A private collection of antique tennis rackets is to be auctioned during the Roland-Garros tournament. In the auction will be more than 90 historic objects, and all will be available as original collectables and NFTs in celebration of the first Grand Slam event of the 2023 tennis season.
An online auction will be held to commemorate the iconic tennis tournament, Roland-Garros, which will take place from May 28 to June 11, 2023. As part of the celebration, one of the largest private collections of antique tennis rackets and accessories from the late 19th and early 20th centuries will be available for collectors to bid on.
Tennis enthusiasts will have a new opportunity to connect with the sport’s history thanks to the collection, which will be available for purchase through the OpenSea platform and includes authentic physical objects and NFT collectables.
“In order to showcase the unique history behind each racket and to allow collectors a new opportunity to interact with their purchase in new ways, we’ve designed high-quality NFT tokens to accompany each original object sold. I believe the enthusiasm for collecting antiquities needs to evolve with technology.
Thanks to state-of-the-art technological advancements, we can now appreciate coveted objects in our private spaces while also creating a high-quality digital footprint, providing a brand new experience,” says Slava Babienko, a tennis enthusiast who spent over a decade compiling the collection.
The collection of 91 items includes exceedingly rare pieces, some of which have been produced in limited numbers. For some models, only a few exist as collectables today. The oldest model in the collection is an iconic 1876 model by the American manufacturer A.G. Spalding & Bros.
One of the lots includes a racket model made between 1906 and 1910 by Brothers Tsygankov manufacturing. It was one of the first tennis rackets produced in tsarist Russia and Nicolas II’s preferred racket. Only four of these original models are known to exist today, three of which are on display in museums.
The online auction will coincide with the Roland-Garros tournament between May 28 and June 11, 2023. Each lot will include a physical object that can be shipped internationally and a digitalized NFT version.
For more information about the collection, visit www.antiquerackets.com.
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