Member Article

1948 Olympics memorabilia to go under hammer

An official report of the 1948 London Olympic Games will go under the hammer on 19 July at an auction by Newcastle-based Anderson & Garland.

Sold at the culmination of the 1948 Games for five shillings, the magazine was published by World Sports as the official magazine of the British Olympics Association and lists all the winners of the different sports alongside a wide variety of images.

At the top of the report is written the name Kettlewell, although it is not known who this person is.

Being sold with this is a ticket to the Athletics at the Games, which took place in the Empire Stadium, Wembley on Wednesday August 4 July 1948 at 2.30pm. Priced at six shillings, the owner was sat in the uncovered West Terrace accessed by Entrance 58 in Row 7, Seat 122.

Also within the lot is a special issue First Day Cover published to commemorate the occasion. This is stamped 29 July 1948, Roslin Midlothian, with a set of four stamps priced at 2.5p, 3p, 6p and 1 shilling.

1948 was the last time the UK hosted the Olympics, which had been postponed for twelve years due to World War II. With a difficult economic climate and post-war rationing in place, the event came to be known as the Austerity Games.

In that year a record 59 nations were represented by 4,104 athletes in 19 sport disciplines. The UK came away with 23 medals, of which 3 were gold.

Fred Wyrley-Birch from Anderson & Garland said: “These are lovely pieces of Olympic history made all the more pertinent by the fact we are again in times of austerity yet about to celebrate another big summer of sport. I could certainly see them making up to £100.

“It’s fascinating to see what people have kept and to wonder what we’ll see from this year’s Olympic Games in another fifty year’s time.”

For more information, please visit www.andersonandgarland.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sarah Waddington .