Full Text:

HOMANN ATLAS AT SKINNER

(with 3 cuts)

BOSTON, MASS. -- Skinner's auction on November 21 was one of the firm's most

successful sales of books and manuscripts, marked by a variety of unusual

selections, and grossing $642,930, nearly 20 percent above expectations.

The high lot was a two-volume Atlas Maior Terrarum Orbis Imperia compiled by

Johann Baptist Homann, circa 1720, which drew lively bidding before selling

for $64,100. Also selling high was Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Abraham Ortelius),

circa 1584, a folio of 112 maps, that realized $39,100.

The auction opened with a selection of approximately 100 lots of manuscripts

which included both Revolutionary War material as well as Civil War documents

and Presidential items. Selections from the Revolutionary War material

included a broadside from Governor Thomas Gage of Massachusetts which

addresses the "subjects" of Massachusetts in the wake of the battle at

Lexington and Concord, offering a general pardon to all except John Hancock

and Samuel Adams and further imposing martial law. Expected to realize

$1/1,500, the piece sold far above estimate at $10,925.

Also featured were the papers of Ezekiel Williams, deputy commissioner of

prisons during the period 1777-1781 and brother of William Williams, signer of

the Declaration of Independence. An important signed letter from Samuel Adams

discussing American liberties led this collection, selling above expectations

for $13,800. Presidential material also included a Thomas Jefferson

autographed letter signed and dated Monticello, August 14, 1803, that sold for

$18,400.

The personal papers and commissions of Major General Rufus Ingalls, close

friend of U.S. Grant and assistant Quartermaster General during the Civil War,

were also offered. Highlighting the selection was a lot containing all of

Ingalls' Presidential commissions starting from John Tyler and ending with

Chester Arthur. Including five Abraham Lincoln commissions, the lot sold to a

telephone bidder for $32,200.

The auction also featured a Civil War rarity, Confederate General Order 18,

the final truce between Generals Johnston and Sherman in North Carolina, in a

secretarial hand. The document was accompanied by the telegram sent from

General M.C. Butler to General Pierre Gustave T. Beauregard informing him of

the cessation of hostilities, and sold for $17,250.

The auctions also offered approximately 250 lots of general books including a

set of The Botanical Register, edited by Sydenham Edwards, 1815-1847, with

over 2,700 hand-colored plates, which sold for $27,600, and a Fifteenth

Century Continental illuminated small prayer book that sold for $10,350, the

price pushed far beyond expectations by bidding from all quarters.

Selections also included History of the Expedition... by Merriwether Lewis and

William Clark, 1814, which sold for $23,000.

Consignments are now being accepted for Skinner's next auction of Books and

Manuscripts. For information, 978/779-6241.