Item TB476
This Item was Sold on 19 November
2021 for $1126
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This item is a complete set of the Brist Boomerang Game. The set includes the original box, 6 Brist Cross Sticks, 2 Rakahs ( nets ) and the instruction booklet. The box is in very good condition. However, there is damage at the edge with a small piece of the box missing. This does not affect the display quality of the box. The booklet is in lightly used condition. The two Rakahs are in mint condition. They look like they have never been used. The 6 Brist boomerang cross sticks are in very nice condition. The boomerangs look to be new or lightly used. The original instruction sheets are complete, but there is some damage with aging and a couple have edge tears, but nothing is missing. There is a rivet holding the two sticks together on all 6 boomerangs. All 4 blades have camber and leading edge beveling. There are bands of paint on each blade. In the cambered channel, the following lettering is stamped " No. 5 BRIST BOOMERANG " and " PAT. FEB. 4, 1902 ". I have thrown this model in the past and found that it has a low and circular flight, like a Fast Catch, with a flight range of 12-15 metres. A good collectible with advanced technology and it is more than 100 years old! This Brist Boomerang Set was used as a window display at a toy store for many years. These sets are very rare. I have seen only two other complete sets and they have sold at prices between $2000 and $3000.
Samuel Bristow was the first person in America to mass produce a boomerang and to make boomerang throwing a popular sporting activity. Samuel obtained his patent on 4 February 1902 and his factory in Topeka, Kansas manufactured about a million cross sticks in 15+ different models. Manufacturing ended at the beginning of World War I. All of the Brist boomerangs had advanced airfoiling features such as a bevel on the underside of the leading edge to enhance turning torque and camber on the underside of the narrow blade section to increase lift and reduce both drag and inertia. Many years later, all of these design features were eventually used on advanced Fast Catch boomerangs and many top boomerang designers claimed that they were the first to use these advanced design features. They were unaware that this had been done 75+ years earlier by Samuel Bristow. Some of the Brist boomerangs were also weighted on the tips. Again, many manufacturers of longer range boomerangs in the 1970s claimed that they were the first to add weights to increase distance. Again, this technique had been invented much earlier by Samuel Bristow and incorporated into many different Brist boomerang models. At one time, Brist boomerang throwing was more popular than croquet. The Brist game was very similar to the present day Australian Round event. The throwers had a target with concentric circles on the ground and points were awarded for how close you were to the center when the boomerang was caught. Catching was done with a large net, called the "Rakah". A world boomerang championship was even held in the city of St. Louis during the world fair in 1906. Samuel Bristow sold the factory around 1910 to a man named Bailey and the new owner's daughter painted most of the boomerangs that were made after that date. The daughter became a famous model many years later and when magazines displayed her picture, she always had a Brist boomerang in one of her hands and this was long after the company had ceased manufacturing the product. Sadly, the beginning of World War I started a decline in America's preoccupation with games and the Brist boomerang slowly disappeared from store shelves. |
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