Auction Highlights Part 1: Autographs & Subculture — April 10, 2025

Auction Closing April 10 at 12 PM ET

The autographs portion of the April 10 Autographs & Subculture auction includes some prominent builders—of industry, of cities, of society. Among those in the sale is one who helped fuel the machines that built the twentieth century—John D. Rockefeller—who signed the photograph that is available in one lot, and in another is a signed file copy of the marriage license of his daughter Elizabeth. An important eighteenth-century builder is the Russian empress Catherine the Great who, in 1794, founded the city of Odessa in Ukraine, and who signed the vellum document appointing a captain of artillery that is available in the sale. George Bernard Shaw, whose signed and inscribed portrait—a stunning photograph by Frederick H. Evans—is also in the sale.

Autographs by others who, in different ways, played a role in building world history are also available, including items by Thomas Jefferson, Robert Mapplethorpe, Edward Hopper, and Nelson Mandela.

(left) Lot 46: John D. Rockefeller, Photograph Signed, circa 1905. Estimate $800 to $1,200. (right) Lot 45: John D. Rockefeller, certificate of marriage for his daughter Elizabeth signed, 1889. Estimate $600 to $900.
Lot 47: Catherine II, Empress of Russia, military commission signed, appointing a captain of artillery, 1774. Estimate $1,000 to $2,000.
Lot 1: Bob Dylan, his high school classmate’s yearbook with his senior portrait, signed and inscribed to her, 1959. Estimate $10,000 to $20,000.
Lot 53: Martin Luther King, Jr., Signed and inscribed TIME magazine. Estimate $5,000 to $7,500.
Lot 133: Pablo Picasso, postcard with his sketch of a snail, signed. Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.
Lot 58: Robert Mapplethorpe & Patti Smith, poster for their 1978 art exhibition, signed by both, 1978. Estimate $800 to $1,200.
Lot 25: Andy Warhol, reproduction of his Mao 92 screenprint, signed and dated, 1972. Estimate $1,000 to $2,000.
Lot 27: John Adams, autograph letter signed to his friend Benjamin Rush, written while negotiating an end to the Revolutionary War, 1783. Estimate $35,000 to $50,000.