SOTHEBY’S TO OFFER THE JEFFERY B. ELLIS ANTIQUE GOLF CLUB COLLECTION ON SEPTEMBER 27-28, 2007 SOTHEBY’S TO OFFER THE JEFFERY B. ELLIS ANTIQUE GOLF CLUB COLLECTION ON SEPTEMBER 27-28, 2007. THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE COLLECTION OF ITS TYPE IN EXISTENCE
News-Antique.com - Jul 05,2007 - SOTHEBY’S TO OFFER THE JEFFERY B. ELLIS ANTIQUE GOLF CLUB COLLECTION ON SEPTEMBER 27-28, 2007
THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE COLLECTION
OF ITS TYPE IN EXISTENCE
New York, New York – On September 27 - 28, 2007, Sotheby’s is proud to offer for sale The Jeffery B. Ellis Antique Golf Club Collection, the most wide-ranging and historically important collection of golf clubs in the world. Mr. Ellis has devoted the past 30 years to traveling the world in search of the most creative, historical and innovative golf clubs ever made. Assembled one club at a time, the Jeffery B. Ellis Antique Club Collection includes approximately 800 golf clubs that span the history of clubmaking from its earliest days to the beginning of the steel shaft era. The collection, comprised of more than 600 lots with estimates ranging from $200 to $300,000, is expected to bring in excess of $4 million. The exhibition will be free and open to the public at Sotheby’s New York from September 20th through the 26th.
Jeffery B. Ellis
Mr. Ellis purchased his first lot of antique golf clubs at a Goodwill store in 1974 and has been fascinated by the evolution of their design ever since. Mr. Ellis says of the golf club, “In the world of sport, there is really no more creative implement.” By 1979, his passion for collecting historic golf clubs grew to be a full-time business and Mr. Ellis soon became a leading authority on the subject. Over the years, he has handled literally thousands of clubs of various materials, from various dates since the game’s inception. Today, the Ellis Collection documents every aspect of the golf club in all its variety at every point in history between 1600 and the early 1930s. No other collection presents the amazing evolutionary odyssey of the golf club in such fascinating and exacting detail.
The history of these clubs is detailed in three books that Mr. Ellis spent twelve years researching. His first book, The Clubmaker’s art: Antique Golf Clubs and Their History, is the industry’s bible for antique golf clubs. Featuring more than 600 clubs and their individual histories, this tome was selected by Golf World magazine as one of the top 10 golf books of the 20th century. Travel & Leisure Golf magazine included it in their list of the top 25 golf books ever written. In 2003, Mr. Ellis released its sequel: The Golf Club: 400 Years of The Good, The Beautiful & The Creative. In January 2007, Mr. Ellis released his most comprehensive work to date, a two-volume set, The Clubmaker’s Art: Second Edition Revised and Expanded. This book, detailing every club in his 800-club collection, is now the industry standard.
Mr. Ellis said, “The experience of assembling this collection was completely absorbing. I did not want one of everything, just one of everything that was truly creative, unique, or historical. Consequently, I enjoyed the clubs I collected, but I lived to acquire the next great piece."
Lee Dunbar, Director of Sotheby’s
