Auction Record for Milton Autograph at Swann Galleries
NEW YORK—Swann Galleries’ auction of Autographs on April 21 offered a rich selection of presidential autographs, although it was a 17th-century document signed by John Milton that was the sale’s top lot. An endorsement signed by the then blind author of Paradise Lost—ironically serving as a witness to the signing of a land deed in 1657—sold for $45,600*, a record price for Milton's autograph, which is very rarely found on the market.
Other noteworthy writers’ autographs included a document signed by poet Heinrich Heine, as “Henri Heine,” in French, written from Paris where he settled after a series of anti-semitic attacks in his German homeland, 16 Sept 1848; and a July 1902 photograph signed and inscribed by Mark Twain, which he apparently found unflattering, as the inscription reads, “Age reconciles us to all things: / even to the most fiendish of / portrait-libels,” each of which brought $9,600.
The featured presidential items were a George Washington autograph letter signed “Go:Washington,” to J. Hector St. John Crèvecoeur, sending letters to be forwarded to recipients in France, Mount Vernon, 18 August 1788, $13,200; a circular letter signed by Thomas Jefferson, as President, sending the 12th amendment to the Constitution to an unnamed Governor for ratification, Washington, 13 December 1803, $25,200; and a partly-printed document signed by James A. Garfield, as President, ordering the Secretary of State to affix the U.S. seal to an envelope containing documents announcing Romania as a Kingdom, Washington, 5 May 1881, $7,800.
A stand-out scientific autograph was a Charles Darwin autograph letter signed, to an unnamed recipient, about the evidence for the theory of plant cross-fertilization, Down Bromley Kent, 24 December 1856, $26,400. Also related to science and medicine were an etched portrait of Sigmund Freud by Hermann Struck signed, “freud,” in pencil, circa 1914, $7,800; and a photograph of Albert Einstein signed and inscribed “Herrn Dr. Max Heimann dem Gütigen / December 1935,” $7,200.
A scrapbook kept by a fan of movie idol James Dean was valued for a signed portrait photograph that it contained as well as original photographs of Dean and his grandparents, 1950s-60s, $10,200.
Autographs by noted artists included an illustrated autograph letter from Lyonel Feininger, signed “Leo,” to Theodore Spicer-Simson, with three small hand-colored prints, New York, 30 March 1950, $7,200; and a group of 25 autograph and typed letters signed from John Berryman to teacher and critic Ralph C. Ross, 1957-71, $9,600.
Featured in the music section were a group of three items, each signed by Ralph Vaughn Williams, London, 1921, $7,800; and a Camille Saint-Saëns autograph musical manuscript for one of his last compositions, a song entitled “Aux Aviateurs,” dated and signed, “C. Saint-Saëns 1921,” $6,240.
Rounding out the sale was a Mohandas K. Gandhi signature in Hindi and English, on a 5 Rupees note, 1938-48, $5,760; a full sheet of U.S. postage stamps commemorating the battle of Iwo Jima signed by photographer Joe Rosenthal and the three flag-raisers who survived the battle, 1945-46, $6,480; and an eloquently written typed letter signed from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Arthur Leonard Ross, thanking him for a contribution and outlining the ambitions and challenges for the civil rights movement, Atlanta, 30 July 1964, $6,480.
*All prices include buyer’s premium.
