James Naismith

Basketball Rules, Custer's Flag and the Emancipation Proclamation Cross The Block At Sotheby's

Filed under: Auctions

This week at Sotheby's wrapped up with a sale that included three remarkable treasures. Sotheby's Vice Chairman David Redden presided over the salesroom as the Kennedy-Lincoln Emancipation Proclamation, Custer's Last Flag: The Culbertson Guidon from the Battle of the Little Bighorn and James Naismith's Founding Rules of Basketball came across the auction block in chronological order. Shown above former Harlem Globetrotters basketball player Curly Neal spins a ball on his finger tip before the bidding for the Naismith Rules, the original rules for basketball, framed at right, at Sotheby's in New York on Friday.

Robert F. Kennedy's copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by Abraham Lincoln, set a new auction record for any presidential document when it sold for $3,778,500, more than double its pre-sale high estimate. The winning bid was cast by an anonymous telephone bidder who wishes to remain anonymous. The Emancipation Proclamation is one of only twenty-five copies of the document known to survive, of which eighteen are in institutional collections. Robert F. Kennedy bought the document in 1964.

Two bidders competed for Custer's Last Flag: The Culbertson Guidon from the Battle of the Little Bighorn, which sold to an American collector. The flag was consigned by the Detroit Institute of Art, where it had not been on view since 1928. It was estimated that it could bring in $5 million but it sold for $2,210,500 at auction. The proceeds, which can only be used to purchase art, will go towards acquiring Native American works. The swallow-tail flag was hidden under the body of a dead trooper and discovered three days after George Custer's famed Battle of the Little Bighorn by Sergeant Ferdinand Culbertson, who was assigned to a burial party. It is the only flag flown by Custer's battalion known not to have been captured by Indian combatants after the Battle. The museum had bought the flag for just $54.

Tags: basketball, culbertson guidon, custers last stand, Emancipation Proclamation, george custer, James Naismith, robert f kennedy community schools, sothebys

Continue reading “Basketball Rules, Custer's Flag and the Emancipation Proclamation Cross The Block At Sotheby's”

Original Basketball Rules Could Bring Millions

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Sports

The NBA basketball season recently kicked off with plenty of trades, drama and dreams of championships. How did this game turn into one of the world's most popular sports? Part of the legacy of basketball can be traced back to the pieces of paper shown above, the 13 rules for basketball that James Naismith wrote down in 1891. Naismith, a physical education instructor at a YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts, had been charged with coming up with a new indoor activity for his gym class. The simple set of rules went on to define a new sport that caught on like wildfire. Naismith died in 1939, three years after basketball became an official Olympic sport.

On December 10 those rules will be put up for auction at Sotheby's in New York and are expected to bring in at least $2 million. The proceeds will go to the Naismith International Basketball Foundation, which promotes sportsmanship and provides services to underprivileged youths. Ian Naismith, a grandson of James Naismith, said it was a family decision to auction off the rules and put the money back into the foundation.

"We need to take the money and work the money back into kids," Ian Naismith told The Associated Press. "We call it recycling. With the economy going south the last couple of years, my stroke, my wife passing away, it was more important to me to have the game go back into the kids. It's what Dr. Naismith wanted." The rules could bring in over $2 million.

The Sotheby's auction on December 10 will also feature Robert F. Kennedy's copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, one of only 26 copies signed by Abraham Lincoln, and a battle flag recovered from the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Tags: basketball rules, james naismith, Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, NaismithMemorialBasketballHallOfFame, SothebysInternationalRealty