The late Dr. G.B. Espy will be remembered for his heroism as well as his unparalleled collection of collectible Americana. Some 426 pieces of his pop culture cache are on view at Christie’s New York headquarters in Rockefeller Center, where 174 lots—including a pocket watch commemorating Ty Cobb’s first real season and the paperwork finalizing Marilyn Monroe’s divorce from Joe DiMaggio—will hit the block on October 22. The rest is already up for grabs in a digital sale that closes October 24.
Such collectibles auctions are rather rare at Christie’s. “When we present a sale it is because there is a great story,” specialist Nathalie Ferneau said. “The Espy collection is a fantastic story.”
Dr. Espy was born on the very same day as Elvis Presley in Jackson, Alabama to a military father who moved their family around a whole bunch before the young Espy turned 11. Espy was awkward and economically disadvantaged growing up, but he studied hard, interned at the legendary Charity Hospital in New Orleans, and became a beloved OB/GYN in Atlanta. Espy’s 2023 biography details his dramatic start as a doctor—losing a daughter to cerebral palsy amidst his divorce, for starters—and his avid humanitarianism, offering free treatment to struggling mothers, treating earthquake victims in Haiti, and fighting Ebola in Kenya.
He’d learned the joys of collecting from hanging around his mother’s antique shop as a kid, and slowly amassed a miniature private museum in his basement as an adult. As Espy’s son-in-law Sean Ward wrote in the Christie’s sale’s catalog, his subterranean mausoleum spanned four rooms: Militaria, Hollywood Greats, Historical Artifacts, and Sports Memorabilia. Movie stars and athletes dominate this week’s offerings, which only bring a sliver of Espy’s collection to the market.
“One could spend days exploring and still not uncover everything,” Ward wrote. “Is that Elvis’s bible? Clark Gable’s passport? General Patton’s book of poetry? And could this be the largest private collection of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia?” Most of it was collected before the internet.
The last jersey Lou Gehrig ever wore as a Yankee leads this week’s live sale, with an estimate of $2,000,000 to $5,000,000. Espy bought this historic gear for $115,000 in the early 1990s from a New York dealer who came into the jersey via the very drycleaner who most likely snagged it en route to reuse in the minor leagues. (By comparison, the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever sold—Babe Ruth’s “called shot “jersey—went for $24,120,000 last year.)
Although Espy originally favored college football—particularly ‘Bama—baseball eventually became his predominant area of expertise. All but four of the top 20 lots in the live auction hail from America’s greatest pastime, like Jackie Robinson’s 1962 Hall of Fame ring (est. $250,000 to $500,000)—the first ever awarded to an African American player—and a Louisville Slugger that Gehrig may have used during his last World Series in 1938 (est. $500,000 to $1,000,000).
The 252-lot online sale, meanwhile, features scores of steals. The top lot right now is a baseball that Babe Ruth signed around 1947 (est. $7,500 to $12,500). A curious relic currently follows, too; a 1964 letter from Walt Disney, which was expected to achieve $1,000 to $1,500, has already nearly topped $4,000 in bids. In this letter, Disney sends his condolences to naturalist Lucien Harris Jr. following the death of newspaperman Joel Chandler Harris, Jr.—and fondly recalls the Atlanta debut of the controversial Disney production, Song of the South, 17 years prior. The film’s lead, James Baskett, couldn’t attend that premiere, since Atlanta was still segregated. History is multidimensional. Momentous troves like these have infinite stories to tell.
