Trophy lots from Boris Becker sale
The auction of sporting memorabilia seized from three-times Wimbledon champion Boris Becker closed on July 11 with bids totalling £687,000, well above the expected value of £250,000.
The 82-lot timed online-only sale of medals, awards, trophies, rackets, watches and photographs was held ‘on behalf of the trustees in bankruptcy of the estate of Boris Becker’ in an auction conducted by business asset auctioneer Wyles Hardy & Co. It was hosted on thesaleroom.com, i-bidder and BidSpotter.
The top lot was a full-size Tiffany silver replica of the US Open trophy that Becker won in 1989. It sold for a hammer price of £150,250. Replicas of the Davis Cup winner’s trophy and the Renshaw Cup made £52,100 and £40,250 respectively.
Originally, the auction had been due to be offered in June last year but, shortly after the bidding had opened, Becker was able to get the sale postponed.
Becker was declared bankrupt in June 2017.
The Beatles’ first Epstein contract
The Beatles’ first management contract with Brian Epstein has been sold at Sotheby’s for £220,000 (plus premium). It came for sale by descent from Epstein’s publisher.
John Winston Lennon, George Harrison, James Paul McCartney, and Peter Randolph Best all signed the typescript document on January 24, 1962, although Epstein’s own signature is conspicuously absent. With no prior experience of music management he chose not to sign it.
The Beatles’ original management contract with Brian Epstein – £220,000 at Sotheby’s.
The January 1962 contract, estimated at £200,000- 300,000 in an online sale that closed on July 9, was only valid during Pete Best’s tenure.
With the arrival of Ringo Starr it became void and a new contract was signed on October 1, 1962. This second contract, which was to remain in force until Epstein’s death, was sold by Sotheby’s in 2015 for a premium-inclusive £365,000.
Lisbon Lion’s boots up for auction
Celtic legend Tommy Gemmell’s boots from the 1967 European Cup final are going under the hammer at a Glasgow auction on July 19.
The Lisbon Lions were the first British club to win the cup, beating Inter Milan 2-1 in the final held in the Portuguese capital. Gemmell scored the equaliser in the match.
The Adidas boots he wore are estimated at £7000-10,000 in McTear’s Sporting Medals & Trophies Auction.
The auction house says the Adidas boots, previously on display at the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden Park, are being sold by a Glasgow businessman, whose father was friends with both Gemmell and fellow Lisbon Lion Bertie Auld.
Bavarian museum buys Meissen bust
The Bavarian National Museum in Munich has purchased a Meissen bust of Karl Albrecht, the Elector of Bavaria and also Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII (1697- 1745).
This Meissen porcelain bust of Karl Albrecht c.1752 was bought by the Bavarian National Museum for £55,000 (plus premium) at Bonhams.
It bought the 15in (38cm) high bust for a hammer price of £55,000 at Bonhams’ sale of a second instalment of Meissen porcelain from a European private collection offered in London on July 2.
The piece dates from c.1742, around the time that Karl Albrecht was elected Holy Roman Emperor. It was probably modelled by JJ Kaendler and Peter Reinicke.
The piece was formerly part of a large series of Meissen busts in the collection of the Counts Waldstein at Dux Castle in Bohemia. It was then acquired by the Prague collector Rudolf Just (1895-1972).
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In Numbers
39
The equivalent UK shoe size of a pair of giant right boots coming up at a Cumbrian auction. The 3ft (91cm) long shoes were made as a marketing gimmick to advertise a Lancashire shoe shop, hanging outside it since 1907. They are now estimated at £700-1000 at 1818 Auctioneers on August 5-6.
The 3ft (91cm) long shoes that have been hanging outside a Lancashire shoe shop since 1907.
