Some Clubby Artifacts From the Links

Question: I have a collection of golf clubs and balls going back, I believe, more than half a century. If I search for even older golf collectibles, what luck will I have finding them?--W.P.

Answer: You’ll be on a difficult mission.

Although golf has been played in Scotland since the 15th Century, few collectors have equipment that can be authenticated as having been manufactured before the 19th Century. Even finding books on golf published before the 1850s is extremely difficult, collectors say.

Some historians say they have found evidence that golf was played in this country before the American Revolution. But the game’s popularity did not appear to catch on until just a few years before 1900.

There is a school of collectors who maintain that if you are a dedicated accumulator of golf collectibles, you should search the countryside shops of Great Britain and pay particular attention to Scotland, where some valuable old equipment has surfaced.

Also, major auction houses have put valuable golf equipment on the block, sometimes as part of an estate.

Along with equipment, golf collectibles have included prints, drawings, pottery and glass, all depicting some phase of the game or a famous tournament or course.

Equipment prices appear to vary widely, according to dealer catalogues.

For example, a Walter Hagen wood, manufactured in the 1930s, has sold for about $130. And, at the high end of the price range, a 19th-Century club associated with Scottish golf legend Willie Dunn has sold for approximately $2,000. But we also saw a number of clubs, about half a century old, selling in the $50-$100 range.

Q: I have a number of glasses I inherited from my mother. She called them “kitchen glassware,” to which I didn’t attach any special meaning. But recently I was told that this label is for a particular type of collectible. Is that true?--N.L.

A: Kitchen Glassware is a label that was put on thick tumblers produced during the Great Depression. The label depicted a durable type of glassware that was manufactured in great numbers. Hence, its collectible price tag has not been astronomical--not often above $100 for a single glass.

Such glassware often had ornate patterns, which made them pretty to look at but not so easy to handle.

Kitchen Glassware began disappearing from the American marketplace following World War II as new manufacturing techniques were developed.

Bookshelf

Consider the outhouse.

Collectible author Ronald S. Barlow of El Cajon did, and the result is a nostalgic 136-page paperback coffeetable-size paperback, “The Vanishing American Outhouse.”

Containing nearly 200 color photographs and plan drawings of American privies constructed between 1820 and 1940, the book will definitely appeal to collectors looking for offbeat stuff and to anyone searching for a quaint back-yard conversation piece.

“I haven’t met anyone who owns more than half a dozen,” said Barlow, who is selling the book for $15.95 a copy, plus $1.50 postage and handling (Windmill Publishing Co., 2147 Windmill View Road, El Cajon, Calif. 92020).

For a nation that prides itself on being on the cutting edge of technology, Barlow notes in his introduction, there are still approximately “4 million old-fashioned privies in back yards from Maine to California.

“Of course, this is not anywhere near the 50 million ‘unplumbed households’ reported in the 1950 census, but we have put a man on the moon since then.”

Hardly a topic of conversation in a civilized society, Barlow says, outhouses nevertheless are catching the eyes of landscape architects who “are moving many of these quaint folk art buildings to the back yards of their wealthiest clients. Even a good reproduction can run you up to $2,500 before any electrical or plumbing hookups.”

In this genre of collectibles, Barlow told us that even outhouse post cards of the 1930s have been selling for $2 apiece and that post cards with pictures of Victorian privies have sold for as much as $25 each.

Soble cannot answer mail personally but will respond in this column to questions of general interest about collectibles. Do not telephone. Write to Your Collectibles, You section, The Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053.