Collection of three 1920 documents, each relating to the sale of Babe Ruth's contract in 1919.

1) Unexecuted promissory note, dated June 28, 1920, in the amount of $20,000 issued by the "Boston American League Baseball Club" to the Royal Bank of Canada. As collateral for the loan, the Red Sox are using one of the $25,000 promissory notes received from the Yankees as partial payment for Ruth's contract on December 26, 1919. As one can see from the two accompanying documents in this lot, this note was to be a renewal of a previous loan. The unexecuted promissory note (8.5x11"), which is not signed, displays two horizontal folds and two paperclip impressions along the top border.

2) One-page typed file-copy letter, dated March 27, 1920, from Yankees owner T. L. Huston to Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee. In his letter, Huston informs Frazee that the Yankees have arranged with the Royal Bank of Canada to renew his note and that they have paid the interest due. The letter (8.5x11.5") displays tears along the two horizontal fold lines that have been repaired with clear tape, as well as a additional tears and tape repair. 

3) One-page typed file-copy letter, dated June 21, 1920, from a Yankees front-office executive to T. L. Huston. In his letter, the executive reminds Huston that Harry Frazee's current loan note comes due on June 26th. The letter (8.5x11.5") displays a tear along one of the horizontal folds that has been repaired with tape, along with several small tears. 

These documents, along with nearly every other surviving document relating to the sale of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, originates from the estate of Ed Barrow, who was manager of the Boston Red Sox at the time of the transaction, and soon after became the longtime business manager/general manager of the New York Yankees. Many years after Barrow's death, legendary collector Barry Halper purchased Barrow's entire business archive from the Barrow family, which included dozens of documents relating to Boston's historic sale of Ruth. (Barry Halper's collection is considered by many to have been the finest private baseball-memorabilia collection ever assembled.) In 1999, Halper sold nearly his entire collection at auction through Sotheby's in New York (the collection was so vast that it took over a week of twice-daily live auctions and three months of weekly internet sales to liquidate it). Lot 560 in the live-auction portion of the sale featured a large collection of documents relating to the sale of Ruth, from which these items as well as every other "sale of Ruth" document featured in this auction, originates. The entire content of Lot 560 in the 1999 Sotheby's Halper Collection auction has been consigned to our 2023 Spring and Summer Classic auctions by the original purchaser, making this just the third time since 1919 that these historically significant documents will have traded hands.