John Reznikoff In The News

University Archives is thrilled to announce its next sale on May 31, 2023: Rare Manuscripts, Books & Sports Memorabilia. Major collecting categories of the 380+-lot sale include Music, Science, & U.S. Presidential, with outstanding autographed material from Ludwig van Beethoven to George Gershwin; from Albert Einstein and Max Planck to Thomas A. Edison; and from George Washington to Joe Biden. Exceptional items of Civil Rights, Military, Entertainment, Literature, and Sports memorabilia will also pass the auction block. Our lavishly illustrated catalog is up and ready for viewing/bidding!

MUSIC

Ludwig van Beethoven commands an extensive Music category which also includes George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Earl “Fatha” Hines, Motown/R & B, and Woodstock. Beethoven autographed material is extremely scarce, and this undated autograph letter in German signed by him as “Beethoven” also features excellent musical content relating to his only opera, “Fidelio,” a love story about a wife disguised as a man rescuing her husband from a political prison. Beethoven’s letter was addressed to Friedrich Sebastian Mayer, the baritone singer who played Don Pizarro the prison governor in the first two productions of “Fidelio.”

SCIENCE

Besides Planck, Edison, Morse, and even Henry Heimlich and L. Ron Hubbard, we have three interesting lots related to Albert Einstein in our May sale. One of these is a remarkable script from the mid-1940s NBC television series “Your World Tomorrow” signed by him as “A. Einstein” on the front cover. In the pilot episode, “The Atom,” Einstein’s discovery of his equation E=MC²  is dramatized through dialogue between “Einstein” and two fictional characters. The series was slated to air in May 1946, less than one year after U.S. forces dropped atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There are very few examples of Einstein’s inscribing his famous formula in something other than a book and or in something likewise manufactured, and an Einstein handwritten example of the formula recently fetched over $1.2 million at auction!

U.S. PRESIDENTIAL

Our May sale features U.S. Presidents from George Washington through Joe Biden, with Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Reagan items being especially well-represented.

George Washington boldly signed an October 21, 1799 letter addressed to a Revolutionary War veteran named Captain Abraham Shepherd in the former’s capacity as Commander-in-Chief of Federal Armies under the Adams administration. Washington assumed command of the military after his second presidential term ended, and he would serve until his death two months after this letter was written, in December 1799.

John Adams wrote an incredible autograph letter signed dated March 31, 1801 addressed to Isaiah Thomas, Jr., the Worcester printer of the old Boston Patriot weekly, “Massachusetts Spy.” In it, Adams inquires whether Massachusetts is being overrun by the “moral and political opinions of Virginia” in a veiled reference to recently ascendant Thomas Jefferson and other Virginia Democrats.

Abraham Lincoln penned a Civil War-dated autograph note regarding a brigade surgeon’s appointment in the Excelsior Brigade. This battle unit had been plagued by political in-fighting between disgraced former New York Congressman Daniel Sickles, and his nemesis, New York Governor Edwin Morgan. Lincoln’s note implicitly acknowledges the strained political climate, and was signed on January 13, 1862, the very day he forwarded his presidential nomination of Edwin Stanton as U.S. Secretary of War.

MARVELOUS MISCELLANY

Civil Rights

Martin Luther King, Jr., Booker T. Washington, and the Black Power Movement headline our Civil Rights category. Martin Luther King, Jr. signed a typed letter on “Southern Christian Leadership Conference” stationery on January 18, 1966 concerning the use of the “N” word. To the inquiring man from Haddonfield, New Jersey, King wrote: “The word ‘n–r’ carries with it a meaning deeply rooted in the debilitating racist caste ordering of our society’s slavery epoch and segregation era.” King explained that he favored the term “dark skinned American” to approach the question of nomenclature as objectively as possible, while emphasizing the shared values of American citizens regardless of race.

Military

Collectors of Military and Naval will be pleased with abundant autographed material from the Revolutionary War, Napoleonic Wars, Civil War, and World War II. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson wrote a 1p autograph letter signed to a neighbor on June 29, 1861, when he was commanding the 1^st Brigade of the Confederate Army of the Shenandoah. Earlier that Spring, Jackson had conducted multiple raids against the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, one of the Union Army’s principal supply arteries, destroying tracks and bridges, and confiscating locomotives.

An archive of World War II-dated correspondence from Charles Sweeney, pilot of “Bockscar,” paints a vivid portrait of Air Force life before and after the dropping of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Sweeney participated in the Hiroshima raid (in an auxiliary plane, “The Great Artiste”) and dropped “Fat Man” from “Bockscar” over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

Entertainment

The May sale features wonderful material relating to Harry Houdini, Marilyn Monroe, the Marx Brothers, and others from the 19^th/20^th centuries. A 3pp autograph letter signed by Beatrice Houdini on mourning stationery dated November 9, 1926 provides a moving account of her husband’s death less than two weeks earlier, on October 31st. The letter was uncovered in Germany and to the best of our knowledge has never been published. Houdini’s widow describes the exact circumstances of Houdini’s unexpected death from a ruptured appendix, lamenting, “The world has lost a Genius, but I have lost my Man.”

Literature

Literature forms a major subcategory of the May sale, with over 40 lots dedicated to authors like James Joyce, Bram Stoker, George Bernard Shaw, Graham Greene, Henry Miller, and Stephen Crane. Of these, a great percentage includes a single-owner collection of autographed material from Beatniks Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Neal Cassady.

James Joyce signed a limited edition first edition copy of “Finnegans Wake” (1939). Considered one of the most difficult books in the English language, “Finnegans Wake” was much more ambitious in literary aims than even Joyce’s subversive “Ulysses” (1922). The partly uncut and unopened book appears to be unread, and is in near pristine condition.

Allen Ginsberg signed a June 8, 1960 typescript draft of annotated notes that would later become part of “Magic Psalm,” a poem featured in “Kaddish and Other Poems” published by City Lights Bookstore in February 1961. The manuscript was inspired by Ginsberg’s experimentation with hallucinogenic ayahuasca during recent travels in Peru.

Sports

Highly collectible May sports memorabilia from baseball and boxing includes signed photos, autographed baseballs, game-worn apparel, and vintage posters and other ephemera from the likes of Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Joe DiMaggio, and Muhammad Ali. An archive of six game-worn baseball helmets and jerseys from the Baltimore Orioles, ca. 1990-2016, comes with grading and authentication from JSA and Mears.

We hope you can join us on May 31, 2023. Please view our catalog for further details!

University Archives is proud to announce its next 410+-lot sale, Rare Manuscripts, Books & Sports Memorabilia, on March 15, 2023. The auction features an exceptional array of U.S. Presidential material from Washington to Obama; unique Science material from Einstein, Hooke, Feynman, and others; and a marvelous miscellany encompassing Early American, Art, International, and Sports collecting categories. Whether you are looking for important historical documents, rare books, original artwork, early photography, or autographed sports memorabilia, University Archives has you covered!

U.S. Presidential

Lot 105 is an autograph album signed by three current and future U.S. Presidents–Lincoln, Grant, and Garfield–and collected by a Civil War veteran from Peoria, Illinois. The extraordinary album is further enhanced by its provenance, an 1896 local newspaper article describing the collector’s son’s recollections of when Lincoln signed the album in Washington, D.C. in 1862. Among the details the then 8-year-old shared was how Lincoln “plac[ed] his foot on the seat of a chair and rest[ed] the book on his knee while marking the signature.” The album also contains approximately 140 additional signatures of mostly Civil War-era military personnel, politicians, and other notables.

Lot 1 is a scarce John Adams autograph letter signed while president addressed to Treasury Secretary Oliver Wolcott, Jr. alluding to America’s middling position in the international marketplace. “If you find any usefull hints in it, you know how to make use of them better than your humble servant,” Adams wrote to Wolcott. Adams’ letter was written in response to a bold cover letter from a Baltimore man who claimed he knew how to make the United States more competitive against its rivals England, France, and Portugal.

A remarkable Bill Clinton archive, Lot 14, includes over 30 pieces of correspondence exchanged between the future president and a faithful campaign staffer named Gloria O’Donnell from Clinton’s time as Arkansas governor through his second presidential term.

Science

We have five powerhouse Albert Einstein lots in our March sale which should spark significant interest. Lot 384 is a typed letter signed by Einstein explaining his monumental scientific formula, E = mc². The formula, which Einstein articulated after conducting research into the theory of relativity, ultimately led to the development of nuclear weapons, an unintended catastrophic result of his research. Einstein deeply regretted the link between his “formula…[and] energy which can be freed by nuclear reactions.”

Also crossing the auction block is Lot 386, an extremely rare document signed by British polymath Robert Hooke relating to the Great Fire of London of 1666. In addition to being one of the greatest scientists of Early Modern Europe, Hooke also served as a Surveyor of the City of London and settled many claims following the conflagration.

Marvelous Miscellany – Early American, Art, International, Sports, Etc.

Lot 223 relates to Paul Revere’s purchase of 4 chaldrons (over 5 net tons!) of coal to fuel his metal-working furnaces in 1787, the same year the U.S. Constitution was signed. Revere signed the receipt issued by a Boston merchant and included a 9-word endorsement in his hand. With remarkable provenance from Revere’s great-great-grandson!

Lot 244 is a colorful Walt Disney signed Sante Fe & Disneyland Railroad and monorail pass issued to NYC transit authority director Sidney H. Bingham ca. 1959, granting him free access to the railway for five years as an “honorary Vice-President.” The Sante Fe & Disneyland Railroad was inaugurated at Disneyland in Anaheim, California in 1955, while the high-tech, German-designed monorail opened in 1959 in conjunction with the rededication of Tomorrowland.

Lot 330 is an elegant manuscript document in Latin signed by French monarch Louis VII at Senlis in 1177, with an interesting connection to the Crusades. The document granting property rights was witnessed/signed by two future French Crusaders, Raoul I, Count of Clermont-en-Beauvaisis and Theobald V, Count of Blois, who were both killed during the Siege of Acre fourteen years later. With outstanding provenance from a Dutch manuscript collector, ex-Charles Hamilton.

Lot 417 is an official baseball signed by 26 New York Yankees players including Thurman Munson during the 1975 season. 20+ lots in the auction are sports collectibles (baseball, boxing, and gymnastics) including autographs, vintage photographs and newspapers, as well as signed or game-worn apparel.

We hope you can join us on March 15, 2023. Please view our lavishly illustrated and keyword-searchable catalog for further details!

1. John’s sale quote

University Archives is thrilled to announce its next sale on December 14, 2022 at 11:00 EST. At over 380 lots, Rare Autographs, Manuscripts, & Books is especially strong in the following collecting categories: U.S. Presidential, Science/Space, Militaria, Early American, and International/World Leaders. The variety and scope of our sale—from Civil Rights and Judaica to Literature, Art, and Music–guarantees that there is something for everyone, especially holiday gift-givers. If buyers pay with cleared funds by December 16th, their items will be shipped by December 21st and will hopefully arrive by Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa.

U.S. PRESIDENTIAL

December’s presidential memorabilia ranges from George Washington to Barack Obama, with Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Reagan being particularly well-represented.

George Washington boldly signed a free frank addressed to Benjamin Tallmadge, Culper Ring spymaster. The free frank is undated, but originally contained a December 26, 1782 letter commending the “signal gallantry of Captain Caleb Brewster,” referring to one of the underground’s principal couriers. Brewster often undertook covert missions in his whaleboat in Long Island Sound, with this mission resulting in the capture of two British gunboats. The free frank has tremendous visual appeal and tells a great story.

Thomas Jefferson wrote a 2pp autograph letter signed on October 11, 1812 describing how Americans had become beneficiaries of the Napoleonic Wars. Though Bonaparte’s “capricious passions & commercial ignorance” threatened American access to some European ports, his shenanigans in the Peninsula and Baltic distracted the British from their other declared enemies, the United States, during the six-month-old War of 1812. Jefferson triumphantly concluded that America’s enemies, Britain and France, were fighting each other; “the English armies…altho’ our enemies, are really fighting our battles.” Another Jefferson letter, one of the earliest extant, is the only letter we have ever seen where he is acting as a lawyer.

Abraham Lincoln signed a July 26, 1862 letter on Executive Mansion stationery for an autograph seeker in the Union stronghold of Louisville, Kentucky. The letter is beautifully matted alongside an unusual 1864 Vinton County, Ohio Union Presidential Ticket promoting Lincoln and Johnson.

SCIENCE / SPACE

Einstein, Freud, Jung, Edison, and Morse head the ranks of our Science category, while Apollo XI mission memorabilia dominates our Space/Aviation category.

Albert Einstein penned a 3pp autograph letter signed in German, undated but ca. June 1918, speculating about how his impending divorce from first wife Mileva Maric might affect the interest accrued from prize winnings of a “hypothetical Nobel Prize.” Einstein was clearly hopeful, yet he was only awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the Theory of Special Relativity four years later, in 1922. Three other Einstein letters are included within our December sale, including one with excellent scientific content.

Sigmund Freud and his protégé Carl Jung appear in a vintage group photograph taken of members from the Third International Psychoanalytic Congress, ca. 1911, in Weimer, Germany. The two co-founders of modern psychology were still on good terms in 1911, and indeed, they appear nearly shoulder to shoulder in this photo. Their ideological schism occurred the following year, in 1912. This is probably the most important photograph in Psychology.

An insurance cover signed by Apollo XI astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins is the gem of our Space/Aviation category. PSA/DNA graded 9.5 + , the cover comes from the Buzz Aldrin Family Collection.

MILITARIA

Collectors will find outstanding items of military memorabilia, ranging from the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, through the Civil War, both World Wars, Vietnam, and the War in Afghanistan, in our December sale.

A Mathew Brady carte de visite depicting George A. Custer, undated but ca. 1865-1866, is one of the best combinations of bold signature and assertive pose that we have ever seen, and it is PSA/DNA graded Mint 9.

A 120pp store ledger from Camp Scott and Fort Bridger, 1857-1858, paints a colorful picture of frontier life during an era of Indian Wars, Western settlement, Mormonism, and fluid race relations. The ledger mentions future Confederate officers Lewis A. Armstead, killed in action at Gettysburg; Barnard Bee, Jr., slain at 1st Bull Run; and “Rooney” Lee, Robert E. Lee’s son, among many others. The ledger is a fascinating document testifying to the chaotic vibrancy of the American West.

EARLY AMERICAN, INTERNATIONAL/WORLD LEADERS, ETC.

Benjamin Franklin, then a 27-year-old printer who had just published his inaugural edition of “Poor Richard’s Almanack” six months earlier, witnessed a Philadelphia real estate transaction dated May 15, 1733. It is one of the earliest known Franklin signatures ever documented, and is singularly elegant, as “B. Franklin.”

Chairman Mao Zedong signed a special presentation copy of a Russian book celebrating the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in October 1959, dedicated to Soviet Civil War hero Marshal Semyon Budenny. Mao autographs are extremely rare and intensely coveted. Mao autograph have consistently attained six figures at auction during the last few years.

These are just some of the sensational lots in our December sale. We hope you can join us!

University Archives is excited to announce the launch of its late summer sale, Rare Autographs, Manuscripts & Books, which will be held online on August 17, 2022. At 537 lots, this sale is our largest ever, trumping the previous company record-holder, our 534-lot January 6, 2022 auction. The upcoming sale boasts a spectacular variety of items representing the best of U.S. Presidential, Early American, and Civil War/Western collecting categories. As always, we also have unique and superb offerings in Music, Entertainment, Sports, Space, Art, Literature, and more.

U.S. Presidents

Washington, Lincoln, Wilson, FDR, JFK, and Obama are just a few of the presidents represented in the August sale. Lot 100, an engraving of “The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation Before the Cabinet,” after Francis Bicknell Carpenter’s original oil on canvas, is displayed above the assembled signatures of all eight figures depicted: Abraham Lincoln, William H. Seward, Edwin M. Stanton, Gideon Welles, Salmon P. Chase, Caleb B. Smith, Edward Bates, and Montgomery Blair. A truly handsome piece important to the history of Civil Rights in America, accompanied by PSA/DNA Letters of Authenticity, and already assembled!

Lot 81 is a possibly unique combination of items, both slabbed by Beckett Authentication Services, which relate to John F. Kennedy’s political aspirations in the late 1950s. Kennedy signed a personal check reimbursing travel expenses and enclosed it along with its original typed letter signed in the spring of 1956. Kennedy, then a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts,  was wooing fellow senators in his bid to win the upcoming Democratic Vice-Presidential nomination; Kennedy lost to Estes Kefauver, but the attempt garnered him significant national attention.

George Washington boldly signed a document appointing an Irish immigrant named Thomas Lowry as the first United States Marshal of New Jersey, following the passage of the 1789 law creating the law enforcement agency, on January 28, 1794. Lowry had been a Continental Congressional delegate and an officer in the New Jersey militia during the Revolutionary War, and through him, the document is even related to Washington’s celebrated nighttime crossing of the Delaware.

Early American

The history of American settlement, from the “Mayflower” through the Early Federal period, is well-represented. Benjamin Franklin engrossed and signed a receipt in 1756 for his “Pennsylvania Gazette,” the Philadelphia newspaper he had established in the late 1720s. Franklin collaborated with a Scottish printer named David Hall for eighteen years, during which the “Pennsylvania Gazette” became politically aligned with the Patriot cause.

Lot 259 is a promissory note inscribed with over 25 words and signed by Benedict Arnold in 1771, four years before the Revolutionary War and nine years before his defection to the British. The receipt was for building supplies, boards and “parcell staves,” and was probably penned in New Haven, Connecticut, where Arnold had lived since the early 1760s as a prosperous merchant.

Daniel Boone signed an enormous pay receipt sometime during his service as a delegate of the Virginia General Assembly, ca. 1781-1791. The manuscript document highlights one of Boone’s often overlooked roles as legislator. In 1781, during Boone’s first term as delegate representing Fayette County, now in modern day Kentucky but then part of Virginia, Boone was kidnapped by British cavalrymen seeking Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson and others in Charlottesville, where the Assembly had fled in advance of British troops.

Civil War/Western

Autograph letters signed, historical documents, cartes de visites, prints, and relics related to some of the biggest names in Civil War leadership and Western expansion will be offered at our August sale. Lot 369 has an interesting connection to the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn, in that both its author, George A. Custer, and its recipient, George W. Yates, were both 7^th Cavalry officers killed there. Custer’s lengthy autograph letter signed was written at Fort Lincoln, Dakota Territory on June 11, 1871. In it, Custer advised Yates to acquire good cavalry mounts: well-bred Kentucky horses at reasonable prices. The letter is ex-Forrest Fenn, Butterfields Auctions, and the Estate of George W. Yates.

Jefferson Davis, exiled in Canada in April 1868, wrote an autograph letter signed to fellow Confederate John Taylor Wood about his ongoing federal prosecution case (not to be resolved until Grant’s Christmas Day amnesty of that year), and about the economic distress of black freedmen that he had witnessed during a recent trip to the Deep South. Davis wrote in part: “The negroes have to a great extent become vagrant and the common complaint was that neither crop or stock could be protected from their thieving. The poor creatures are however much to be pitied for their destitution and we who knew their utter inability to govern themselves may well question whether they or those who forced them into their present condition are most responsible for the crimes they commit…”

Lot 381 is a 2pp autograph letter signed by Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson addressed to a correspondent named Truheart that we speculate attended the 1859 execution of failed insurrectionist John Brown in addition to Jackson, who wrote about the hanging to his wife. The letter concerning a lecture on hypnotism was written in 1852 when Jackson was teaching natural philosophy and artillery tactics at the Virginia Military Institute, seven years before the Harpers Ferry uprising.

Other premier auction items include a Babe Ruth signed first edition copy of “The Babe Ruth Story,” a pair of beautifully framed Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio signed checks, and a Bob Dylan signed LP of “Blonde on Blonde” accompanied by a Jeff Rosen Certificate of Authenticity. These are just a few of the remarkable and significant items that will cross the auction block at our August sale. We hope you can join us!

University Archives is pleased to announce its upcoming sale, Rare Autographs, Manuscripts, Photographs, and Books, on March 30, 2022. Presidential, Science, Technology, Aviation, Space, Sports, and World Leaders are among our leading categories, though novice and veteran collectors alike will also appreciate the outstanding cross-section of Early American, Civil War, Literature, Art, Music, Entertainment, Business, and Civil Rights material. There is something for everyone in our March sale. Exceptional historical items range from manuscripts, letters, documents, and rare books, to photographs, relics, artwork, and even military mementoes.

The March 30th auction index is as follows: American Politics / Supreme Court: Lots 1 – 24; American Presidents / First Ladies: Lots 25 – 132; Art: Lots 133 – 148; Aviation / Space: Lots 149 – 177; Business / Notables / Notorious: Lots 178 – 208; Civil Rights / Native American / Slavery: Lots 209 – 219; Colonial / Declaration of Independence / Revolutionary War: Lots 220 – 253; Entertainment / Music / Sports: Lots 254 – 296; History / Military: Lots 297 – 348; International / World Leaders: Lots 349 – 386; Literature: Lots 387 – 400; Old West: Lots 401 – 404; Science: Lots 405 – 418.

PRESIDENTIAL

Our March sale showcases over 100 items relating to U.S. Presidents, from John Adams to Joe Biden. One of the highlights is a John Adams signed document dated January 27, 1801 promoting an artillery engineer. This military document features an unusually large Adams signature measuring nearly 3” x 1.” Adams had recently been defeated by Thomas Jefferson during the “Revolution of 1800.” John F. Kennedy signed a document on September 20, 1962 appointing Henry DeWolf Smyth, author of the Manhattan Project’s official history, the Smyth Report, to serve as an alternative U.S. delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency conference. As ambassador, Smyth later promoted the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Another marquee presidential item includes part of the sheet from Abraham Lincoln’s death bed removed from the Peterson Boarding House, a blood-stained linen swatch measuring .625” x .25.” The fabric is CAG encapsulated and comes with provenance from American diplomat Charles K. Tuckerman. A 1p typed letter signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt on White House stationery dated June 6, 1942 acknowledged receipt of a New York architect’s annotated drawings relating to “a proposed net protection against torpedo attack for ocean going vessels.” FDR letters with military content are unusual, and such letters referring to Nazi U-boat attacks addressed to a civilian two years to the day before D-Day are next to impossible to find!

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Albert Einstein, Henri Becquerel, Wilhelm Roentgen, Marie Curie, Thomas Babbage, Alexander Fleming, and Sigmund Freud are just a few of the scientists featured in our March sale. An Albert Einstein manuscript in German from ca. 1942 is paired with a vintage Lotte Jacobi photograph of the physicist wearing his beloved bomber jacket. Einstein’s manuscript, containing 91 words and 13 lines of mathematical calculations, relates to covariant bivectors, in what marked one of his final attempts at articulating his Unified Field Theory. An autograph letter signed by Henri Becquerel, discover of radioactivity, and an autograph letter signed by Wilhelm Roentgen, who developed X-rays, in their native languages of French and German respectively, testify to the breadth of this selection of first-rate scientific autographs.

Aviation, Space, Exploration and Technology are also well-represented. Among these items is a CAG encapsulated muslin swatch from the Wright Flyer, the Wright Brothers’s biplane, which first flew at Kitty Hawk in December 1903.

WORLD LEADERS

Our March sale features over 30 items relating to World Leaders, including Moshe Dayan, Catherine II of Russia, Mary Stuart, Emperor Hirohito, Fidel Castro, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Alfonso V of Aragon. In 1966, Israeli statesman Moshe Dayan spent four weeks embedded with U.S. forces in Vietnam, and his often critical observations of American military tactics was later published in his “Vietnam Diary.” A significant portion of Dayan’s original manuscript — a remarkable 197 pages in Hebrew with occasional words in English — is stored in a luxurious clamshell case, along with a signed first edition copy of the published book. Also offered is a beautiful partially printed document signed by Russian Empress Catherine II, as well as a large cream strip of lace removed from a dress belonging to Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. The lace comes with provenance dating it to 1566, from around the time when Stuart’s favorite Italian courtier David Rizzio was brutally stabbed to death in front of her.

These are just a few of many spectacular and one-of-a-kind items that will be offered on March 30, 2022. We hope you can join us!

–John Reznikoff