Auction Item Details
Lot 660
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Lot Number: 660
Description: Important Ty Cobb Detroit Tigers hat c.1918-20. Major League game worn equipment from the first quarter of the 20th century is seldom found in any form. It is no accident that baseball hats of that period are easily the most elusive to acquire given their heavy usage and tendency to be lost or destroyed. Baseball during the 1910-1920's era was a rough game. The dominant players were fearless and won at all costs evidenced by their respective names and the legends that accompany their play. The greatest of these warriors was Cobb. No other player has ever, nor will, match his limitless passion for the game and moreover the will to win. Offered is Ty Cobb's Detroit Tigers hat c.1918-20. The hat exhibits heavy usage wear including appropriate color toning to the top from sunlight exposure, general soiling, wear consistent with usage to the interior leather head band, and losses to the "D" at the front of the hat consistent with evident usage. The unique "D" lettering on the front of the cap allows for a dating period of 1918-20. Spalding tag remains affixed into the interior leather band. On the interior leather head band an inscribed/scratched in name is partially visible which, although not completely legible, appears to be "Tyrus". The hat itself remains in a remarkable state of preservation given its age and owner as it no doubt was placed in his pocket, fell off of his head during a slide, and was more than likely ripped from his head during altercations with other players. Hat originated along with the glove (Lot 662) from one of Ty Cobb's business advisors and assistant Andrew Morgan. Morgan presented the hat (and glove) to an acquaintance Mr. Garet Clark in 1941. Included with the hat is the original July 22, 1941 typed letter from Andrew Morgan to Clark that accompanied the two objects. The letter reads in part, "With this letter I am sending you a couple of my cherished gifts from Mr. Cobb, as I told you he wasn't as bad as most people made him out to be. Enclosed in the box is a glove that Mr. Cobb loved and had on his desk for many years, on one good business day he gave it to me as a good gesture. I have also given you one of his caps from the old Tiger days.....The cap was given to me last October and it had just been sitting around gathering dust said Mr. Cobb when he tossed it across the room into my lap." The letter is signed at the bottom by Andrew Morgan in black ink. It is nearly unprecedented for an item of this type and age to be accompanied by such definitive provenance from the era in which it was received. It is to the best of our knowledge the only Cobb game hat known to exist. The rarity of such an object can only be equated to the passion for excellence on the ballfield possessed by the player who once wore this hat. Includes the original July 22, 1941 typed letter from Andrew Morgan to Garet Clark, LOA from SCD Authentic D.Bushing-D.Knoll, copies of several photographs picturing Cobb wearing similar uniforms and/or hats, LOA from PSA/DNA J.Spence-S.Grad regarding the integrity/dating of the Andrew Morgan letter, and a letter of provenance from the current consignor documenting the lineage from the Clark family to the present: VG-EX
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