Remarkable Rarities

Fine Autographs and Artifact

The Civil War leads this sale, anchored by an 1858 Lincoln letter written during the Lincoln-Douglas debates, in which Lincoln asks Congressman Washburne to help counter a claim made by Stephen Douglas the day before. Supporting the section are a Jefferson Davis telegram to Robert E. Lee during the Siege of Petersburg, Davis’s file copy of Lee’s appointment as General-in-Chief, and a Sherman archive that includes a hand-drawn map of Vicksburg and a seven-page autobiographical manuscript covering the March to the Sea.

Beyond the Civil War material, the sale features a Seward letter written shortly after the Alaska Purchase, a Garfield signature dated one day before his assassination, and signed material from Gandhi, Einstein, Mendel, Freud, and Curie. Music highlights include a Bob Dylan original mixed-media painting from his “Side Tracks” series, Beatles items spanning a 1963 signed handbill to one of only two known EMI acetates of “Please Please Me,” and signed pieces from the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Queen, and Prince. The sale also includes Poker Alice’s traveling gambling set and revolver and two Mary Blair concept paintings for Walt Disney Productions.

Space Exploration and Aviation

The Apollo program anchors this sale, with material spanning every mission from Mercury through the Space Shuttle. The top lot is an Apollo 15 Command Module Flight Director Attitude Indicator, flown aboard Endeavour, estimated at $300,000–$500,000. Among the most significant hardware pieces are an XLR-11 rocket engine, the interim power plant for the X-15, and a flown Mercury-Atlas 1 capsule fragment. Apollo 14 is represented in depth through the personal collection of Edgar Mitchell, with items flown to and used on the lunar surface, including a custom gold moon ring, a set of 20 state flags, and a Masonic ring set with lunar relics.

A dedicated section features space-flown currency from the collection of Rick Jurek, highlighted by a $2 bill carried by Gene Cernan on three separate missions — Gemini 9A, Apollo 10, and Apollo 17 — making it the only piece of currency ever flown in Earth orbit, lunar orbit, and on the surface of the Moon. 

The sale also includes an Apollo 11 original Type 1 photograph, the only Hasselblad image of Neil Armstrong on the lunar surface, Apollo 12 biomedical harnesses flown and used on the lunar surface, an Apollo 7–16 Robbins Medallion collection with eight flown examples, and an Albert Einstein signed etching inscribed “Per aspera ad astra,” the motto later adopted by NASA. Early aviation is represented with Orville and Wilbur Wright letters, a Frank Whittle turbojet engine report, and a Galileo first Latin edition from 1635. The meteorite section offers lunar, Martian, and exotic iron specimens including a complete Moon rock. Also included is an Apollo Command Module hatch replica screen-used in The Last of Us.

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