This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 9/30/2024
Will Henderson Signed 1914 Engraving of Original John Taylor Portrait by Sir John Watson Gordon
This 1914 portrait of John Taylor and his caddy is one of golf's greatest pictures. It shows Taylor, in his red captain's jacket, about to tee off on the original course of The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers on Leith Links, two miles north-east of the city center. John Taylor was three times captain of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers: 1807/8; 1814/5; and 1823-5. The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers is recognized as the world's oldest golf club, although the Royal Burgess Golfing Society was formed in 1735, and also played over Leith Links, but has no documentation to substantiate this date due to the nature of the secrecy of the Freemasons who founded the society. In 1744 this group (then known as 'the gentlemen golfers') had drawn up the first official 13 rules of golf for a tournament which were to form the basis for the modern game of golf. The Thirteen Articles were adopted almost word for word ten years later by the St Andrews Society of Golfers, later to be known as the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. The club moved to Musselburgh in 1836 and in 1892 further down the coast to Muirfield owning its own clubhouse and course for the first time. Leith Links are now split in two by a road. 23" x 30 1/2"