Contributors
Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
By Malcolm Welford, Vintage Car Specialist
Historical memorabilia
Laptop For First Presidential Email To Go For $125,000?
October 30, 2012Fourteen years ago Bill Clinton borrowed a laptop to send the first email from a President. It went to John Glenn who had emailed him while orbiting the earth. The Toshiba used to send the message, with both Glenn’s and Clinton’s messages still on the hard drive, is on eBay starting at $125,000.
Read more...RAF Spitfire Planes To Attack Market?
October 24, 2012Just before the end of WW II, GI’s buried a fleet of boxed up, new RAF Spitfires in Burma, assuming the Brits would be back to dig them up. They never bothered, and now a man who hunted for 15 yeas has found them, maybe as many as 140. The last Spitfire sold at auction went for $2.5m three yeas ago.
Read more...Robert S. McNamara’s White House Archive At Sotheby’s
October 16, 2012When Robert S. McNamara left the presidency of Ford Motor Company to become JFK’s Defense Secretary, his salary plummeted from $400,000 to $23,000. But his power increased in inverse proportion to his compensation. Later vilified as the architect of the Vietnam War, he went on to become one of America’s longest serving Defense Secretaries, second only to Donald Rumsfield. On October 24th, marking the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Sotheby’s will offer an archive from his White Years, which is expected to bring in as much as $800,000.
Read more...WWII Hurricane May Soar To $2.7m
October 11, 2012In the Battle of Britain during World War II, Hurricane fighter planes were ubiquitous. Credited with shooting down more enemy aircraft in that engagement than the Spitfire, the airplane played a key role in securing England’s defense. Of the 14,500 Hurricanes built, only a small number remain, and just a dozen are still operational. The example that Bonhams will be auctioning on December 3rd in Surrey, England has been fully restored, and comes complete with its original 12 Browning .303 guns. It will touch down on the block with an estimate of $2.7m.
Read more...Big Cut Expected For Civil War Tiffany Sword
October 05, 2012Few people surveying the glittering diamonds and expensive wares at Tiffany & Co. would suspect that during the Civil War, the emporium did a brisk business in military swords. One such item is a highlight at Cowan’s Auctions later this month in Cincinnati. It’s a cased sword, dated 1862, that was presented to Lieut. Samuel P. Ferris, of the 8th regiment, U.S. Infantry, a survivor of both the Civil and the Indians wars. In the sword’s first appearance on the auction market, it’s expected to sell for $45,000-$60,000
Read more...Einstein “God Letter” On Ebay, 3m?
October 03, 2012A year before his death, Albert Einstein wrote a letter expressing his views on religion where he characterized the Bible as a collection of “primitive legends” and “pretty childish.” Known as the “God Letter,” it’s handwritten in German to a philosopher and now eBay with a starting price of $3m.
Read more...Meteorite From Moon’s Dark Side For Sale
September 17, 2012Scientists say the 4-pound meteorite had taken a terrible pounding from asteroids on the far side of the moon before it chipped off and crash landed on a Libyan desert 240,000 miles away. The 4th largest lunar chunk in private hands, Heritage Auctions will offer it next month. High estimate is $380,000.
Read more...Hot Fahrenheit Thermometer Sale
August 30, 2012We give temperatures in Fahrenheit because 300-years ago Daniel Fahrenheit invented the mercury thermometer and the scale. Three of his handmade thermometers are known to exist. The only one still in private hands will be sold by Christie’s in London in October. High estimate for the instrument, set on brass and signed by Fahrenheit, is $160,000.
Read more...Native American Photos May Sell For $1.7m
August 24, 2012Edward S. Curtis’ photography is an extraordinary record of Native Americans who were vanishing before his lens. J.P. Morgan and his son financed the production of 500 sets of 2222 photos and 20 volumes of text. A complete set of “The North American Indian” will be sold by Swann Galleries on October 4th. High estimate, $1,750,000.
Read more...Naval Cable Reports End of WW II
August 10, 2012The U.S. army, navy and air force in the Pacific were girding for the bloody invasion of Japan when this cable arrived aboard the U.S. Holland telling “all hands” to stand down. The war was over. The son of the sailor who kept the dispatch puts it up for auction in Millville, Pa., on Aug.15, 67 years to the day it was sent.
Read more...Ingot From Sunken “Ship Of Gold”
August 02, 2012In 1857 a hellacious hurricane sunk the SS Central America steamer off the Carolina coast. On board were 15 tons of gold from California. 130 years later a team of American divers recovered the treasure from the so-called “Ship of Gold.” A 2.5 pound ingot from the find will be auctioned by Bonhams next month.
Read more...“Cardboard Gold:” 1910 Baseball Cards Found In Attic
July 12, 2012In the attic of a ramshackle house on the outskirts of Defiance, Ohio, they found a box of 1910 baseball cards. The legends were all there as if they just stepped off the field: Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Cy Young..27 of the original 30-card E98collection. Heritage calls them “cardboard gold” and will sell 3 lots from the discovery next month.
Read more...Jesse James Wanted Poster Sells For $42,000
June 25, 2012America is fascinated with its outlaws, especially dead ones from the old West. A creased, yellowed wanted poster for Jesse James sold over the weekend for $42,000 in Denver. To stop them from robbing banks and trains, the Governor of Missouri offered a $5,000 reward—a huge sum in the 1800′s–for either Jesse or his brother, Frank. At the time, no one collected.
Read more...Negative From Lincoln’s Last Studio Sitting Offered
June 20, 2012Certainly not a handsome politician, but Abraham Lincoln’s worn, friendly face is burned into the American psyche. He sat often for Alexander Gardner and the collodion negative from the President’s last studio sitting 8-weeks before he was murdered comes to Cowan’s American History auction tomorrow. High estimate is $60,000.
Read more...Over $1m Expected For Painting By Winston Churchill
June 14, 2012It’s hard to imagine that Winston Churchill had much spare time. But when he wasn’t leading England through the dark days of World War II, or writing the 55 volumes for which he won the 1953 Nobel Prize for literature, he was painting, and doing it with the same zeal he showed in his other activities. One of Churchill’s works, a 1936 oil on canvas called “Still Life With Orchids,” is coming up for auction later this month in London, where it’s expected to sell for a statesmanlike $1.17m.
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