This c.1905 British rugby ball is priced £285 from Manfred Schotten Antiques.
His wife Gabi ran the shop in Burford, Oxfordshire, while he “was out buying more and more sporting antiques and art which we sold in the shop and also at the famous Portobello Road on a Saturday morning”.
Sporting items remain a big part of the business at Manfred Schotten Antiques and highlights on offer include the British rugby leather match ball pictured.
Of an early four-panel shape, with a lace-up slit to the top to enable bladder inflation, it dates from c.1900. The ball is priced at £285.
