Highlights
of Autographs We Have Sold
Listed
here are a few of the many extraordinary autographs that it has been
our privilege to handle.
Alexander
Graham Bell - a letter summarizing the history of his invention
of the telephone.
Kit
Carson - a very rare letter to an old Army colleague humorously
describing a photographer's efforts to make him look more civilized.
Winston
Churchill & Franklin D. Roosevelt - a document signed by
both during their historic August 1941 Atlantic Charter conference.
Charles
Darwin - a 12-page letter discussing his study of the evolution
of species.
Thomas
Edison - a letter concerning his search for a better filament
for the light bulb.
Richard
J. Gatling - a letter detailing the key elements involved in
the development of his machine gun.
John
Hancock - a letter as President of the Continental Congress
sending money to aid American prisoners of war.
Victor
Hugo - a letter reporting that Les Misérables
has been sold and is about to go to press.
Henry
James - a long letter describing the day he received an honorary
degree from Oxford University.
Thomas
Jefferson - a document outlining his terms for hiring four
slaves to work at Monticello.
Martin
Luther King Jr. - one of his books, inscribed by him to his
instructor in the art of preaching.
Robert
E. Lee - a letter sent to Union General George Meade, the day
after the battle of Gettysburg, asking about the fate of a captured
Confederate officer.
Abraham
Lincoln - a document giving the final authorization for the
blockade of the South at the start of the Civil War.
David
Livingstone - a long letter describing the problems and prospects
of his expedition up the Zambezi River.
Douglas
MacArthur - a statement praising the heroism of Americans held
as prisoners of war in the Philippines during World War II.
James
Madison - a letter announcing the special session of Congress
called to ratify the Louisiana Purchase.
James
Madison - a letter reminiscing about the Constitutional Convention
and discussing the intent of the framers concerning the relationship
between the Constitution and common law.
Isaac
Newton - a letter reporting the death of his nephew in America
during a British expedition against the French in one of the colonial
wars.
Mary
Shelley - a letter recalling her years with Percy Bysshe Shelley
and mentioning her famous novel, Frankenstein.
Alfred
Stieglitz - a fine archive of over 140 letters discussing all
aspects of his personal and professional life.
George
Washington - various Revolutionary War-date letters, among
them letters discussing the preparations for Sullivan's Expedition against
the Iroquois, gifts for the Comte d'Estaing and the French fleet on
their arrival in America, improvements needed at West Point, and an
appeal to an important officer to remain with the Continental Army.
Walt
Whitman - several pages of the original manuscript of Democratic
Vistas, his most important prose work.
Collections
- Since we respect the privacy of all those with whom we do business,
we won't name names here. But we have purchased any number of large
and significant collections of autographs over the years. Two especially
stand out.
One was
a major private collection - five large folio volumes filled with letters
from important historical, scientific, and literary figures - assembled
by a leading Philadelphia family in the mid-nineteenth century and handed
down intact through many generations.
The other
was a remarkable album of Confederate autographs, assembled by a Civil
War veteran and handed down through his family, that included the signatures
of every general, every major naval officer, all the leading figures
of the executive and legislative branches, and every state governor
of the Confederacy.
Return
