The epic ball of string borne of a legendary Highlandtown German restaurant sold at auction on Saturday evening to a world-renowned bidder with Maryland ties.
Chris Linsenbigler, owner of Stoner’s Auction in Glen Rock, Pennsylvania, said the 850-pound ball — crafted over years at Haussner’s Restaurant, a since-demolished eatery established in 1926 — didn’t fetch quite as much as the auction shop was hoping, “but where it’s going, I think, is the most important thing.”
That location? Ripley’s Believe It or Not! — specifically, its museum on the Ocean City boardwalk. The entertainment company, which expressed interest prior to the sale, dialed in as a phone bidder from Orlando, where it is headquartered. It paid $2,000.
A representative from Ripley’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“It’s staying in Maryland,” Linsenbigler said the buyer told him. “I think that means the most to Mr. Gerber, the owner of it, because it was all about preserving Baltimore history.”
Staff at the restaurant in the 3200 block of Eastern Avenue made the ball by tying together the strings the linen napkins arrived wrapped in, growing the collection to gargantuan proportions. Haussner’s closed in 1999 and was demolished in 2016.
The ball came to Linsenbigler by way of Bob Gerber, the owner of The Antique Man, who has stewarded the novelty for the past 26 years. In July, Gerber closed his Fells Point business, passing on the bulk of his stuff to Stoner’s. Gerber bought the ball at an auction in Timonium in 1999 for around $8,000.
Chef William Henry Haussner, who had cooked for a former kaiser back in Europe, founded the restaurant, which quickly became a staple for Baltimore’s then-large German-speaking population in Highlandtown.
Baltimore Banner reporter Christina Tkacik contributed to this report.
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