Green Jacket Auctions' Statement on Early Golf Clubs
To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Green Jacket Auctions(!!!), we’ve been surveying the hobby and have an observation to share: early golf clubs, which for decades were the driving force of the entire collecting industry, are vastly oversold and incredibly undervalued in the current market. This is especially true for museum quality clubs, which we consider to be the top 5% of known examples. If there has ever been a time in the past 50 years to pay attention to the earliest golf clubs, now is that moment.
Museum Quality Circa 1850 Douglas McEwan Play Club
In Jeff Ellis' tome, "The Clubmaker's Art", he describes the significance of a McEwan club: "The name 'McEwan' identifies more than a long nose club – it belongs to the most famous family of early clubmakers." ("The Clubmaker's Art", 2nd Edition, p. 43)
Simply put, in the hierarchy of long nose clubmakers, McEwan reigns supreme. No true golf club collection in the entire world is missing a McEwan long nose. In fact, any truly serious collection contains several.
Offered here is a circa 1850 Douglas McEwan (1809-1886) long nose play club (driver). This museum quality example is what's known as a “dry original” of this master maker's
craft. Douglas McEwan crafted some of the world’s finest examples of feather ball era clubs. This
fine driver bears all of its original natural resin varnish finish, and belies
its age with raw file marks to the face. This is a museum quality club that
would grace any fine collection of ancient clubs.