Very Rare 1700's Golf Club Iron

Description

ALL ORIGINAL 1700s
GOLF IRON
--- SUPER RARE!!!
This
is a
very rare, woo
d shafted golf iron
that has been radio-carbon dated to circa 1760
.
One of t
he world’s premier
radio
carbon-dating lab
oratories
, the Rafter Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory in New Zealand, analyze
d
a wood
fragment from this shaft and
concluded that the wood dated to 1760
,
with
accuracy
of plus or minus
40 years
(1720-1800)
.
Radiocarbon dating measure
s
organic lifespans from the moment that the or
ganic material starts to decay---when the tree is first cut down
, so the Rafter
Radiocarbon dating
reveal
s
an
accurate time frame for
the year
the tree was cut down that contained the wood of the shaft
.
This dating of the wood in
the shaft is very significant.
W
ood contains a
bout a
50% moisture content when a tree is first cut down and must be dried to a
pproximately
a
10%
or less
moisture content to stabilize potential
building material
, furniture,
golf shafts
, etc.
so that shrinkage and warping are reduced or eliminated.
This process takes one to two years
unless it is shortened by heating
or
other methods
.
If the wood is dried too much longer than this
two-year period
, the moistur
e content can dip too low
, making
the wood brittle and prone to
snap---
like an old tree branch dried in the sun
---perfect for firewood, but useless for a golf shaft
.
Once wood reaches the ideal moisture level
, it is
put to use and then
sealed
to maintain its moisture content and, hence, its maximum strength
and stability. Properly sealed, the moisture content can be maintained
for centuries
(
though the carbon decay continues
unaffected). For this reason,
wood is
used within a couple of
years of the tree being cut down
.
In conclusion, the radio-carbon dating
of the wood of the golf shaft provides an accurate determination
not only
of the time frame during which
the tree
was cut down but also of
the time frame
of the manufacture of the golf club itself.
T
his radio-ca
rbon dating documentation is
included in the purchase.
This early
club’s
design is quite crude: t
he hosel is
extra-long
and very thick with
heavy oxidation to
the metal
of the clubhead
.
T
he
thick
wood
shaft
is still tight
to
the clubhead and, amazingly, in playable condition.
The club itself is 35 1/2" long and weighs 24 ounces.  The heel to toe length of the clubhead is 4 1/2" and the width of the blade is 3/16".  The hosel is 9" long with a circumference of 3 1/4" and is pinned in two positions, one high and one low.  The clubhead is a separate piece of metal from the hosel.
The club has a lie angle of 62 degrees with 16 degrees of left-handed loft.  The shaft tapers from round at the hosel to square at the grip.  There is a "V" cut into the grip indicating the correct placement of the right hand a
bove the left on the wood shaft.
See the pictures of how this works with the left-handed "baseball-style" grip, which was used at the time
this club was played
.
Of course, few clubs of this vintage have survived the ravages of time.
Knowledgeable
collectors often estimate the number of pre-1800 club
s in the world at fewer than 25.
Most of these clubs are in museums or private collections and they very rarely become available for purchase.  Nearly all of these clubs are of Scottish manufacture with a very disti
nctive, squared-off toe.  T
hi
s club is quite different with its
rounded toe
, extra-long
hosel
, and thick
shaft.
We know g
olf was played in the Americas in the 1700s in both South Carolina and New York.  Shipping records from the Scottish port of Leith show that a shipment of balls and clubs reached Charleston, South Carolina
in the 1740s and there is a British military journal article
and
an ad
from
a
New York
newspaper
that document
s
play on Long Island,
New York later in the 1700s.
In fact, William Burnett, Governor of New England, who died in 1729, had an inventory from his estate sale that showed that there were ten golf clubs and seven dozen golf balls that were sold.
So,
we know golf was played to some exten
t in Colonial America.
And t
his
club
, with a
design
cruder
than the surviving examples of
early Scottish golf clubs
,
was most likely an early attempt to provide an uncommon left-handed club to an early colonial play
er. As such, this club is
a very historically significant golf club
; p
erhaps the earliest known example of an American-made golf club in exist
ence.
A golf club
,
very similar to this one
(
but
with a hosel not quite as long
)
, exists in one of the best private collections in the World.
T
wo
of the more “common” Scottish
pre-1800 irons sold at a September 2007 Sotheby's auction in New Yor
k for 1,000 and 1,000.