University Archives welcomed online, absentee, and phone bidders to its Rare Autographs, Manuscripts, Books & Memorabilia auction yesterday. Our sale catalog received over 26,600 lot views on auction day alone, and substantial bidding volume reflected this. Over 3,300 absentee bids were executed either online or by UA staff, and 96% of our sale items sold. Thus continues our streak of maintaining a sell-through rate of 90% or above for the last 29 consecutive auctions since September 2021. We averaged 471 lots per sale for these 29 sales, and a mean sell-through rate of 98%. No one can top our sales record in the autograph and manuscript industry!
U.S. Presidents
Lot 74 was a blank ship’s passport boldly signed by Abraham Lincoln as President and co-signed by Secretary of State William H. Seward. The successful buyer decided that both the attractive signatures and the near fine state of the passport blank made it a great addition to their presidential collection. The Lincoln signed passport blank sold for 40% higher than the high estimate, or $23,750 including the buyer’s premium.
Lot 75 was a Civil War-dated military appointment signed by Abraham Lincoln as President and co-signed by Secretary of War Simon Cameron, promoting an Irish-born career soldier named Leslie Smith as a Second Lieutenant. Cameron’s autograph on such documents is uncommon since he only served ten months as Secretary of War. The Lincoln signed document sold for more than double its high estimate, or $23,750 including the tip.
Lot 164 came from the Skip Hensel Presidential Collection and was a White House engraving signed by six presidents: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. A phone bidder snatched up this piece for $16,250 including the buyer’s premium – or 40% above its high estimate – for good reason: if the buyer can add the presidential signatures of Obama, Trump, and Biden to the original six presidents’ signatures, its value will likely increase tenfold!
Lot 164, Six Presidents Signed White House Engraving
Lot 146 was a 1p typed letter signed by Harry S. Truman on April 12, 1945, the date of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death and of Truman’s subsequent swearing-in. Addressed to his friend Roy H. Webb of Kansas City, this letter is only one of three Truman signed letters dated April 12th that have come to auction in the last 25 years, and the only one to have been signed by Truman with his full name. The Truman signed letter exchanged hands for $16,250 including the tip, exceeding its high estimate.
Lot 54 was an autograph letter signed by ex-President Thomas Jefferson, PSA/DNA slabbed and graded GEM MT 10. In this letter written at Monticello on October 17, 1816, Jefferson thanked Henry A.S. Dearborn for sending him an English translation of a scientific work by French agronomist Charles Philibert de Lasteyrie about the Isatis tinctoria plant, traditionally used to produce blue dye. The Jefferson ALS sold for 25% above the high estimate, or $15,000 including the buyer’s premium.
Lot 2 was a 1p autograph letter signed by John Quincy Adams on November 6, 1814 in Ghent, Belgium, where he was attempting to negotiate War of 1812-ending peace talks with Great Britain. Adams wrote in part: “Our negotiation is spinning out and unless our Government brings it to a close, will be a mere chancery suit…” This wonderfully candid letter with great political content garnered 20% more than its high estimate, or $15,000 including the tip.
Lot 157 was a first printing of a pamphlet entitled “The Will of General George Washington: To Which is Annexed, A Schedule of His Property, Directed to be Sold” (Alexandria: Record of the County Court of Fairfax, 1800). The document reproduced George Washington’s last will and testament, finalized by the former president in July 1799, only six months before his death in December 1799. This remarkable piece of presidential ephemera sold for nearly double the high estimate, or $9,375 including the buyer’s premium.
Civil Rights
Lot 251 was a later printing of Martin Luther King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958), boldly signed on the front loose endpaper by King and presented to Doug Gilbert, a Duke University divinity student and Civil Rights activist. Sourced directly from the recipient’s family, the King signed book sold for almost twice its high estimate, or $9,375 including the buyer’s premium.
Lot 251, Martin Luther King, Jr. Signed Book
Military
Lot 409 was an archive of 12 letters (59pp) by British Admiral Alexander Cochrane, 1804-1814, mentioning monumental events from the War of 1812 including the burning of Washington, D.C. In a 3pp autograph letter signed dated September 19, 1814, Cochrane wrote flippantly: “… This day Congress meets[.] What will Jamie Madison say for suffering their house [the White House] to be burned during their Recess.” The extraordinary archive achieved three times its high estimate, or $7,500 including the buyer’s premium.
Lot 416 was a collection of 12 photographs featuring 13 autographs from the “Band of Brothers,” as members of E Company, 506th Infantry Regiment, 21st Airborne Division were called in the 2001 HBO miniseries of the same name. The popularity of World War II-era collectibles right now is probably the reason why the archive sold for 10 times its high estimate, or $6,250 including the tip.
Lot 416, “Band of Brothers” Signed Photos
World Leaders
Lot 425 was a 1p typed letter signed by Winston Churchill dated May 6, 1939, just four months prior to Britain’s declaration of war against Nazi Germany. In this letter to Major David Percy Davies, his editor at “News of the World,” Churchill wrote that his forthcoming article about the British Admiralty must not comment too explicitly on the British Navy’s role during wartime, showing a prudence called for by current events. The Churchill signed letter sold for $6,250 including the buyer’s premium, or well over its high estimate.
Lot 484 was a 1p document in Russian initialed in red colored pencil by Josef Stalin. In an effort to curtail “contamination” by state enemies – like White Guard (anti-communists), Kulaks (wealthy peasants), and Trotskyists (adherents of Stalin’s despised political enemy, Leon Trotsky), Stalin authorized the increase of military personnel in the Molotov region. Just six days earlier, in late May 1940, Stalin had tried (and failed) to orchestrate Trotsky’s assassination. Stalin’s henchmen would succeed three months later in Mexico City. The Stalin signed document sold for $6,875 including the tip.
These were just some of the incredible lots in our March 2025 sale. Our next sale is tentatively scheduled for April 23, 2025.
We hope you can join us!
