Autographs

Swann Galleries holds regular curated auctions of Autographs, offering examples by well-known scientists, world leaders and influential composers, as well as manuscripts by notable writers and artists. The department made history on October 25, 1988, when it offered the first Anne Frank autograph ever to come to auction; in May 2016, we sold Anne Frank’s personal signed copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales to an institution for $62,500.

The top lot in the department was an autograph letter signed by Phillis Wheatley to Obour Tanner, in which she discusses the American Revolution; the letter was purchased for $253,000. Further highlights include an autograph letter signed by Frederick Douglass recruiting help for his paper after a schism with Garrison for $112,500; a Civil War album containing a page signed by 14 U.S. Presidents, including Lincoln, sold for $60,000; a letter by George Washington to his spymaster, Benjamin Tallmadge, requesting intelligence during the Revolutionary War, reached $40,000; an archive of written material and letters from Georgia O’Keefe realized $112,500; and an archive of 19 letters from Albert Einstein to an aspiring female physicist sold for $112,500.

The department also handles collections, most notably Revolutionary Americana from the Allyn Kellogg Ford Collection, which brought over $2M in 2012; documents from the personal files of Marlene Dietrich, including letters to the actress from Ernest Hemingway; the Steve Forbes Collection; and Revolutionary & Presidential Americana from the Collection of William Wheeler III.