COLLECTIBLES GENERAL AUTOGRAPHS - Charles Leski Auctions

Lot COLLECTIBLES Estimate
POSTERS
1868 CIRCUS POSTER: c1940s Wirth's Circus and Zoo poster, very colourful and attractive,
folded, size 152x104cm. Superb condition. (Photo) ................................................................................................. $600 - $800
1869 CIRCUS POSTER: c1920s Circus Busch poster, from Austria, very colourful though mainly text,
folded (some separation along folds), size 63x75cm. ............................................................................................... $300 - $400
1870 CIRCUS POSTERS: Balance of collection, comprising mainly 1960s-80s circus posters from Australia,
Britain, America & Europe. Noted Perry Bros, Sole Bros, Silvers, American, Circus Hoffman, Barum, Busch,
International Hippodrome, Circus Royale, Cirque Achille Zavata, Bouglione, Krone, Grosser, Gerry Cottles,
Cottle & Austin, Ashtons, Cirque Rancy, Hagens, Bullens, Sonelli, Cirque du Soleil and many others.
Wonderful starter collection. (Total 110) (Photo) .................................................................................................$1,000 - $1,500
SPORTS - GENERAL
1871 BASEBALL: c1960s "Spalding - Babe Ruth" baseball, good condition. ..................................................................... $50 - $100
TENNIS
1872 JIM ANDERSON, display comprising signature on piece, window mounted witha cation picture,
overall 29x31cm. [Australian Singles Champion 1922, 1924 & 1925; Davis Cup representative 1919-25]. ................. $80 - $100
1873 HELEN HULL JACOBS, display comprising signature on piece, window mounted with picture,
framed and glazed, overall 32x43cm. [Wimbledon Champion 1936; US Champion 1932, 1933, 1934 & 1935]. ........ $100 - $120
1874 Ink Well, with hand-painted "Souvenir of Australia's Victory in Davis Cup.1939", and "Maxply, Dunlop" logo,
some minor damage to lip of ink well, though scarce tennis item. (Photo) ................................................................ $300 - $400
1875 ALICE MARBLE, display comprising signature on piece, window mounted with picture, framed and glazed,
overall 36x35cm. [Wimbledon Champion 1939; US Champion 1936, 1938, 1939 & 1940]. ...................................... $100 - $120
THE GEOFF BROWN TENNIS COLLECTION
Biographical notes
Geoff Brown was born in Australia in 1924. His right-handed serve was a rocket, his two-handed forehand a
hurricane, and his left-handed single-handed shot did not compare with the strength of Bromwich’s. The speed of his
rapidly-made serve and forehand was surprising, because he was only a light-weight of about nine stone (57kg).
Because of his lop-sided groundstroke strength doubles suited him better, and he won the 1946 NSW doubles with
Pails, the Victorian doubles in 1947 with Quist and in 1948 with Sidwell. He was also a Davis Cup player in 1947
and 1948. He could play singles too, winning the 1949 Queensland/South Australian singles – but it was earlier, in
1946, when he gave Wimbledon spectators the shock of their lives.
In that tournament he hit all his opponents off the court, including Lennert Bergelin of Sweden in a quarter-final and
Jaroslav Drobny of Czechoslovakia in a semi-final, and advanced to the Wimbledon final without having lost a set.
There he met Yvon Petra, a very tall Frenchman who had been born in French Indo-China and had learnt his hard
hitting tennis there. They may have been David and Goliath in stature (almost anyone combined with Petra offered
this role) but they were well matched in service speed. Petra threw the ball high up, waited, and crashed it; Brown
made a rapid wind-up, seemed to strike the ball as early as still on the rise, and he crashed it.
Since Petra tended to be an erratic and excitable player, team manager Gerald Patterson advised Brown to keep the
ball in play – which Brown did, only to see the first two sets slip away from him at 2-6, 4-6. So then he hit out in his
more usual way and took the third set, but only at 9-7. Petra matched him in the fourth and led 5-4 on service and 40-
15, but then Brown hit Petra’s next two cannon-balls for winners. He won the game, held his own service to lead 6-5
and ended the set by taking Petra’s serve to love for a resounding comeback.
But Brown lost his opening serve in the last set, and big serve followed big serve until Petra stood at 5-4. What could
Brown pull out of the hat? Nothing, because Petra (who stood at 6’7”) reached up to the clouds and banged down four
aces for a sensational ending to a sensational match. It was at once Brown’s greatest tournament and his unluckiest.
He reached the finals of the singles, doubles (Pails) and mixed (Dorothy Bundy, USA) without losing a set in any
event, and then did not win any of the finals. And he did not become Wimbledon’s first two-handed singles winner;
Chris Evert did that in 1974 and Jimmy Connors followed her a day later.
[From “Great Players of Australian Tennis” by Paul Metzler].