2020 June Auction Highlighted by Caddies For A Cause Benefit
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/21/2020
'Golf: A Royal & Ancient Game' Ltd Ed Book by Robert Clark with Andrew Carnegie Bookplate
Golf: A Royal and Ancient Game was published by Robert Clark, well known golfer of his day. He assembled what was known about golf history in 1875, and personally handed out this rare 'Scotland edition'. The most interesting parts are the extracts of the minutes of the first hundred years of the five oldest Scottish golf clubs: Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, Royal Burgess Golfing Society, Royal & Ancient Golfing Club of St. Andrews, Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society, Royal Musselburgh Golfing Club. Inside cover notates binding occurred in 1896. This limited edition is #7/50. Raising this wonderful work to even a higher level is the book plate of its previous owner Andrew Carnegie. Of Scottish descent, Carnegie was a devotee of golf. It’s probably impossible to prove, but it’s believed that a deal spawned at The Saint Andrew’s Golf Club in Hastings-on-Hudson may have been the largest ever struck on a golf course. The club played an essential role in the sale of member Andrew Carnegie’s steel interests to J.P. Morgan and others in 1901. The deal was a perfect example of the role golf can play in business.
Morgan had made it known that he and his partners wanted to buy out Carnegie so they could monopolize the steel industry. Carnegie Steel Company President Charles M. Schwab saw the value of the deal, but the ultimate decision was Carnegie’s, and he wasn’t particularly interested in selling. Carnegie’s wife, Louise, though, wanted Carnegie to retire. Here’s how author H.W. Brands described what happened in American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism 1865-1900.
“Louise Carnegie conspired with Schwab against her husband. Shortly after Schwab informed her of the merger scheme, she telephoned to say that Carnegie would be playing golf the next morning at Saint Andrew’s club in Westchester. He was always more cooperative after winning at the Scottish national sport, she suggested. Schwab took the hint, whiffed a few for the cause, and broached the subject of selling. Carnegie didn’t reject the plan outright, which Schwab took to be a good sign.”
It was. The next morning, Carnegie named his price: $480 million. Morgan accepted it and a few days later closed the deal personally. As he shook Carnegie’s hand, he said, “Mr. Carnegie, I want to congratulate you on being the richest man in the world.” At that time, it probably wasn’t an exaggeration. The deal would be worth about $13 billion in today’s dollars. That has to make it one of the biggest deals ever born on a golf course. Superb story only adds to this book which remains the standard bearer of a serious golf library.
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