University Archives will hold its last auction of the summer on August 27, 2025. Rare Autographs, Manuscripts & Books will provide collectors with the opportunity to show off their latest acquisitions around Labor Day barbecue pits and swimming pools.
Introducing A Top-Notch Collection: several hundred largely unreserved lots from the collection of a sophisticated California connoisseur, many unseen for decades. This collector purchased rare and desirable autographed items from Charles Hamilton, Joe Rubinfine, Kenneth Rendell, and other legendary dealers. Nothing was purchased less than 40 years ago, and most were purchased 50-60 years ago, meaning the material has been off-market for an average of 50 years. Our usual assortment of amazing auction items will accompany this stunning collection; on offer will be the best of U.S. Presidents, Early America, World Leaders, Science & Technology, Aviation & Space, Music, Art, Literature and Sports.
U.S. Presidents
Lot 127 is a George Washington signed letter dated February 20, 1790, addressed to a state governor, possibly North Carolina state governor Alexander Martin. In it, President Washington transmitted an Act of Congress regarding import laws, shipping procedures, and tax collection districts in North Carolina. This is one of only two such letters known to exist in which Washington notified a state governor of a Congressional Act during the first year after ratifying the U.S. Constitution. North Carolina had only ratified the U.S. Constitution three months earlier, in November 1789, after initially rejecting it.
Lot 127, George Washington LS
Lot 54 is an autograph letter twice signed by Thomas Jefferson, dated March 24, 1805 and sent to Monticello joiner and lumber supplier James Oldham. Jefferson expressed dismay that a fire the previous week had destroyed Oldham’s supply of wood planks earmarked for Monticello doors and window sashes. The letter illustrates the extent to which Jefferson continuously remodeled his private home even while in the White House. PSA/DNA slabbed and certified authentic.
Lot 70 is an Abraham Lincoln signed letter on Executive Mansion stationery dated July 29, 1864 and addressed to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. In the letter, Lincoln lobbied for the admission of Connecticut Congressman Augustus Brandegee’s nephew, Theodore T. Wood, into the U.S. Naval Academy, which had relocated from Annapolis to Newport after the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1861. Less than a week after Lincoln endorsed the naval cadet, Union forces under David Farragut finally stanched blockade-running at Mobile Bay.
Early America
Lot 233 is a Benjamin Franklin signed autograph document dated April 23, [1755]. This ledger recorded expenses in paper money, silver coins, and Spanish and Brazilian-minted gold coins which Franklin had accrued while undertaking General Edward Braddock’s commission to collect forage, horses, and wagons during the French & Indian War. Braddock’s expedition to Fort Duquesne, a French-controlled fort near present day Pittsburgh, was disastrous. At the Battle of Monongahela, Braddock’s aide-de-camp, a young George Washington, discovered numerous bullet holes in his coat and had several horses shot out from under him, and General Braddock later died of battlefield injuries.
Lot 285 is an extraordinary illustrated journal kept by an unidentified author/artist, ca. 1862-1864, who commented on Civil War-era politicians, military commanders, literary figures, activists, and entertainers. It features 50+ original vividly hand-colored drawings, some signed with a comical nom de plume. Inspired by newspaper articles and current events, the 98pp journal comments on the Emancipation Proclamation, Republican politics, fiscal policy, and other social issues, with both pro-slavery and anti-slavery messaging, suggesting that the author/artist was an equal opportunity satirist.
Lot 285, Civil War-Era Illustrated Journal
Lot 242 is a Biblical work personally owned, signed, and annotated by Salem Witch Trial judge Samuel Sewall, and consigned by the Canton Historical Society of Canton, Massachusetts. The book is a concordance, or index, of keywords cross-referenced with the biblical passages in which they appeared, and was published by Reverend Samuel Newton in London in 1650. The index contains words like Justice, Proof, Guilt, Mercy, Witch, Evil Spirit, and Devil. Sewall could have used this reference book when writing a discourse, like a court decision.
Lot 224 is a Samuel Adams signed partly printed and partly manuscript document dated October 15, 1794, conveying Adams’s gubernatorial support for poor laws in Charlestown. Personally, Adams was anti-slavery, but politically he couched his views much more conservatively.
World Leaders
Lot 315 is a manuscript document in French featuring a 22-word autograph note signed by French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. The document, written in Bayonne near the Spanish-French border on May 19, 1808, asked for Napoleon’s direction regarding the formation of a new battalion to accommodate Westphalian recruits during the ongoing Peninsular War. Just a few weeks later, Napoleon forced the legitimate Spanish leaders from the throne, installing his brother Joseph Bonaparte as a puppet ruler. This is just one of three notes and documents signed by Napoleon in the sale.
Lot 315, Napoleon Bonaparte ANS
Science & Technology
Lot 415 is a presentation photograph of inventor Thomas A. Edison, signed by him and dedicated to Etienne de Fodor, a Hungarian engineer at the Budapest General Electric Company, as “a pioneer of the Incandescent Electric Light.” While Edison photographs are not all that scarce, we consider that an inscription mentioning Edison’s most famous invention and modestly giving credit for it to another contributor makes it a monumental item.
Aviation & Space
Lot 170 is a massive meteorite (lunar feldspathic breccia) retrieved near Laâyoune, Morocco in the Western Sahara Desert, in January 2022. The meteorite tips the scales at an impressive 371 grams, and features a scattering of desirable white and red clasts.
Music
Lot 255 is Bob Dylan’s handwritten and signed lyrics to “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall,” a song featured in his 1963 second studio album. Dylan has inscribed all five stanzas of the song, inspired by the question-and-answer flow of traditional English folk songs, on a sheet of Holmenkollen Park Hotel Rica stationery from Oslo, Norway, ca. 2013. Accompanied by a COA from Jeff Rosen, Dylan’s manager.
Art
Lot 252 is a Walt Disney signed 1st edition copy of Fantasia (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1940), published in tandem with the release of the animated film of the same name set to classical music. The illustrated volume features 16 mounted color plates and also has its original dust jacket.
These are just a few of the spectacular lots in our August sale.
We hope you can join us!
