Tag Archives: rare books

Fabulous Autographs & Art, From Van Gogh to Hendrix, are in University Archives’ Auction Sep 29

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Wilton, CT, USA, September 14, 2021 -/DailyVoice/- University Archives’ next major online-only auction, slated for Wednesday, September 29th at 10:30 am Eastern time, is titled Fabulous Autographs & Art, From Van Gogh to Hendrix. The 410-lot auction is jam-packed with historical autographs, rare books, artwork, posters, photographs, ephemera, collectibles, and relics – something for every level of collector.

“About one quarter of the sale is devoted to artists and is part of the collection of Chicagoan Noel Goldblatt, of the famous Goldblatt’s Department Store,” said John Reznikoff, the president and owner of University Archives. “Another large segment is comprised of vintage posters and photographs amassed by a Connecticut collector. We have superb material in many categories.”

The catalog is up for viewing and bidding now, on the revamped University Archives website (www.UniversityArchives.com), as well as the platforms LiveAuctioneers.com, Invaluable.com and Auctionzip.com. Phone and absentee bids will also be accepted. It’s the fourth auction that will be conducted from University Archives’ new, 6,000-square-foot facilities in Wilton, Conn.

Major categories include Art (Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne others); Posters and Photographs (music, movies, TV, sports, others); Music (The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, others); Entertainment (Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, others); Early American (John Hancock, Alexander Hamilton, George A. Custer, others); and Presidential (from Washington to Obama).

Other categories include Sports (Babe Ruth, Bruce Lee, Cy Young, Jack Johnson, others); Literature (Samuel Clemens, Steinbeck, Whitman, others); World Leaders (Stalin, Russian czars, others); Space / Aviation (Apollo and Mercury programs, Wright brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Enola Gay, others); and Science (Einstein, Marconi, Richard Feynman, others).

U.S. Presidents will be led by a three-page letter signed by George Washington, addressed to his nephew Bushrod Washington, dated March 8, 1798, with three other Washington signatures in the body of the letter, which references Robert E. Lee’s father (estimate: $28,000-$35,000); and a military commission signed by Abraham Lincoln on February 6, 1862, promoting West Point graduate Thomas Walker to the rank of Captain, the 3rd U.S. Infantry (estimate: $7,000-$8,000).

The Early American category will feature a Mathew Brady carte de visite of George A. Custer, signed with rank as “Yours Truly / GA Custer / Bt Maj Genl / U.S.A.,” maybe the finest example University Archives has ever sold (estimate: $20,000-$26,000); and a ten-foot-tall vintage totem pole from the Pacific Northwest or Canada, intricately carved on all sides in a 360-degree-round, depicting humans and animals in a traditional primary color palette (estimate: $9,000-$10,000).

A one-page letter typed in German and signed by Albert Einstein in 1921, the year he won the Nobel Prize, regarding his theory of relativity as it pertains to the motion of Foucault’s pendulum and the rotation of the Earth, should reach $18,000-$20,000. Also, a Russian language diploma (or award) signed by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, circa 1942, presented to a Soviet scientist who would later propose melting the polar ice caps, carries a pre-sale estimate of $8,000-$10,000.

A highlight of the Goldblatt collection is also the auction’s expected top lot: a paper fragment inscribed on both sides with about 115 full and partial words in the hand of Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh (estimate: $40,000-$50,000). Van Gogh had copied out two verses in English of one hymn and also two stanzas in Dutch from another hymn. Van Gogh’s quest for spiritual fulfillment led him to nature, where he was most at peace and informed his artwork.

Also from the Goldblatt collection is artist Paul Cézanne’s two-page letter, signed and addressed to the subject of his famous painting, Portrait of Gustave Geffroy, mentioned funding fellow artist Auguste Rodin, whose maquette of Honoré de Balzac had just been denounced by the literary organization that commissioned it (estimate: $15,000-$20,000); and a document signed by Paul Gauguin sometime during the last three years of the artist’s life, when he was living on the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia. The receipt mentions Ambroise Vollard, Gauguin’s agent and patron, and could have represented payment for one of Gauguin’s last completed paintings of such exotic subjects as witch doctors and nude women (estimate: $15,000-$20,000).

Goldblatt’s collection also includes autographed items from Mary Cassatt, Edvard Munch, Piet Mondrian, Diego Rivera, Pablo Picasso, Gilbert Stuart, Joseph M.W. Turner, and many others.

A Wilton, Connecticut collector with a penchant for rock ’n roll and pop culture collected dozens of vintage posters and photographs, some of them autographed. The collection represents the last seven decades of popular music, from Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin to David Bowie, Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones and the Goo Goo Dolls. The items include:

  • A 1968 Jimi Hendrix Fillmore East concert poster in exceptional condition. Poster artist David Byrd’s representation of Jimi Hendrix and his bandmates in psychedelic pink and orange is one of the most iconic rock music posters of all time (estimate: $6,000-$7,000).
  • An oversized black and white photograph of The Beatles, taken in Hamburg, West Germany in 1960, signed by photographer Astrid Kirchherr, the fiancée of bass guitarist Stuart Sutcliffe, who tragically died of an aneurysm in 1962 (estimate: $2,400-$2,600).
  • An 22 inch by 28 inch photograph of Grace Slick and Janis Joplin, the two Queen Bees of San Francisco rock, taken by Jim Marshall for an article in Teen Set magazine, twice signed by Marshall and annotated, “Grace + Janis – 1967” (estimate: $2,000-$2,400).

A two-page letter written and signed by martial arts legend Bruce Lee, dated Nov. 22, 1972, to his Fists of Fury co-star Bob Baker, asking if he can send him some cocaine (“air-mail me some fine ‘C’ if you can swing it”), is expected to bring $10,000-$12,000; while a baseball signed on the sweet spot by Babe Ruth, dated 1932, inscribed “World Champs” (perhaps by the owner), and signed by three others (including Yankee pitcher Lefty Gomez), should hit $4,000-$5,000.

A rare, partial one-page document signed by Peter Stuyvesant on January 3, 1651, in Dutch, while he was serving as Director-General of the New Netherland colony (now New York City), later seized by the English in 1664, has an estimate of $4,000-$6,000. Also, a swatch of fabric from the Wright Flyer, the first airplane that made its debut flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C., on Dec. 17, 1903, 2 ¼ inches by 3 3/14 inches, encapsulated and certified, should rise to $3,000-$4,000.

University Archives’ new offices are located at 88 Danbury Rd. (Suite 2A) in Wilton, Conn. For more information about University Archives and the online-only Fabulous Autographs & Art, From Van Gogh to Hendrix auction slated for Wednesday, September 29th, please visit www.universityarchives.com.

University Archives will Hold Back-to-Back Online Auctions Aug. 25 and 26; Aug. 26 will be a Specialized Judaica Auction

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Wilton, CT, USA, August 10, 2021 -/DailyVoice/- University Archives will hold back-to-back online auctions on Wednesday and Thursday, August 25th and 26th, starting at 10:30 am Eastern time both days. The August 25th auction will be a general sale offering collectors a variety of autographs, rare books, historical documents and memorabilia. The August 26th auction will be a smaller, specialized Judaica sale.

“Our August 25th sale offers collectors a great opportunity to acquire exceptional items from the presidential, science and international categories,” said John Reznikoff, president and founder of University Archives. “Early American enthusiasts, military collectors, and aficionados of art, music, and literature will also find many treasures. The auction will be organized by category.”

Reznikoff added, “The Judaica auction on August 26th, 100 lots in all, will offer many unique items relating to the history of Judaism, the formation of Israel and World War II, to include autographed material from Judah P. Benjamin to Ariel Sharon. There will be dozens of lots relating to the Founding Fathers & Mothers of Israel. The sale will be organized alphabetically.”

The catalogs are up for viewing and bidding now, on the revamped University Archives website (www.UniversityArchives.com), as well as the platforms LiveAuctioneers.com, Invaluable.com and Auctionzip.com. Phone and absentee bids will also be accepted. Both of the auctions will be conducted from University Archives’ new, state-of-the-art, 6,000-square-foot facility in Wilton.

With 363 lots, the August 25th auction is the larger of the two. The major categories will include Presidential (from Washington to Biden); Science (multiple lots of Einstein, plus Robert Hooke, Marie Curie, Richard Feynman, others); Sports (Olympics, Muhammad Ali, Ty Cobb, Michael Jordan, others); and Literature (Robert Frost, James Joyce, Ivan Turgenev, Jules Verne, others).

Other categories include World Leaders (Russian czars, Soviet leaders, Kim Il Sung, Victoria I, others); Art (Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti, Norman Rockwell, others); Space and Aviation (Apollo/Soyuz program, Neil Armstrong, Orville Wright, Soviet cosmonauts, others); Early American (Rev War, John Hancock, Hamilton, Burr, others; and Music (Bob Dylan, others).

More than one-third of the sale is dedicated to U.S. Presidents and First Ladies. An expected top lot is a one-page autograph letter signed by Abraham Lincoln and dated just weeks after the Battle of Gettysburg, on July 22, 1863. It’s addressed to Freedmen’s Inquiry Commissioner Robert Dale Owen and has slavery-related content. In it, Lincoln refers to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, the Supreme Court, and the plight of American “freed-men” (est. $50,000-$60,000).

The original Lincoln free franked transmittal panel that accompanied the abovementioned letter is offered as a separate lot. The panel, inscribed overall and signed by Lincoln (as “A. Lincoln” upper right), is expected to finish at $7,000-$8,000. Also, a 346-acre land survey in Augusta County, Virginia, drawn, signed and docketed by a 21-year-old George Washington in 1752, the same year the future president would inherit Mount Vernon, has an estimate of $30,000-$40,000.

A working scientific manuscript inscribed in German and signed by Albert Einstein around 1938, in advance of a work later co-authored by him and Peter Bergman titled On a Generalization of Kaluza’s Theory of Electricity, has an estimate of $40,000-$50,000. In the Judaica auction, a letter written and signed by Einstein in German in 1921, discussing the Rutherford-Bohr atomic theory, the Theory of Relativity, and the Stark effect of electricity, should hit $12,000-$14,000.

A very rare document signed by the British scientist and polymath Robert Hooke, relating to the Great Fire of London of 1666, has an estimate of $24,000-$30,000. Hooke served as a Surveyor of the City of London and settled claims following the conflagration. Also, his fellow physicist Richard Feynman’s personally owned copy of T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, signed in his name by his wife Arline, should reach $7,000-$8,000.

A gorgeously illuminated Czar Alexander II signed document, in Russian, granting a heraldic device to a Crimean War veteran and naval surgeon, featuring many sumptuous hand-decorated details, is expected to change hands for $5,000-$6,000. Also, a first edition copy of Korean Historic Relics, a book celebrating the flowering of Korean arts and culture, signed and inscribed by Kim Il Sung, the elusive former leader of North Korea, has an estimate of $12,000-$14,000.

A small photocard dated 1864, depicting a seated portrait of the slave, abolitionist and women’s rights advocate Sojourner Truth, signed by her with an “x” as her mark, should command $24,000-$28,000. Also, a handwritten copy of the lovely poem Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost, signed by the renowned poet and dated Jan. 5, 1937, composed for Mrs. Emmaline Jones, with a printed photo of Frost, should go for $7,000-$8,000.

A four-page document dated Oct. 20, 1789, signed by Alexander Hamilton (as Secretary of the Treasury), addressed to Stephen Smith, Esq., regarding the paying of tonnage and other duties on vessels, is estimated to sell for $7,000-$8,000. Also, a four-language ship’s passport signed by Thomas Jefferson (as President) and James Madison (as Secretary of State), dated Sept. 29, 1802, requesting safe passage for a London-bound vessel, should knock down for $3,000-$3,500.

In addition to the Einstein letter, highlights of the Judaica sale will include an archive of thirteen letters handwritten by Moshe Dayan on fragile prison tissue and smuggled out of prison while he was an inmate at Acre Prison in British-controlled Palestine between 1939-1941 (est. $30,000-$40,000); and a fabulous archive of artifacts relating to the Jewish Brigade Group of the British Army during World War II, including uniforms, equipment and awards (est. $3,000-$3,500).

For more information about University Archives and the online-only auctions slated for Wednesday and Thursday, August 25th and 26th, visit www.universityarchives.com.

About University Archives:
University Archives has become world-renowned as a go-to source for rare items of this kind. It is actively seeking quality material for future auctions, presenting a rare opportunity for sellers. Anyone who has a single item or a collection that may be a fit for a future University Archives auction may call John Reznikoff at 203-454-0111, or email him at john@universityarchives.com. University Archives was founded in 1979, as a division of University Stamp Company, by John Reznikoff, who started collecting stamps and coins in 1968, while in the third grade. Industry-wide, Reznikoff is considered the leading authenticity expert for manuscripts and documents. He consults with law enforcement, dealers, auction houses and both major authentication companies. University Archives’ new offices are located at 88 Danbury Rd. (Suite 2A) in Wilton, Conn. For more information about University Archives, visit www.universityarchives.com. Updates are posted often.