120-year-old ba’ goes under the hammer

A historic ba’ has been sold at auction in Edinburgh, with a winning bid of £3,810.

The trophy from the 1907 Christmas Day Youth’s Ba’ was won by Uppie Pat Gunn.

His family were hoping to buy the ba’ and have it displayed in Kirkwall, but the bids went beyond their top price.

Up for auction with Lyon & Turnbull, on Wednesday, the lot was estimated to have a value of between £300 and £500. 

Although Pat’s family were not able to secure this piece of family history, they were glad to have had the chance to tell their relative’s story.

Pat, who emigrated to Canada soon after winning the 1907 game, was the great uncle of sisters Eileen Sclater, from Stenness, and Elizabeth Copp, who lives in Keith.

They are two of the four cousins who were hoping to have the ba’ bought and displayed in the Kirkwall Legion in honour of the Gunn family’s wartime service.

Eileen said: “Our bid to bring our great-uncle Pat’s ba’ home has been an emotional trip on many levels.

“My sister Elizabeth and I attended the auction in Edinburgh yesterday but bidding began at £1,500 with six bidders — ourselves not included sadly as that had been our top agreed price.

“Seeing it in a big glass case only confirmed that it was already distancing itself from us.

“The bids kept coming from online till it reached £3,800.

“Pat’s ba’ will now head off on a new journey — it would be fantastic to think it might come back over the Firth again and home, but in the meantime, the story of it and our great-uncle prevails. That’s special.”

The ba’, made by John Costie and family, came from the collection of John D. M. Robertson

He authored The Kirkwall Ba’: Between the Water and the Wall, and won the trophy on New Year’s Day 1966. He was chairman of the Ba’ Committee for many years.