[Reproduction]

1899 Golf Print

Walter Dendy Sadler

This auction is for a 12¼” x 15¾” print produced in 1985 -- a reproduction of an antique English engraving. The print is well done and in like new condition, printed in black on a cream-colored paper stock.

Titled “The First Tee” with a [printed] signature “W Dendy Sadler". At a lower corner of the margin is a modern logo, a “C” with “1985” inside and “TFF” over.

Image is of two duffers in 1800s dress at a significant moment in golf history. The two golfers are inspecting a small box, as a ball is teed-up on a mound of sand at their feet. The story of the picture must be the use of the first golf tee. Perhaps this depicts George F. Grant sharing his 1899 invention with a friend.

I’ve seen this image in B&W and colorized versions -- I’m not sure which is the original intention. Anyway, this is a great historical golf print that will look great framed.

W. Dendy Sadler

Walter Dendy Sadler (1854-1923), an English artist born in Dorking, and brought up in Horsham, showed an early talent for drawing. At age 16 he decided to become a painter and enrolled for two years at Heatherly's School of Art in London, subsequently studying in Germany under W. Simmler. He exhibited at the Dudley Gallery from 1872 and at the Royal Academy from the following year through to the 1890s. He painted contemporary people in domestic and daily life pursuits, showing them with comical expressions illustrating their greed, stupidity etc. Sadler was best known for his pictures of good-natured monks. He was criticized for this background detail, as it supposedly detracted from the subjects of his pictures.

George F. Grant

The development of the tee was the last major change to the rules of golf. Before this, golf balls were teed up on little heaps of sand that was provided in boxes. This explains the historical name “tee boxes” for what is today known as teeing ground.

The development of the golf tee is both well documented and controversial. Many claim that the first golf tee that closely resembles the standard modern tee was the one invented by George F. Grant and patented by him in 1899. However there had been several previous patents for golf tees, some seeming to be quite modern in both form and function.

Note: The detail on this print is very good. In my eBay photo I have inset the full print over a blurred background enlargement.

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