MAJOR RUGBY AUCTION
There is a fascinating story behind England rugby and football memorabilia being auctioned by a Welsh auction house, as Rob Cole reveals
WHILE every Welshman and woman is praying for a win over England at Principality Stadium tomorrow, there is already news of one notable success by Wales over their nearest and dearest rivals.
It may not be as significant as possibly delivering a Triple Crown trophy to the nation, but it has further cemented the reputation of a Welsh auction house as the global leader in selling rugby memorabilia.
Hidden away in a unit on the Llandough Industrial Estate, a couple of punts away from where Louis ReesZammit was born, Rogers Jones & Co have won the battle to present to the sporting memorabilia market on April 17 a collection of items belonging to the Birkett family.
Who, I hear you ask? The Birketts, one of the greatest sporting families in the history of English sport. Still not convinced? Then try these facts for size:
Reg Birkett played rugby and football for England;
He served on the first RFU committee, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year;
He played in the first international rugby match every staged, between Scotland and England in 1871;
He scored the first try for England in that game in Edinburgh;
He sat on the Football Association sub-committee that was created to lay down the rules for the FA Cup;
He captained Clapham Rovers in one of four first round games in the inaugural FA Cup competition in 1871, a game in which his side scored the first goal in the history of the tournament;
He acted as a selector for the England football teams in the early 1870s;
He made his England football debut against Scotland in 1879 as a goalkeeper;
He played in back-to-back FA Cup finals, winning in 1880;
His brother, Louis, played four times for England at rugby, twice in tandem with Reg;
Louis followed his brother onto the RFU committee;
John Birkett, Reg’s son, played a record 21 times for England, captaining his country five times;
He scored a record 10 tries for his country, including two against Wales;
He scored the first try at Twickenham in the inaugural game between Harlequins and Richmond; and,
He served on the RFU for more than a decade.
The Birketts were something of an English sporting dynasty, with John’s son Brian also going on to play for Headingley, Harlequins and the Army. More importantly, they never threw anything away!
That’s why much of the family treasure trove will be up for auction in April. Word of the significance of what is on offer is starting to seep into the right channels and the collection is predicted to raise well in excess of £20,000.
But how did the sporting artefacts of one of English rugby’s most celebrated families find its way to Cardiff? Step forward Richard Madley, an international auctioneer originally from Cardiff who has the business in his blood.
“My father was an auctioneer, my father-in-law was an auctioneer, my mother-in-law was an antiques dealer – what choice did I have?” claims Madley, known to a UK wide TV audience as one of the experts on Bargain Hunt.
“A career in the international auction market has taken me around the world, but I’m always on the hunt for local gems. That’s how the Birkett collection first came to my attention 16 years ago.
“Sport still plays a large part in my life, especially cricket. I have an alter ego in India where for 11 years I conducted the world’s most widely viewed auction – that of cricketers playing in the Indian Premier League.
“I was dubbed ‘The Hammerman’ after the first auction, which went live to an audience of more than 100 million. These days I describe myself as auctioneer who is equally at home in Mumbles or Mumbai, given the nature of the local antique shops I visit for Bargain Hunt.
“I’ve always been a collector. I started with stamps, moved to coins but became hooked on bottles – all by the age of 11 when I was at the Cathedral School, in Llandaff. My father bought me a box of Britain’s lead soldiers which I added to, then sold to buy my first house.
“I built up an impressive collection of postcards which I sold to reroof that first house. I built up an even better collection of Poole Pottery over 20 years which I sold to pay school fees.
“My current area of collecting is in Wisden Cricketer’s Almanacks, which I will probably have to sell to finance my nursing home fees!”
One of a team of experts brought in to value the contents of the cricket museum at Lord’s – “yes, we did try to put a price on The Ashes, but how can a three-inch high pottery urn be worth millions?” – he first dabbled in rugby memorabilia in Cardiff in the early nineties when in the Phillips’ auction rooms in Westgate Street he dropped the hammer on a 1905 Wales v New Zealand programme from the Percy Bush collection at £150.
These days the value of such a programme has risen to around £4,500, a point underlined when in 2013 he sold a horde of rugby and football programmes dating back to 1884, and including a 1927 FA Cup final issue when Cardiff City won at Wembley, for more than £10,000 at Dreweatts Auction Rooms, Bristol.
But he is coming back to the Welsh capital to sell his latest find, even though the sellers were a bit taken aback at the prospect of selling their family heirlooms outside England.
“The family were a bit shocked when I told them there was only one place to sell the Birkett collection, and that was in Cardiff. They found it difficult to overcome the fact that Reg, Louis and John all played for England,” explained Madley.
Peter Evans is the great grandson of John Birkett, although it was his mother, John’s granddaughter, Lady Evans, who first revealed the collection to Madley. As with so many discoveries, it was on a whim.
“I’d gone to her home in Shrivenham to value some Chinese ornaments. That was pretty straightforward and then she asked me if I was interested in rugby,” he added.
“Ask that question to any Welshman and you’ll always get the same answer, ‘Yes’. We went upstairs and she opened the door of her airing cupboard and then proceeded to show me what was there, hidden amongst her towels.
“I could hardly believe my eyes! There was a 1906 England rugby jersey, worn by John, in almost pristine condition. It could even have been one of the ones he wore in his five games against Wales.
“His England cap, with details of each of the record breaking 21 inter
nationals in which he played. Harlequins shirts, his school caps and team photos in an album that showcases every England team in which he featured.
“There are scrap books containing menu cards as far back as 1907, when the WRU entertained the English team and committee at the Royal Hotel in Swansea, complete with autographs from some of the greatest Welsh players of the first ‘Golden Era’.
“Then there was this little black book. When I looked inside it blew me away – here was a first-hand account of the fortunes of the Clapham Rovers Football Club for the season 1870-71 personally annotated by Reg Birkett.
“It is as fine a piece of sporting history from the Victorian era as I have seen. He hand wrote out every team the Rovers put out – football one week, rugby the next – and even cut out the newspaper reports to add in.
“That was 16 years ago and I’ve been waiting for any movement on the collection from the family ever since. Now they feel the time is right to sell and for me there was only one place to take it, Rogers Jones & Co.
“They have picked up the baton from Phillips and become the world leader in rugby auctions. They have established a global audience and there will be interest from many parts of the rugby playing world.” Their reputation rocketed six years ago when an old lady walked into their reception and pulled out of a carrier bag a black rugby jersey. She explained to one of the partners, Ben Rogers Jones, how her husband had got the jersey and that probate valuation was £15,000. She wanted a second opinion before selling it.
‘It was just as well she did,” said Ben, who quickly established it was a 1905 jersey from the fabled New Zealand ‘Originals’ tour. Further research then proved it was actually worn by the legendary All Blacks captain, Dave Gallaher. “That was a game changer and got the whole rugby memorabilia market place chattering. When we put it up for auction ahead of the 2015 Rugby World Cup it reached a sale price of £180,000,” he added.
“It remains the highest price paid at auction in the UK for sporting clothing and it is currently the highest price paid for a lot at a fine art auction house in Wales. Since then we have sold many rugby jerseys, caps and an important rugby union rule book from Rugby School (£13,000).
“Rugby antiques can often command prices that run into the thousands of pounds. Some of the vendors are descendants of players but other consignments come from rugby clubs who are fearful of the high values that they may have on club-house walls.
“They are concerned about the deteriorating condition, the insurance implications, and the overall vulnerability of these prized sporting antiques.”
Ben has spent hours researching the Birkett collection, as well as preparing some wonderful memorabilia from the inimitable Cardiff, Wales and British & Irish Lions centre Dr Jack Matthews and his team mate Rex Willis which will be going on sale alongside it.
“A lot of the high-end rugby memorabilia we sell has a New Zealand connection and that is one of the strongest markets for us. We recently sold the collection from the career of the Llanelli and Wales captain
Norman Gale and the Lions jersey from another Welsh great, Alun Pask, reached £1,500,” said Rogers Jones.
“Historic sporting antiques form one of the most buoyant areas of the collecting market, with the the highest prices coming for the matchworn jerseys where we are able to determine the player and the games in which they played.
“The more notorious the match, the more famous the player or famous the team then the higher the prices. The age of the jersey can contribute hugely to the final price, with those from the Victorian period being exceptionally rare.”
So, the Birkett collection ticks a number of those boxes and the race is on to see if Rogers Jones & Co can top their own records of £24,500 for an England jersey and £7,000 for an international cap. All will be revealed on April 17.
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