[CarltonHendricks]

Last weekend was one of those marathon collecting weekends…had a good time but boy was I exhausted come Monday….I had to go back to work but I felt like I needed a vacation…Started Friday…I took the day off work to go to opening day of the California Antiquarian Book Fair…That show is so rich I would hate to miss it…It’s truly international with dealers from all over the world…Plenty of European dealers…dealers mostly in coat and tie…it’s that kind of show…I heard the tables are like 9 grand…phew…and the prices are high…I hit the whole place methodically row by row on the hunt for something great…started on one side the room…two hours later I finished my first comb but hardly saw any sports stuff….just a few things…When I first walked in there was a local bay area dealer already making a deal on some UC Berkeley pieces…but I didn’t see any broadsides so phew...Later I picked up a c1900 football team photo from Placerville Calif…nice little find…













Ran into Pat Nester who I’d been texting as I got there half hour after opening…he hadn’t found anything…sat down took a breather and chatted…then went and showed Pat the strongest thing I’d seen…an 1893 Yale Princeton football die cut program for $600.00…Pat passed after taking a good look at it…I liked it but not $600.00 worth…





And then…bingo…I saw what looked like a cigar sign in a case and went over to take a closer look and wham…I looked up and saw the most unusual black print with gold printing of a single sculler holding an American flag…printed in France…Looked 1890…based on the material it’s printed on I think it may be closer to c1900…The dealer Ed Maggs from London…and actually everyone in the booth really made the show…just the coolest most down to earth Brits…Huge booth…and all kinds of classic antiquarian books…The dealer told me he’d gotten it a week earlier at the Pasadena Antiquarian Book Fair in So. Cal…from a French dealer who was set up the next booth over…He even introduced me to him…Then came the arm wrestling…and I ended up with it…It was one of those deals where I didn’t really need it for my collection…but it was too rare and great to leave it…I may keep it now that I got it home…I emailed a very advanced print dealer in London who told me it must be extremely rare as he’d never seen it…which was exactly what I was sensing…and I contacted Bill Miller of RowingHistory.net and he had never seen it…





The next day was the San Francisco Antiquarian Book Fair in South San Francisco…9:00AM and a real dud…hardly any dealers compared to prior years….I guess because the regulars were set up at the California Antiquarian Book Fair across the bay in Oakland…I guess…Man that was one wasted day…all that driving and gas for naught…









And the net day was Alameda…Actually it had gotten rained out the Sunday before and it was a roll-over show….and it was still rainy…kind of right on the bubble…actually the previous month got rained out too…so I was expecting a good turnout of dealers anxious to sell stuff…But nope…very sparse…a lot of buyers were sitting in their car when I got there at 6am waiting to see if dealers would set up…I went in and found a few things for craigslist…I even found something for my own collection…I was at a table going thru a box of photos when I overheard a guy telling another guy he had an 1898 Olympic Club book to show him…I just kept my mouth shut and waited for Mr. Olympic Club book to leave and followed him…Excuse me but did you say you have an 1898 Olympic Club book?...yes he said…can I see it…sure he said…and he took me over to his car and I bought it…It had a great leather cover with “Olympic Club” embossed on the cover…and it was 1893 not 1898…and TONS of photos…The cover was separated but other than that it was all there and in pretty nice condition…bingo…$100.00 bucks and I was walking away with it!!!....So I bagged that one and kept on with the war…found a couple cool signs…I was planning to go to church after but for some reason I felt compelled to take off for the Sacramento Antique Fair…somehow feeling I didn’t get enough antiquing in…I was talking to this one dealer and I said I was thinking of driving to the Sac Fair…and he goes…eh…by the time you get there, there won’t be anything left…I said yeah I know…sort of half thinking it could still happen…



So I saddled up and hit the road for Sac...an hour and a half essentially…I think I did it in an hour twenty…So I get to Sac and there were probably more dealers there than Alameda. And usually Sacramento is about ¼ the size of Alameda…and man phew…did it pay off…About three rows in and I spot the greatest golf trophy I’ve ever seen….18 ½” tall…English but who cares…The photos don’t do it justice…and it was on the table of a dealer I’ve known about 30 years…I was in shock…ya get out of the car a little rummy from the road…and blam…here’s this incredible piece just sitting there on the table…And this dealer is usually not cheap…He’s one of those kind of dealers you never know what they’re libel to pull out…usually he just brings cool fodder….but once in a while…and this time he really did it…I couldn’t stop looking at it…half out of shock…So I said OK how much…$1500.00 he says…So I’m examining it closely as we’re talking…what’s that I said….$700.00?....$1500.00 he says again…Did you say $800.00? I said jesting…So finally I said OK…$1,200.00…$1400.00 is my bottom he said…I was stuck at $1200.00 figuring I’d let him chew on my offer a while…So right as I’m in the middle of it some guy that looked like he might understand the piece walks up with his wife and starts looking at it and asks the dealer the price…$1500.00 he says…and I gave the seller the look of death…like…uh what are you doing I’m looking at it and I’m serious and I was here first…raised eyebrows mouth open kind of look…he looks at me and looks back at the guy and says…but I think he’s looking at it…So the guy leaves…like in a way the $1500.00 put him back in his seat…Yeah right I’m thinking…that’s all I need is some third baseman cramping me right now…So the seller said he’d hold it for me while I went thru the rest of the show…I came back and offered $1300.00…finally we agreed on $1350.00…He told me he got it at Brimfield in 1995...He said he paid $1,000.00 but he didn’t feel bad about selling it for $1,350.00 because he did real well on Spalding trophies he picked up same trip…Then later that night I went and saw a guys collection that was off the chart…not sports but auto and boat and bicycles and great neon…