Top-lot status went to this original manuscript page with corrections from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, dated March 28, 1952. Written entirely in Rand’s hand, the page flipped for $40,625 ($40/50,000).
Review by Kiersten Busch
WILTON, CONN. — Rare Autographs, Manuscripts, Books & Photographs were on the menu for University Archives’ 428-lot auction on June 17. “The sale was great, especially considering that this was a summer auction and we were competing with graduation season, multiple holidays and vacation traveling,” said founder John Reznikoff. He reported that the event totaled approximately $750,000 and had a 93 percent sell-through rate. “This was one of the highest sell-through rates in the industry, and our 40th consecutive auction with a sell-through rate above 90 percent, since September 2021.”
Reznikoff also shared a little about the bidding pool, saying, “We routinely have bidders from 60-plus countries participate in our auctions. On June 17, we had approximately 1,000 live bidders from all platforms (absentee, phone, online). Our bidders are generally advanced collectors, but dealers also regularly participate.”
The auction’s top lot was an original manuscript page, with corrections, from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, containing 79 words in the author’s hand. Marked as page “409” — the last paragraph of Part III, Chapter II, titled “The Utopia of Greed” — the scene described the main character, Dagny Taggart, watching John Galt’s plane take off, and was dated March 28, 1952. The page was auctioned by Bonham’s in 2017 and sold with University Archives this time for $40,625.
This November 17, 1957, autographed letter by author J.R.R. Tolkien, in Headington, Oxford, UK, was penned to US medical student Herbert Schiro and earned $31,250 ($30/40,000).
An autographed letter penned and signed by J.R.R. Tolkien in Headington, Oxford, UK, on November 17, 1957, to Herbert Schiro, a medical student at the University of California, interested bidders who were fans of the author’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, surpassing its low estimate to achieve $31,250. In the letter, Tolkien provided clarification on the meaning and interpretation of his trilogy, refuting allegorical readings of the text, writing, “To ask if the Orcs ‘are’ Communists is to me as sensible as asking if Communists are Orcs.”
The science category was headed by an “exceptionally scarce” signed first issue, first offprint of “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids” by Francis Crick and James D. Watson, the scientific paper that announced Watson and Crick’s double-helix model of DNA. The 14-page signed booklet, circa 1953, featured four illustrations, two additional essays on other molecular topics by contributing writers and was published in Nature, Volume 171 on April 25, 1953. Catalog notes explained that potentially only 25 to 50 of these copies exist, which brought interest to $25,000, reaching the low end of the lot’s $25/30,000 estimate.
Documents relating to United States politics are always popular at University Archives, but as the country’s 250th birthday quickly approaches, more items have been attracting bidders than ever. One of the earliest autographed letters signed by Abraham Lincoln in private hands, dated to Springfield, Ill., on February 16, 1842, sold for $22,500 to lead the category. In the letter, addressed to fellow attorney Garland B. Shelledy of Paris, Ill., Lincoln detailed instructions on beginning cases in the federal court for bankruptcy, a process that had been signed into law by President Tyler just two weeks prior. Only two known autographed Lincoln letters are dated earlier.
This February 16, 1842, autographed letter by Abraham Lincoln, Springfield, Ill., addressed to fellow attorney Garland B. Shelledy, Paris, Ill., was one of the earliest autographed Lincoln letters in private hands, selling for $22,500 ($18/25,000).
Traveling back to March 24, 1791, a letter penned and signed by Alexander Hamilton to John Nicholson, Comptroller General of Pennsylvania, more than doubled its $6/8,000 estimate to achieve $20,000. “Treasury Department” was written on the top right corner of the letter, and its contents consisted of Hamilton’s response to a letter from Nicholson “outlining the complex situation regarding Pennsylvania’s state debt certificates that were eligible for conversion into federal securities,” according to catalog notes.
An archive of approximately 75 items surrounding the combat death of Private Sam Reichstein brought bidders to the front lines of World War II, and the collection was pushed to $18,750. Reichstein, who died September 21, 1943, after stepping on a landmine near Salerno, Italy, was given new life through the archive, which contained correspondence — letters, telegrams, relics and other items — from his mother, Viola, as she was trying to determine the fate of her son. Three letters included were signed “G. S. Patton, Jr,” for General George S. Patton, Jr, who wrote, in one letter, “… we should not… regret that such men have died, rather we should thank God [they] have lived.”
Reznikoff was “surprised by the intense interest garnered” over a “Continuous Certificate of Discharge” awarded to seamen Mabel E. Martin, who served as a second cashier in the À La Carte Restaurant on the RMS Titanic. The black leather pocketbook was 26 pages, partially printed and partially manuscript, and documented Martin’s issuance on April 10, 1912, and cancellation on April 30. Interest in Martin stemmed from her survival as one of 24 passengers on Lifeboat #6, which contained “mostly first-class female passengers, including American mining heiress the ‘Unsinkable’ Margaret ‘Molly’ Brown and Helen Churchill Candee, the American author and suffragette,” explained catalog notes. Despite an estimate of just $5/7,500, the book sailed to $31,250.
To close, Reznikoff said, “Our next sale is tentatively scheduled for July 29. In addition to our usual offerings, our July sale will be particularly strong in the Science category (Einstein, Tesla, etc).”
Prices quoted include buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.universityarchives.com or 203-454-0111.
