Date: Fri 30-Oct-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: JUDIR

Quick Words:

Mummified

Full Text:

Mummified Hand Of Thief At Historical Collectible

By Rita Easton

BURLINGTON, N.C. -- Historical Collectible Auctions held an absentee Americana

offering of 820 historically significant items with a September 7 closing.

Five hundred bidders participated in the event, which offered some of the most

unusual artifacts ever seen in one auction.

Headlining the event, a Confederate bowie knife from a Confederate Navy ship,

the Alabama, garnered the top bid of $7,500, going to a collector. A second,

D-guard Confederate bowie knife realized $1,725.

A group of lots advertised as "American personality hair strands" were, in

some cases, only several hair shafts, rather than strands, from the heads of

the named personality. Hairs from the head of Abraham Lincoln reached $4,620;

hair from the wild pelt of Ludwig von Beethoven realized $2,300; CSA president

Jefferson Davis' hair was worth $1,265 to the winning bidder, a hank of hair

from the head of Mary Surratt went for $1,150; Mary Todd Lincoln's crowning

glory barely compared with Abe's at $805; George Washington's strands made

$575; Jenny Lind's tresses reached $518; and five single hair shafts from the

head of none other than Elvis Presley sold at $805, which tells us where his

hair stands relative to that of Abraham Lincoln.

Each winning bidder received COA and provenance with their purchase.

Passed-over hair strands included those of Franz Shubert, the Red Baron, Queen

Victoria, and King Edward VII.

The mummified hand of a thief, the right hand of John Cole, grabbed a winning

bid of $5,060. The 1889 story went like this: Cole was caught

(ahem..red-handed) attempting to steal a famous ruby, "The Mongol's Cap,"

which was shaped like a Mongol's....well you know. As punishment, his hand was

cut off and preserved in a bed of cloves, a procedure which seemed to work

well, keeping it for the following 109 years. Cole, following the amputation,

went on to become a noted boxing commissioner, further proving the Freudian

theory of sublimation.

A platinum print of a beardless Abraham Lincoln, originally done by a

photographer named Hessler, went out at $2,012, thought by Bob Raynor of the

gallery to be a record, after a pre-auction estimate of $1,2/1,400. A

Revolutionary War document signed by John Hancock as Continental Congress

President made $5,720; a Revolutionary War manuscript document regarding

recruitment in 1776 sold at $2,415; Gordon Liddy's Watergate handcuffs were

purchased at $2,760; and a pair of museum-quality black dolls achieved $3,520.

Lincoln relics proved to be in popular demand, with a bloodstained piece of

the pillowcase taken from the scene of his death reaching $5,280, and a

remnant from the Lincoln casket cover fetching $2,530. Other presidential,

funeral-related items included Ada McKinley's mourning dress, which crossed

the block at $1,955.

A DeWitt Clinton/Erie Canal vest brought $2,990; a handmade working model of

the Cook County gallows also made $2,990; a mammoth copper plate relief of

General U.S. Grant fetched $1,725; a 1946 signed all-star baseball won $1,380;

a 1935 World Champion Detroit Tigers signed baseball sold at $1,265; and a

framed cutaway Titanic model sailed away at $1,092.

Al Capone's 1940 Cadillac manual was purchased at $690. Go figure.

Prices quoted reflect a required ten percent buyer's premium.