Memorabilia

Memo to Mom: Don't sell my stuff, and by the way, it's not yours to sell. That, in essence, is the message in court papers filed Wednesday by Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant in response to a federal lawsuit by a Camden County auction house that is seeking to sell basketball memorabilia mainly from Bryant's youth. The items are being sold on behalf of his mother, Pamela. "I never told my mother that she could have my personal property, let alone consign it for public auction," wrote Bryant, who was drafted into the NBA directly out of Lower Merion High School.

Kobe Bryant has won a judge's order that temporarily blocks a Camden County auctioneer from selling memorabilia given it by the basketball great's mother. U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford issued an order Wednesday in Santa Ana, Calif., that blocks Goldin Auctions L.L.C. of Berlin from selling or transferring property, including "basketball jerseys, championship rings, and other sports memorabilia" that Bryant says belongs to him. Goldin said in court papers that it expected to sell the items for more than $1 million and had advanced Pamela Bryant $450,000.

WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. - A trove of memorabilia from Studio 54 is going up for bid Saturday in an auction that is resurrecting those long-ago nights at the iconic 1970s clubhouse with a legacy greater than its lifespan. Mementos kept by the late Studio 54 co-owner Steve Rubell, including paparazzi photographs, letters and artwork once belonging to the New York club's A-list guests, are being auctioned off here. The items give a fascinating glimpse of life at 54: author Fran Lebowitz shoulder-to-shoulder with pop artist Andy Warhol.

Out at a small airfield in Burlington County called the Flying W, there's a restaurant that was once decorated with memorabilia from the days of zeppelins, those rigid lighter-than-air vehicles that crossed the Atlantic until the fateful 1937 explosion of the Hindenburg at Lakehurst, N.J. Among the memorabilia was an article that noted that zeppelins might be susceptible to perishing while high in the sky. If they lost power, they would float...

Some "collections" are rather small, such as as a single Balch Institute photo of Civil War veteran Robert Riley wearing the uniform of the 7th Regiment, Colored Troops. On the other hand, the Jack Franklin collection at the African-American Museum contains 300,000 photos of Philadelphia's black community, taken over a 50-year period. Now, it's a lot easier to find that yellowing photo of the Colored Troop veteran and Franklin's photos - ranging from black beauty pageants to Black Power rallies - thanks to this month's release of a 135-page booklet with the long title: "The Directory of African American Collection in Greater Philadelphia and Selected Suburban Areas.

A disagreement between the Pittsburgh Pirates and a restaurant might keep old scoreboard numbers, seats and windows from Forbes Field out of the Pirates' new ballpark. The Pirates played at Forbes Field before their move in 1970 to Three Rivers Stadium. Three Rivers is soon to be demolished and the Pirates will move this season to the new PNC Park. The Pirates would like to display Forbes Field items at PNC Park when it opens, but the Pirates and the Allegheny Club restaurant disagree on who owns the memorabilia.

Hunt Auctions, the Exton sports-memorabilia outfit whose sales frequently take place in conjunction with major sporting events all over the country, will help Boston's Fenway Park celebrate its 100th anniversary with a sale there featuring the personal collection of Ted Williams - who spent his entire major league baseball career playing with the Red Sox. The 700-lot sale April 28 will also feature Fenway Park historic memorabilia, notably the...

The April auction schedule opens this weekend with two suburban sales offering unusual and perhaps unique items, and continues with the promise of major activity midmonth - notably the sale by Freeman's of a major private collection of pewter. The first of this weekend's sales takes place tonight at Briggs Auction in Garnet Valley, which, as part of its regular Friday night event, will be offering a single-owner collection of more than 2,000 books related to railroads, as well as railroad memorabilia.

The bat was sitting on a table with a dozen others, obscured in a clutter of bruised and battered wood. And yet, with its reddish hue and its brilliant sheen, customers were instantly attracted to it. "That's one of the last bats Mike Schmidt ever used," said Michael Montbriand, a Sacramento, Calif., dealer at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago. "It's a beauty, isn't it?" "How do you know that was really one of the last bats Mike Schmidt ever used?" someone asked.

The Millville Army Air Field Museum has added seaplane memorabilia to the artifacts on display in what is billed as America's first "defense airport. " Late last year, the museum assumed responsibility for the Seaplane Base Museum in Essington, Delaware County. Robert Mills - whose father, Frank Sr., founded the museum in 1915 - is retiring and closing the facility. The Millville museum is on the grounds of a former World War II fighter-pilot training facility that is now the municipal airport.

Kobe Bryant has won a judge's order that temporarily blocks a Camden County auctioneer from selling memorabilia given it by the basketball great's mother. U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford issued an order Wednesday in Santa Ana, Calif., that blocks Goldin Auctions L.L.C. of Berlin from selling or transferring property, including "basketball jerseys, championship rings, and other sports memorabilia" that Bryant says belongs to him. Goldin said in court papers that it expected to sell the items for more than $1 million and had advanced Pamela Bryant $450,000.

Memo to Mom: Don't sell my stuff, and by the way, it's not yours to sell. That, in essence, is the message in court papers filed Wednesday by Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant in response to a federal lawsuit by a Camden County auction house that is seeking to sell basketball memorabilia mainly from Bryant's youth. The items are being sold on behalf of his mother, Pamela. "I never told my mother that she could have my personal property, let alone consign it for public auction," wrote Bryant, who was drafted into the NBA directly out of Lower Merion High School.

An incorrect photo accompanied a story about the band Parquet Courts and band member Austin Brown in the Weekend section Friday. A current photo of Brown and the group appears above. A story Friday misstated the value of Kobe Bryant sports memorabilia planned for an auction in June. His items would fetch at least $1 million, according to an auction expert, out of a possible auction total of $2.5 million. The Inquirer wants its news report to be fair and correct in every respect, and regrets when it is not. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, contact assistant managing editor David Sullivan (215-854-2357)

More than a generation after the historic "Miracle On Ice" game in the 1980 Winter Olympics, 58-year-old Mike Eruzione is parting with his iconic No. 21 USA jersey, hockey stick, and other Olympic paraphernalia. Eruzione's white jersey alone is expected to fetch more than $1 million, but some sports memorabilia experts think it could go considerably higher. Eruzione scored the sensational winning goal against the Soviet hockey team in Lake Placid, N.Y., catapulting the Americans toward the gold medal.

WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. - A trove of memorabilia from Studio 54 is going up for bid Saturday in an auction that is resurrecting those long-ago nights at the iconic 1970s clubhouse with a legacy greater than its lifespan. Mementos kept by the late Studio 54 co-owner Steve Rubell, including paparazzi photographs, letters and artwork once belonging to the New York club's A-list guests, are being auctioned off here. The items give a fascinating glimpse of life at 54: author Fran Lebowitz shoulder-to-shoulder with pop artist Andy Warhol.

LOS ANGELES - James Comisar is the first to acknowledge that people have questioned his sanity for spending the better part of 25 years collecting everything from the costume George Reeves wore in the 1950s TV show Superman to the entire set of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson . Then there are the pointy Spock ears Leonard Nimoy wore on Star Trek and the guns Tony Soprano used to rub out a mob rival on The Sopranos . ...

Between the Army-Navy Game here last weekend and the Battle of the Bowls coming up first thing next year, this weekend will be an occasion to recall another football icon: Ken Farragut, Eagles center from 1951 to 1954, selected for the 1953 Pro Bowl, and one of the oldest surviving players of the NFL. Born in 1928 in Ponchatoula, La., Farragut played football for the University of Mississippi and in 1951 was invited to play in the college all-star...

Charlie Mallon has a thing about Corvettes. Actually, by last count, more than 2,200 things. So many things that in May, Mallon was officially certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as having the largest collection of Chevrolet memorabilia. "It's different. Why not?" Mallon says of his collection. "Some guys play golf; I do this. Everyone collects something. I'm sure other people have more than I do, and I'm certain that some day the record will be broken. " The bulk of Mallon's collection consists of miniature cars, ranging in size from an inch to two feet.

The player-autograph sessions are sold out, but fans can still attend the annual Phillies Phestival, a fund-raiser to fight ALS, at Citizens Bank Park, starting this afternoon. It's a chance to see players, coaches, executives, broadcasters and ballgirls - the whole team will be there - as well as play games, win prizes, and see lots of impressive sports memorabilia that's up for auction. At 4 p.m., rain or shine, fans, who can park in Lots R, S and V, can start entering via the Left Field Gate.

For political memorabilia collectors, Philadelphia is the center of the universe. Not even Boston, New York, and Washington can top the attic-discovery potential of local ancestral estates. Tom Slater, the director of Americana at Heritage, which sells high-end memorabilia from politicians, once lived in Haddonfield and knows firsthand what can be found here. His mentor, a well-known dealer, told him Philadelphia was one of the best places in the country to find great items. "Unlike so many cities, it had never had a major natural disaster of any kind — fire, flood, earthquake," he said.