Lincoln family photos, jewelry, documents up for auction
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Photos of Mrs. Lincoln in her inaugural gown taken by Mathew Brady. These photos will be part of the auction. -
Abraham Lincoln carte de visite taken by Mathew Brady onJan. 8, 1864, signed A. Lincoln along the bottom edge of the photograph. Estimated sale price $10,000-$20,000.
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Like a tightly knotted rope, mourning, money and madness twisted through the lives of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln.
On Friday, Cowan's Auctions in Cincinnati will sell what is perhaps the largest cache of Lincoln family memorabilia to surface in years. The 24 lots, sure to interest collectors, museums and libraries, include a Mathew Brady photograph of the president that was Lincoln's favorite likeness of himself, stunning women's jewelry, two pocket watches and two pieces of official Lincoln White House china. There's also a cabinet card of John Wilkes Booth, a New York Times edition reporting Lincoln's assassination and three images of Mary Todd Lincoln.
But the prize for scholars are three documents that form a paper trail of the 1875 arrest and confinement of Mary Todd Lincoln to a private sanitarium called Bellevue Place in Batavia, Ill. Included are her arrest warrant, commitment decree and a register that notes her arrival. Her only surviving son, Robert T. Lincoln, initiated the involuntary commitment, creating a rift that never healed.
Found in the 1930s in the asylum's basement by the building's second owners, the records were kept for decades by their Kentucky descendants. Their estimated sale price is $8,000 to $10,000.
Jason Emerson, author of "The Madness of Mary Lincoln," published in 2007, said in a telephone interview that this is "the first time documents associated with her commitment to a sanitarium have gone up for auction."
The lots in Friday's auction, he added, "may in fact, be one of the last great caches of verified Lincoln family materials not currently housed in a museum."
An item likely to bring a high sales price is a carte de visite photograph of Abraham Lincoln taken in 1864 by Brady. Its estimated price is $10,000 to $20,000. Lincoln autographed the picture on its bottom edge. Brady is probably the best known of Civil War-era photographers.
Mrs. Lincoln loved jewelry and bought it often, either for herself or as a gift. The auction includes a dazzling amethyst and diamond bracelet, a pearl necklace, pearl earrings and a diamond necklace. The pieces were either worn by Mrs. Lincoln or her daughter-in-law, Mary E. Harlan Lincoln.
First Published June 9, 2010 12:00 am
