As expected, the day’s winner was a late 18th century blacksmith-made heavy iron, featuring a dished and hooked face with a 6in (15cm) hosel decorated with an ornamental ring.
This distinctive ring appears on six other early irons and although the maker of the club is unknown, clubs of this type have become known as “The Ringmaker” and play an important part in early golfing history. This example went to a private collector on its lower estimate £20,000.
One of the small number of clubs known to be made by Robert ‘Bob’ Ferguson, Open Champion for three years between 1880-1882, was an example with a hooked face and replacement horn insert. It took an above-estimate £1550.
Balls, as usual, were also in demand – a feather example overcoming rubbed condition and a small hole to take an above-estimate £1550, and a scarce black tin box with Dunlop The best golf balls in the world in gold lettering to the lid taking £2000.
Elsewhere, a silver cigarette case with marks for Birmingham 1913, depicting a golfer in full swing in relief took £550, and a Dunlop caddy advertising figure in grey, blue and red clothes made £500.
Phillips, Chester, January 20
Buyer’s premium: 15 per cent
Blacksmith’s ironwork leads the field of golfing fans
UK: GOLFING enthusiasts flocked to the six-monthly sale of items relating to the game – a field pioneered at Chester – where 500 lots from clubs to balls, programmes to ceramics and miscellaneous emphemera such as advertising merchandise, were offered.
