Auction Highlights: Autographs — November 14, 2024

Timed Auction — Lots begin closing Thursday, November 14 at 12:00 PM ET

Lots 1-25: Popular Culture

Lot 8 illuminates this section like a film projector on the silver screen. It contains a 1964 autograph letter signed by Bette Davis to Joan Crawford, confessing that Crawford is “far superior in this department” when it comes to glamor. 

Lots 26-32: Americana

There is no dearth of remarkable autographs by inspiring American leaders in the sale, including the accounting book used by Frederick Douglass in 1863 when he and his sons recruited men for the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the Civil War’s first regiments composed entirely of African-American enlisted soldiers. Douglass’s own sons joined the war effort during this time, and you can see their names listed among the recruits at the back of the book. The listings of expenses and recruits are almost entirely in Douglass’s hand, including his signature in the title of a column heading. Another signature in the book is that of abolitionist George Luther Stearns (who not only contributed funds to the 54th but also secretly to John Brown’s rebellion), approving the calculations.

The elegant and confident handwriting of our nation’s first president is evident in the extraordinary autograph letter signed by him and made available for bidding in Swann’s November 14 autographs auction. The letter was written to Robert Morris in early 1777 at a moment when Morris was in a position to finance the move of the Continental Army’s supply base out of Philadelphia. That city would be overrun by British forces later that year in the Battle of Brandywine, and although Washington could not prevent the capture of that critical seat of the Continental Congress, he prepared for it by writing this letter. The last few lines—a seemingly trifling request for sealing wax—was written in the hand of a young an ambitious Alexander Hamilton, who had celebrated his 22nd birthday a week before while serving as Washington’s aide-de-camp.

Lots 33-82: General (including scientists, astronauts, inventors, world leaders, aviators, etc.)

Shining out of this group is a run of items by the discoverers of the structure of DNA, Francis Crick and James Watson, including signed magazines and offprints of their articles, as well as a shocking archive, in lot 69, of erotic letters from Crick to his lover and personal secretary. 

The November auction also includes uncommon autographs by world leaders, including a copy of the “Man of the Year” issue of TIME magazine from January 1, 1979. The issue features the face of Deng Xiaoping, the man who led the modernization of the People’s Republic of China. The cover of the magazine is signed and dated by Deng himself.

Lots 83-107: Presidents 

Lot 49 contains a 1918 autograph letter signed by Teddy Roosevelt, responding to a letter of condolence after the former president’s loss of his son Quentin in the War—the letter is addressed to “Dear little Miss Betty,” a nine-year-old girl who lost her cousin in the War. 

Lots 108-119: Musicians 

In addition to uncommon autograph letters signed by Franz Liszt, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Wagner, this section includes a musical manuscript from the 1790s in lot 114 comprising 4 complete cannons in the hand of Joseph Haydn. 

Lots 120-145: Writers 

The writer John Steinbeck reacted in his way to the communist revolution, having written several works marked by its influence, but there is little evidence of it in the remarkable series of typed letters signed by him to his literary agent during the 1940s-50s which are also available in the auction, including one reporting his progress on the screenplay for the film East of Eden. In another lot are related letters discussing progress on his modernization of the Arthurian legends, unfinished but published posthumously as The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, and in another lot, the original typescript of that work.

Lots 146-158: Artists 

In Lot 51 is an autograph letter signed by Maxfield Parrish in 1896, soon after graduating from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, concerning his drawing of Humpty Dumpty and suggesting how it ought to be made into a painting.  

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