A fantastic selection of signed sporting memorabilia feature in our 15th May auction.

A fantastic selection of signed sporting memorabilia feature in our 15^th May Sporting memorabilia auction. The signatures were all obtained by one fan and have been consigned by his son. He has told us how his dad came to have all these signatures:

“Some brief information about my dad,

He started collecting autographs in his teens in the early sixties but just casually as I guess lots of kids did then.

He started again in earnest in the late eighties and continued to do so for 30 or so years until he became too unwell.

He wasn’t a dealer and didn’t collect them to sell or make a profit, it was all for his own enjoyment. He was primarily a sports fan and so tended to gravitate to collecting sporting signatures of people he liked.

Over the years he became very knowledgeable on the subject and knew how people’s signatures changed over time, which ones were likely to be secretarial signatures etc.

He had good relationships with many of the professional dealers, I can remember Frasers and Pen to Paper were two of them, where he would buy and trade and get opinions on anything he was unsure of and he never used anything he didn’t think was genuine.

With regards to obtaining the actual signatures he got them from various sources. He would buy or trade some from the dealers that he knew were reputable, and many were obtained in person. He would attend conventions where celebrities would be signing, trade fairs, shows and concerts and the like. I was with him for many where he had them signed in person, such as George Best, Lennox Lewis, Frank Bruno etc.

I know he also had a book of addresses where celebrities could be contacted, presumably this was something that was available within the collecting community, I’m not sure how they got hold of them!

He had many handwritten letter replies from people he wrote to, I have several myself such as Ray Harryhausen, and many classic horror actors as he would write to them to get them for me as that’s what I was interested in.

I know he also wrote to places like the BBC to ask them to forward a letter on to certain people and he would often get nice letters back. I know John Sullivan of Only Fools and Horses fame wrote back and even enclosed a cheque to the Multiple Sclerosis charity as my dad had told him his mother was suffering from it.

What is left for auction are just a small amount of what he had at one point, when he retired, he didn’t really have the money to keep buying them and also needed to pay for season tickets for his beloved Cardiff City, so along with my mother’s increasing annoyance at every wall in the house being covered, it meant he had to sell many, much to his disappointment!

His biggest regret was leaving a Laurel and Hardy signature in a bag in the car that got stolen when he popped in to his mother in laws, especially as he said the thieves would have been hoping for something else in the bag and probably wouldn’t have known what it was and just thrown it away! He would never sell the football ones though, as some of them took years to complete or find, they were his pride and joy and are what you have for auction.”

All the lots can be found in our 15^th of May auction, and includes signed framed mounted "England World Cup 1966 Signatures", two signed framed mounted "Manchester United European Cup Winners 1968", signed framed mounted Vinnie Jones & Paul Gascoigne Signatures along with a mounted photograph, which is the famous photo of Jones getting to grips with Gascoigne. Plus, signatures from the world of Cricket, Boxing, Rugby, Snooker and more.