SOTHEBYS-BB MEMORABILIA, THE VERY 1ST BASEBALL EVER ++

YOU ARE BIDDING ON A RARE OUT OF PRINT SOTHEBY'S AUCTION BOOK SET FOR WHAT WAS THE MOST MAGNIFICENT PRIVATE AUCTION IN THE HISTORY OF BASEBALL

TITLED

THE BARRY HALPER COLLECTION OF BASEBALL MEMORABILIA

DATED SEPTEMBER 23-29, 1999

LOT SIZE 2481

3 VOLUME DELUXE SET INCLUDED IN AN ELEGANT SLIP CASE

VOLUME I- INFORMATION - COVERS THE HISTORY OF BARRY HALPER AND ALSO INCLUDES A WONDERFUL TIME LINE OF BASEBALL

VOLUME II THE EARLY YEARS-1840-1940'S- 471 PAGES

VOLUME III- THE MODERN ERA- 1940'S TO PRESENT-400 PAGES

TOTAL SOLD-$21,795,646 USD

FINAL AUCTION PRICES INCLUDED

ALL OF THESE SETS ARE IN NEW UNUSED MINT CONDITION

 The auction "undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary collection achievements of the 20th century."
An accumulation of some 80,000 items represents 50 years of work by New York Yankees minority owner Barry Halper -- a collection that represents the illustrated history of the national pastime.

 Officials at Sotheby's auction house in New York said a baseball, believed to be the very first baseball used in an organized game in 1846, sold for $129,000 Friday.

It's a true piece of sports history," Goodwilly said of the Babe's bat. "Babe Ruth was the greatest baseball player of all time ... and he actually used it as a cane as he walked up to say goodbye to his adoring fans at Yankee Stadium."

The bat Babe Ruth leaned on in his final appearance at Yankee stadium, which sold for $107,000

Among the items are Ty Cobb's dentures and a pair of Ruth's underwear.

The collection contains a staggering 4,000 autographs, 1,800 baseballs, 1,000 uniforms, 400 bats, some 30,000 baseball cards, championship rings, trophies and other chronicles of the boys of summer.

It's the largest known collection of baseball memorabilia, Sotheby's said.

Also featured is a ticket from the first World Series in 1903 between the winning Boston Pilgrims (now Red Sox) and the losers, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and a calligraphic script commissioned to commemorate a game played on the Boston Common in 1859.

The jersey that Yankees slugger Lou Gehrig wore in his farewell speech at Yankee Stadium .

A collection of 15 New York Yankees World Series and American League championship rings from 1947 to 1964 .

like Mickey Mantle's glove,

the only signed Ty Cobb jersey,

and the signed agreement from 1920 that sent Babe Ruth to the Yankees from the Red Sox.

There are insightful essays in this publication by Peter Golenbock, Yogi Berra and Ted Williams.

One of the volumes is purely informational about the auction.

A second volume focuses on baseball's early years

and the third volume showcases the modern era from the 1940s on.

To turn the pages of this beautifully put together work is to re-live baseball history.

Item 2059: Pete Rose National League Hit Record Cleats - "Pete Rose was wearing these red Mizuno cleats when he broke Stan Musial's National League hit record of 3,630. Each cleat has been inscribed by Rose as follows: 'Pete Rose - 8-10-81 - 3,631. Inside each shoe is Rose's number "14" in black marker; the cleats show heavy wear and still have red clay stuck to the bottom; in excellent condition." $1,500 - $2,500.

Everything a baseball collector could possibly want is in the sale, including thousands of balls, bats, uniforms, shoes, ticket stubs, jewelry, awards, baseball cards, art, and stadium relics of every era, team, and player, signed and autographed to the hilt. The sessions are organized both by era and by subject, and if you can't find something you really, truly need, you have no heart.

He was a legend in his own lifetime, as is his monumental baseball memorabilia collection, which he started over 50 years ago when he was eight, well before baseball became an organized Americana collectible.

Barry Halper's New Jersey basement grew to be his own baseball Hall of Fame, packed with over 100,000 historic player, game, stadium, and other artifacts and ephemera, dating from the 1845 dawn of the sport to today.

It was a baseball shrine where any fan who could wangle an invitation came to worship, and where famous stars came to dine and chew the historic fat with a true baseball preservationist.

In real life Halper, 61, was a family paper business. In his sports collecting life he sought, bought, traded, swapped, cadged, and finagled every kind of baseball memorabilia that wasn't nailed down. He also owned a small interest in the New York Yankees, one of the few items he did not consign to Sotheby's.

The Halper sale was the biggest auction ever run by Sotheby's. With 2481 lots containing over 35,000 items, about one third of the total cache, in a handsome three-part boxed catalog.

DUE TO THE SIZE OF THIS SET, SHIPPING AND HANDLING IS EXTRA