Date: Fri 16-Apr-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: LIZAM

Quick Words:

Lincoln

Full Text:

Lincoln Autograph Stars At Charlton Hall

with 2 cuts

By Rita Easton

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Charlton Hall Galleries, Inc. hosted a two-day auction on

March 13 and 14, featuring 760 lots of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century

American, English, and Continental furniture, paintings, and decorative arts.

Nearly 300 attended the event, with additional competitors leaving absentee

bids or participating on the phone -- the most distant phone participant in

Northern Ireland.

Property sold included the estate of Admiral W. Croft and Elizabeth B.

Jennings, and property approved for deaccession by the Board of Trustees of

the Historic Charleston Foundation. Most hammer prices were conspicuously over

the high estimates, with the starring lot making nearly five times its $6,000

plus premium high estimate.

The top item, a note signed by Abraham Lincoln, reached $28,000, purchased by

a dealer. The 3Õ by 2 inch scrap of paper was dated April 10, 1865, which was

four days before Lincoln's assassination. The content concerned a trip to be

taken by William Maxwell Evarts (1818-1901), an American lawyer and statesman,

from the north to Richmond, Virginia, and back.

Evarts was the assistant US Attorney for the southern district of New York.

During the Civil War, he was a member of the Union Defense Committee,

accompanied Lincoln on diplomatic missions to Great Britain in 1863 and 1864,

and was chief council for the defense during the impeachment trial of Andrew

Johnson in 1868 and was largely responsible for the verdict of acquittal.

The Lincoln note was consigned by a relative of Evarts, who also offered the

desk of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935), another relative. The

American mahogany butler's desk, circa 1830, was 43 inches high by 47 inches

wide by 23 inches deep, carried a pre-auction estimate of $2,5/3,500, but

fetched $12,500, going to a dealer.

An American maple server, circa 1838, bearing the makers label, "Howe & Jarvis

Cabinet Makers, Delhi, NY," (est $3/4,000), reached $13,000, purchased by the

trade; a circa 1766 English sterling silver center bowl went privately at

$9,500 (est $2,5/3,500); and an English carved wood and gilt decorated framed

mirror, circa 1800, surmounted by a classical urn, garnered $4,600.

A French marble and cast-iron fireplace surround, circa 1880, made $7,250; a

fine classical parcel-gilt mahogany and marble pier table, circa 1830, sold at

$4,600; an American mahogany dressing-sewing table, circa 1825, reached

$3,000; and an American mahogany game table, circa 1815, with lyre base, was

purchased at $6,500.

Three paintings by Romeo Tabuena (Philippine, 1920-) were offered, consigned

by the estate of Admiral Croft. "Blue Worshiper," painted in 1966, fetched

$1,150; "Still Life with Concha and Flowers," painted in 1967, went out at

$1,000; and "Fruit and Bottles," an acrylic on board, sold at $1,950.

Prices quoted do not reflect a required 12 percent buyers premium.