1912 Stockholm Olympics Memorabilia
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GUEST:
My grandfather was Henry Louis Scott, he went by Louis. He was a track runner the early part of the last century. He was chosen for the 1912 Olympic team, and one of the events he raced in, the American team won a gold medal in a 3,000-meter team race. One of the stories my father said his father told him was that on either the trip over or the trip back, he became friendly with a man he called Georgie. Georgie was on the pentathlon team, which involved equestrian events. And during either the crossing or the return, the seas got rough and Georgie went down to calm his horses, and one of them kicked him and broke his nose. And my father found out later that Georgie was in fact George Patton.
APPRAISER:
General, of course, also, little known, was a participant on the pentathlon team.
GUEST:
Yes. I don't think he won.
APPRAISER:
No, he did not, because the 1912 Stockholm Olympics are best known for Jim Thorpe winning both the decathlon and the pentathlon. But your grandfather ran in the 3,000-meter race. Now explain what the 3,000-meter team race was.
GUEST:
It's rather complicated. But my understanding, what I've gotten from information from the U.S. Olympic Committee, who was most helpful, was that each country ran a series of heats. The countries that won the most heats got to put five runners in a final race, and the top three runners for each country were calculated to determine which country won. My grandfather won his heat, he did not come into the top three for this particular race. But since he was on the team, the whole team of five people got a gold medal.
APPRAISER:
And what happened to the gold medal?
GUEST:
We have no idea.
APPRAISER:
Ah...
GUEST:
Absolutely no idea.
APPRAISER:
But instead, you do have this wonderful piece. Some people call it a certificate, other people call it a diploma of merit. And you'll see here, it says, "I Pris" right on there. And that's from the 1912. And you'll see there's your grandfather's name right there, H. Louis Scott. Both of these posters, by the way, were done by a gentleman named Olle Hjortzberg, who was a professor of the Royal Art Academy in Sweden. He was a great Swedish painter. And he won a competition to produce the poster. This poster is great, but as you can see, there's a lot of damage to it. You've got missing pieces here. And because it's not a rare poster, you have to take that into consideration. For the poster alone, I would probably place an auction estimate maybe of $1,000 to $1,200, which is still pretty good. They've sold as high as $4,000 or $5,000 in great condition. So you can see that this is a fraction of that.
GUEST:
I'm very surprised.
APPRAISER:
The patch is great because he wore it on his blazer. The patch is probably about $300 to $500. But this is the most intriguing piece, particularly since the gold medal has disappeared. You don't see these certificates of merit very often. It's a fantastic piece. And normal diplomas or certificates of merits that they've given out have sold between $1,000 and $3,000. But this one, because it's first place and it's 1912, I would put an auction estimate of about $5,000 to $7,000.
GUEST:
I'm very surprised. I had no idea.
APPRAISER:
I don't think you're going to sell this, so if I was going to insure all of this, I'd probably insure the group somewhere in the vicinity of about $15,000 for insurance, for retail replacement value. Of course, for you it's irreplaceable.
GUEST:
I'm very surprised, I really am. I had no idea.
APPRAISER:
If you had the gold medal today, an auction estimate would probably be somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000.
GUEST:
My goodness.
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