An 1860 Brooklyn Atlantics baseball card was among the star lots on the first day of Heritage Auctions' Platinum Night Sports Auction.

The item sold for $179,250 in Chicago on July 30, far above an example from 1865 that made $92,000 in 2013.

The Atlantics were the early stars of baseball

The strong price is a reflection of the card's importance - it is one of the earliest pieces of baseball history ever sold, and one of just two examples of this card.

The Brooklyn Atlantics were the star team of baseball's early years. Founded in 1855, they won seven pennants in the 1850s and 1860s.

The director of sports auctions at Heritage, Chris Ivy, commented: "This is a seminal artifact, not just of baseball, but of American history.

"It ranks with the most significant mementos of the sport's infancy ever to surface and is, quite possibly, the only team card on Earth printed before the first drop of blood was spilled in the American Civil War."

Also on offer was William "Refrigerator" Perry's 1985 Super Bowl ring - the largest Super Bowl ring ever made. It sold for $203,150.

The auction also saw the $23,900 sale of an Olympic torch carried by Bruce Jenner prior to the 1984 Games.

TV personality Jenner, who won decathlon gold at the 1976 Games, announced earlier this year he was becoming a woman called Caitlyn.

"Perhaps no athlete in history has traveled a more winding road through the various states of celebrity than Jenner," says Ivy.

"From All-American sports star to patriarch of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the world's most famous reality television family to her current status as the pioneer and centerpiece of the evolving global transgender conversation."

Check out our sports memorabilia for sale.

Please sign up to our free newsletter to receive exciting news about sports memorabilia auctions.