This lot is closed. Bidding ended on 5/11/2001.
Few boxing collectibles can beat the "silks of champions," the square-cut swaths of silk that were the 19th Century's finest collectible. We offer a particularly magnificent one, a 33" x 33" piece that was made in honor of heavyweight champ" Jake Kilrain in 1887 by the Police Gazette, a popular magazines of the day whose powerful publisher, Richard K. Fox, had the last word on determining champions. In ‘87, he bestowed Kilrain the title after he beat Jem Smith in a bare-knuckles fight in France that went an unbelievable 106 rounds. The silk, which has a tan background with blue and pink stripes around the edges and embellished with various logos, flags and decals, has an image of the mustachioed Kilrain with his arms crossed above an inscription reading, "Jake Kilrain, Champion Pugilist of America, Holder of the Police Gazette ‘Diamond Belt,' Offered by Richard K. Fox, Representing the Championship of the World." The significance of the silk is magnified by the fact that Kilrain later lost to John L. Sullivan, who had taken over the title, in the last sanctioned bare-knuckles bout in history before the adoption of boxing gloves and the Marques de Queensbury rules. In the July 8,1889 bout in Richburg, Mississipi, Kilrain was KO'd by John L. in round 75.. Given the age of the silk, any damage is understandable, and there are scattered stains and tears including a hole on the hairline of Kilrain's image, and patches of paper behind the silk yet it is in remarkably good condition, and with its delicate grace brings back to life boxing's brutal and bodacious days.