Submitted by aarAdmin on Mon, 02/17/2025 - 00:00
A gold medal from the 1956 Melbourne Olympics is a rare auction treat so appreciated by collectors that they paid more than double lower catalogue estimate at Leski Auctions two-day February sporting memorabilia sale.
The gold medal (lot 1026), awarded to Australia’s Anthony “Tippy” Marchant in the 2000-metre Tandem Cycling Final, was knocked down for $70,000 on a $30,000-$40,000 estimate.
Marchant won the medal with his teammate the late Ian “Joey” Browne (1931-2023).
They teamed up at the start of 1956, 10 months before the beginning of the Melbourne Olympics, and were a contrasting pair – Marchant being only 170 centimetres weighing 65 kilograms and Browne 186 centimetres and 86 kilograms.
Not regarded a realistic medal chance, the pair devised a successful tactical system to combat impending attacks from other riders in order to win.
A strong memento of the first Ashes Test against England in 1882 (which Australia won), the Blackham brooch (lot 117), at a resounding $32,000, filled second spot in the auction results.
The brooch comprises a piece of the “Blackham Ball” used by Australia’s first champion fast bowler Fred Spofforth (1853-1926) on his way to taking a record 14 wickets for 90 runs that remained a record until 1972.
The piece is inset under a rock crystal dome circled by 24 old-cut diamonds and mounted in a 15-carat gold cricket bat-shaped brooch.
The brooch is accompanied by a letter to a Mrs Williams signed by Australian wicketkeeper Spofforth’s teammate John McCarthy Blackham (1854-1932) acknowledging the fact that the Australian captain William Murdoch asked him to cut a piece off the ball to include with the brooch.
The jewellery piece was then presented to Murdoch’s friend and Mrs Williams mother, Mrs Greenlaw, whose bank manager husband took a keen interest in his young assistant Blackham’s career.
The 1882 Test match followed Australia’s 1880 English tour which restored cricketing relations between the two countries after the disastrous 1878-79 England team visit when its captain Lord Harris was attacked by a “mob of Colonial roughs and larrikins” following a disputed run-out decision.
The 1882 Test match result was commemorated with a Sporting Times “In Memoriam” notice stating “In Affectionate Remembrance of English Cricket which died at the Oval on 29th August 1882…The Body will be cremated and the Ashes taken to Australia.”
The notice led to the creation of the actual Ashes following the 1882-83 English tour when several ladies at Melbourne Cricket Club president Sir William Clarke’s country property Rupertswood burned a bail and sealed the remains in an urn for the trophy to be taken back to England.
The 1876 Carlton Football Club challenge cup (lot 539) sold for $20,000. The cup was won by Geelong’s only five-time premiership player William “Trusty” Hall with a drop kick of 68 yards (62 metres). Hall played from 1872-1884 and 1887 and was a member of the club’s Grand Final winning teams of 1878-1880, 1882 and 1883.
Australian world champion billiard player Walter Lindrum (1898-1960) featured prominently at the auction with most of his memorabilia selling well above their catalogue estimates.
The major item was an 18-carat gold cigarette case (lot 36) that went under the hammer for $15,500, while a set of his personal snooker and billiard balls in their original boxes (lot 45) sold for $6750.
Australian spinner Kerry O’Keefe, who played 24 Test matches for Australia between 1971 and 1977, features with baggy green cap (lot 368) which sold for $10,000, the same price as that achieved for a 1956 Melbourne Olympics silver medal (lot 1027).
A bronze medal at the same Olympics (lot 1028), awarded to Britain’s Nicholas Gargano for his achievements in boxing’s welterweight division, brought a credible $7000.
