Top-lot status was awarded to this signed manuscript of sheet music for Johannes Brahms’ song “Verzweiflung (Despair)” from Romanzen aus L. Tieck’s Magelone für eine Singstimme mit Pianoforte, Op. 33 (1862-69) in the composer’s hand, which sold to a prestigious collection of musical manuscripts for $82,350 ($42/45,000).
Review by Kiersten Busch
NEW YORK CITY — May 20 saw 282 lots of fresh-to-the-market rare and important autograph letters and manuscripts cross the block at Lion Heart Autographs, totaling $378,749 by the time the last hammer fell.
“I think that the sale did very well, especially with items in the higher price range,” shared company president David Lowenherz. He added that most buyers were American, “with a sprinkling of German, French, English and occasionally Belgian, Italian and others. One successful bidder was a well-known Broadway celebrity!”
Of the numerous “landmark offerings,” as the firm described them, a musical manuscript signed by German composer Johannes Brahms, last auctioned in 1938, surpassed its $42/45,000 estimate to top the sale at $82,350. The four-page oblong folio contained sheet music for “Verzweiflung (Despair),” the tenth of 15 songs from Johannes Brahms’ Romanzen aus L. Tieck’s Magelone für eine Singstimme mit Pianoforte, Op. 33, which was composed between 1862-69. The entire work was in the composer’s hand, and was most likely an original manuscript, as it differed from the first printed edition. “The Brahms is entering a prestigious collection of musical manuscripts,” Lowenherz shared. “It was a bit high, but certainly in the acceptable range of values that a manuscript like this would warrant.”
Compiling ten years (1949-59) of more than 350 letters, photographs and other pieces of ephemera was this archive of the post-WWII jazz world, kept by jazz columnist Harold “Hal” Flartey. Far surpassing its $1/1,200 estimate, the archive played a tune to $4,392.
Other music-related lots that performed well included a unique archive of correspondence, photographs and ephemera spanning the years 1949-59 kept by New Jersey jazz columnist Harold “Hal” Flartey, which made more than four times its $1/1,200 estimate at $4,392. Comprising more than 350 items, letters in the archive included correspondences with jazz musicians Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Leonard Feather, Stan Kenton, Les Paul, Billy Taylor, Sol Yaged and many more.
Political autographs were led by a letter dated November 18, 1775, and signed by George Washington, addressed to “all officers & others commanding or belonging to the armed Vessels fitted out at the Continental expence [sic].” Penned and countersigned by Washington’s secretary, Stephen Moylan, the letter requested safe passage from Newburyport to Philadelphia for one John Fulford and his schooner Friends Adventure. “The Washington, bought by a dealer, was very reasonable [in price] since the letter made a very early reference to the nascent American Navy,” Lowenherz explained of the letter, which earned $18,910.
Following behind the Washington letter were several other historical American autographs, including a July 30, 1787, letter from Benjamin Franklin addressed to David Rittenhouse, the first director of the United States Mint and Pennsylvania Treasurer, which was countersigned by Pennsylvania state comptroller general John Nicholson ($15,860), as well as a document granting land in the Northwest Territory to Revolutionary War veteran and Quartermaster General of the United States Army, John Wilkins, Jr, signed by John Adams and Timothy Pickering ($14,030). Lowenherz noted that he “was personally surprised (and pleased) with the high price for the Adams signed document.”
A collector from Germany secured this letter from Martin Luther King, Jr, to Samuel Brent Oliver III, Atlanta, November 15, 1962, for $10,065 ($12/14,000).
Traveling forward in time, a letter from Martin Luther King, Jr, to North Carolinian college student Samuel Brent Oliver III made waves at $10,065. Signed by King and typed on Southern Christian Leadership Conference letterhead, the document was dated November 15, 1962. “I was disappointed with the low price for the Martin Luther King, Jr, letter,” explained Lowenherz, who had estimated the lot at $12/14,000. “King clearly and briefly wrote in this letter his willingness to die for his cause and why the integration of the races was so important. I am astonished that the only bidder who seemed to even remotely appreciate the importance and value of the letter was the buyer, who is a collector from Germany.”
For some history outside of the United States, bidders turned to an April 1, 1787, letter signed by Marie Antoinette and addressed to Marc Antoine Francois Marie Radon de la Tour, an advisor to the king, which signed off at $14,030. It instructed payment to be delivered to the Swiss Guard’s elite Cent-Suisses infantry unit and was countersigned by French courtier and memoirist Jacques Mathieu Augeard.
Important pieces of French history continued with more than ten lots of material related to Alfred Dreyfus, the French-Jewish artillery captain assigned to the Army’s General Staff who was unjustly accused and convicted of treason in 1894, which totaled $28,609, according to Lowenherz. Leading the selection was a limited-edition copy of Dreyfus’s memoir, Cinq Années De Ma Vie (Paris: Librarie Charpentier et Fasquelle, 1901), printed on fine “velin” paper. The copy was signed by Dreyfus to a “Dreyfusard,” French senator Jean-Jules Clamageran. “The signed Dreyfus book was sold [for $14,640] to a distant relative of Dreyfus,” Lowenherz shared.
Requesting that payment be delivered to the Cent-Suisses infantry of the Swiss Guard, this letter signed by Marie Antoinette and countersigned by Jacques Mathieu Augeard, Versailles, April 1, 1787, earned a royal $14,030 ($10/12,000).
Even the sciences were covered in the sale, with a January 17, 1955, letter written and signed by Albert Einstein far surpassing its $3,500 high estimate to make $7,625. Written in English on Einstein’s blind embossed Princeton letterhead, the letter was addressed to Lawrence Udell, a man affiliated with the Miami film company Gulf Stream Productions. The contents of the brief letter addressed “The Mystery of The Unbelievable,” and included the quote, “What we can believe in is sometimes unbelievable. But no other man can answer the question…”
Lowenherz did not have an exact date for Lion Heart’s next sale but shared that it will happen “As soon as we have enough material, but likely later this year or early 2027.” Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 347-897-5035 or www.lionheartautographs.com.
