Thursday, February 12, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Join us for an Auction party!
On Thursday, February 12, 2009 at 11:30 a.m. we will watch the Christie's auction on-line as the Lincoln Manuscript goes up for auction!
New York Times- Article on Lincoln manuscript
By WENDY MOONAN
Published: January 15, 2009
“Now that the election is over, may not all, having a common interest, reunite in a common effort, to save our common country?”
That line comes from a speech given by Lincoln at the White House on Nov. 10, 1864, just after his re-election.
Christie’s is selling the original handwritten copy of that speech on Feb. 12, the bicentenary of Lincoln’s birth.
The four-page text is written on large heavy sheets of white paper marked with pale blue lines. Lincoln’s script is large, clear and even; there are a few cross-outs and corrections.
Chris Coover, a senior specialist in books and manuscripts at Christie’s in New York, said it was one of only two speeches handwritten by Lincoln that are now owned privately.
“Lincoln did not make that many speeches while he was president,” Mr. Coover said. “Some speeches for which no manuscript exists, if there is any text at all, are known only from stories by reporters.”
Speaking about the Civil War, which was still dividing the country, Mr. Lincoln struck a philosophical note. “Human nature will not change,” he said. “In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak, and as strong; as silly and as wise; as bad and good.”
It is the first time the manuscript has been for sale. It remained with Lincoln’s papers until 1916, when his son, Robert Todd Lincoln, gave it to Representative John A. Dwight of New York to thank him for his efforts to secure congressional financing for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Dwight’s widow later gave the manuscript to the Southworth Library Association in Dryden, N.Y. (near Ithaca), which is now selling it.
Christie’s predicts that the sale of the manuscript will bring between $3 million and $4 million.
The last Lincoln manuscript sold by Christie’s, a handwritten address delivered on April 11, 1865, sold for $3 million in 2002.
Published: January 15, 2009
“Now that the election is over, may not all, having a common interest, reunite in a common effort, to save our common country?”
That line comes from a speech given by Lincoln at the White House on Nov. 10, 1864, just after his re-election.
Christie’s is selling the original handwritten copy of that speech on Feb. 12, the bicentenary of Lincoln’s birth.
The four-page text is written on large heavy sheets of white paper marked with pale blue lines. Lincoln’s script is large, clear and even; there are a few cross-outs and corrections.
Chris Coover, a senior specialist in books and manuscripts at Christie’s in New York, said it was one of only two speeches handwritten by Lincoln that are now owned privately.
“Lincoln did not make that many speeches while he was president,” Mr. Coover said. “Some speeches for which no manuscript exists, if there is any text at all, are known only from stories by reporters.”
Speaking about the Civil War, which was still dividing the country, Mr. Lincoln struck a philosophical note. “Human nature will not change,” he said. “In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak, and as strong; as silly and as wise; as bad and good.”
It is the first time the manuscript has been for sale. It remained with Lincoln’s papers until 1916, when his son, Robert Todd Lincoln, gave it to Representative John A. Dwight of New York to thank him for his efforts to secure congressional financing for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Dwight’s widow later gave the manuscript to the Southworth Library Association in Dryden, N.Y. (near Ithaca), which is now selling it.
Christie’s predicts that the sale of the manuscript will bring between $3 million and $4 million.
The last Lincoln manuscript sold by Christie’s, a handwritten address delivered on April 11, 1865, sold for $3 million in 2002.
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