As a result of the Salem witch trials of 1692, nineteen people were hanged. One of the last was Margaret Scott, a widow in her 70’s accused of “certaine detestable arts called witchcraft and sorceries.” Yesterday her handwritten indictment sold for $31,200, including buyer’s premium, at Swann Galleries in New York. It’s only the third time in 30 years, said the archivist of Salem Village, now known as Danvers, that such a document has come on the market.Executed with seven others in September of 1692, Scott was one of the last to perish as a result of the witchcraft hysteria in colonial Massachusetts. The pre-auction estimate for the document was $25,000-$35,000. Swann Galleries sold it as part of the Eric C. Caren collection of historical documents.
Salem Witch Trial Indictment Conjures $31,300
March 16, 2012
High Prices For Fitzgerald First Editions
June 12, 2013Riding the Fitzgerald wave created by Baz Luhrmann’s movie version of ‘The Great Gatsby,” a first edition of the author’s “Flappers and Philosophers” has sold at a Sotheby’s book auction in New York for $119,000, almost doubling its high estimate of $60,000. At the same event, a first edition of “Gatsby” once owned by author Malcolm Cowley achieved a price of $112,500. The book, which came with its rare original dust jacket, included the notes Fitzgerald made in his own copy, which Cowley dutifully transcribed.
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Potter’s First Edition (with scribbles): $228,000
May 23, 2013For some reason, many authors have a compulsion to write and draw on first editions of their books, as R.K. Rowling did when she scribbled and drew on 43 pages of “Harry Pottter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (“Sorcerer’s Stone” to Yanks). That copy sold at a charity auction in London this week for $228,000 after fierce bidding. It went to an anonymous buyer on the phone.
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Milton Berle’s Jokes Laugh To The Bank
May 8, 2013For $158,000 a bidder got Milton Berle’s library, including books and boxes of bound scripts and personal correspondence, but he didn’t get the comedian’s thousands of one-liners and jokes carefully catalogued over the decades. That file went for another $65,000 at Bonham’s Entertainment auction this week.
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Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
By Malcolm Welford, Vintage Car Specialist
