Record-Setting Abraham Lincoln Signed Carte-de-Visite, Ernest Hemingway’s Typewriter Take the Lead in Heritage’s $2 Million Historical Platinum Event

Pair of Elvis Presley’s pistols, rare first edition of Herman Melville’s ‘The Whale’ among standouts in Dec. 15 auction DOWNLOAD DIGITAL PRESS KIT DALLAS, Texas (Dec. 18, 2023) — Heritage’s latest Historical Platinum Session Signature® Auction yet again offered history — and made it, too. The finely curated, nearly sold-out 104-lot auction, held Friday, realized $2,082,625 in three hours. More than 560 bidders from around the world vied for offerings that spanned centuries of human achievement, ranging from the samurais of the 17th century and American presidents and the first men to walk on the moon to The King of Rock and Roll and The World’s Greatest Typewriter Collection. “Yet again Heritage has assembled the best of the very best highlighting the great personalities and events of the last several centuries," says Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena. “We’re thrilled with the results of this event, and happier still to offer these tangible pieces of history to our clients so they can continue sharing the stories they tell.” Steve Soboroff’s lovingly assembled, lavishly acclaimed collection of typewriters realized a total of $282,825, led by Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 Underwood Standard, arguably the most significant in Soboroff’s collection, as Hemingway used the machine to write his letters from Finca Vigía, his estate near Havana, some 2,500 of which are stored at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Museum Library and Museum. As expected, the Underwood sparked a heated bidding war when it hit the block. By the time the dust settled, Hemingway’s typewriter sold for $162,500. Hugh Hefner’s 1962 Royal Empress — which the Playboy publisher is using in a famous photo where he’s clad in his pajamas while smoking his ever-present pipe in front of folders labeled “Divorce,” “Birth Control,” “Abortion” and “Capital Punishment” — realized $30,000. Among the collections’ many storied and valuable lots, noted typewriter enthusiast Tom Hanks’ 1963 Hermes 3000 realized $8,750. Hanks’ (very, very, very) distant relative, President Abraham Lincoln, was among this event’s most significant draws, led by the $181,250 realized for a signed Abraham Lincoln carte-de-visite that set an auction record. The portrait was taken by Alexander Gardner in Matthew Brady’s studio on Feb. 24, 1861 — the day after Lincoln arrived in Washington, D.C., for his first inauguration. This CDV is authenticated by Lincoln’s private secretary John Hay on the verso and is now Lincoln’s most valuable signed portrait ever sold at Heritage. Friday’s sale broke the previous record for a signed Lincoln carte-de-visite set by Heritage in September 2016. Shortly after, Lincoln’s signed appointment of William C.S. Smith as Collector of Internal Revenue for the Fifth Collection District of California realized $52,500. The reason for the bidding war that accompanied the document: its date, April 13, 1865, Lincoln’s last full day alive. According to Smith’s note on the document, “The last official act of Mr. Lincoln was to affix his signature to this instrument at 3.30 P.M.” Among the auction’s top lots was General Ulysses S. Grant’s Civil War presentation sword, considered in 1864 “the most beautiful and costly sword yet manufactured in this country.” Indeed, the Richmond Examiner proclaimed it a “magnificent sword for General Grant” on April 16, 1864. Hence, its final price of $375,000. Also among the auction’s top lots was the Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded in 1948 to Swedish biochemist Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius for his research on electrophoresis and adsorption analysis, work that ultimately contributed to other biochemical investigations, including other Nobel laureates in the field of DNA research. As The New York Times noted upon Tiselius’ death in 1971, he “devised two instruments, now used by scientists throughout the world, to separate proteins into many chemical compounds.” His Nobel Prize realized $125,000. Thomas Jefferson’s annotated copy of The Laws of the United States of America realized $112,500 one lot later. This two-volumes-in-one first edition, published in 1805, covered Jefferson’s presidency, the Louisiana Purchase and the law establishing the Library of Congress. That was followed by a letter Jefferson wrote on Feb. 10, 1800, during his vice presidency, to Richard Richardson, an overseer at Monticello. That lengthy missive realized $62,500. Bidders took their best shots at the elaborately engraved Ruger Blackhawk and Smith & Wesson revolvers that once belonged to Elvis Presley. And by the time the dust settled, the pair of pistols used by The King and gifted to his father Vernon realized $100,000. Several of the auction’s top lots were out of this world, including one of the sterling silver Robbins medallions flown aboard Apollo 11, the first manned moon landing. The one offered in this event came from the Potter-Aldrin Collection, and, graded MS69, it was the finest example Heritage has offered, which explains the bidding war that resulted in $42,500 realized. Numerous significant books were checked out during this auction, including a bibliographic rarity: the 1853 three-volume, first-edition, remainder-issued set of Herman Melville’s The Whale, better known as Moby-Dick. There were but 500 copies of this edition published in 1851, and when it didn’t initially sell well, it was repackaged and reissued two years later. A bidding war helped this white whale realize $50,000. Not far behind was a first-issue, first-edition copy of Charles Dickens’ American Notes for General Circulation, published in 1842. This copy was particularly coveted by collectors, as it wasn’t merely signed by Dickens but inscribed to revered historian William H. Prescott. The two-volume tome realized $37,500. The auction opened with an exquisite, extraordinary offering: a samurai’s suit of armor dating from the 17th century and the Edo period. As expected, this ornate Tosei Gusoku, made by several artisans, sparked a bidding war that resulted in a final price of $40,000. Moments later, a letter handwritten on May 19, 1895, by philosopher, journalist and Karl Marx confrere Friedrich Engels realized $32,500. That was followed by the event’s first bidding war — over a signed and dated portrait of Albert Einstein. The photo of the 42-year-old was taken in 1921, the year Einstein received the Nobel Prize in Physics; it was signed 24 years later. The portrait realized $27,500. Click here for complete results from the December 15 Historical Platinum Session Signature® Auction. Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world's largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam and Hong Kong. Heritage also enjoys the highest Online traffic and dollar volume of any auction house on earth (source: SimilarWeb and Hiscox Report). The Internet's most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has more than 1,750,000 registered bidder-members and searchable free archives of 6,000,000 past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos. Reproduction rights routinely granted to media for photo credit. For breaking stories, follow us: HA.com/Facebook and HA.com/Twitter . Link to this release or view prior press releases . Hi-Res images available: Robert Wilonsky, VP Public Relations and Communications 214-409-1887 or RobertW@HA.com