic patterns on the surface of golf balls, these historic tools each bear the name of a pioneering golf ball manufacturer; the example at Christie’s London in July 1991 had been owned by Alex Patrick, and the tool sold for just under $73,000 at Phillips New York in 1997 belonged to Willie Dunn Snr. This cutter was stamped W.PARK, believed to be Willie Park junior, innovator of finely patterned gutta perchas such as the Diamond Mesh and the Park Royal, registered in the 1890s and probably cut with this machine.
Part of a longstanding private collection assembled since the early 1960s, the beechwood and brass gutty cutter was consigned to Bob Gowland’s International Golf Auction in Chester on July 15, where it was sold to the Valderama golf club at £22,000 (plus 15 per cent buyers premium inc. VAT).
Wooden gutty cutter
Golf fans will acknowledge the significance of this contraption, only the third wooden gutty cutter to ever have appeared at auction.
