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| (Photo courtesy of Invaluable.com) |
Posted: Friday, 27 November 2009 11:56AM
Lincoln items to go on auction block
Bob Roberts Reporting
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CHICAGO (WBBM) -- If you're looking for something a bit offbeat and historical to buy this holiday season, how about some Lincoln memorabilia? A collection goes on the auction block Friday and Saturday in Delaware, Ohio.
Garth's Auctions is conducting the dispersal of the collection of presidential memorabilia assembled by former Delaware County (Ohio) GOP Chairman George Hoffman.
The priciest piece of Lincoln memorabilia is a wreath placed on Lincoln's coffin as his body was lying in state in the Ohio Capitol. The dried flowers are framed, and the best evidence of the wreath's authenticity is a blurry photograph in the collection of the Ohio Historical Society that appears to match.
Garth's auctioneer Amelia Jeffers told WBBM the wreath being auctioned off by Hoffman was purchased, saved and framed by Dr. Godwin Volney Dorsey, whom she described as a staunch Lincoln supporter and Civil War-era Ohio state treasurer.
The wreath can be viewed online as Lot 424 in Garth's annual auction of Americana, and is expected to fetch between $5,000 and $10,000.
If that is out of your price range, there are two portraits of the 16th President with his family, priced in the $150-$300 range. A number of other portraits, lithographs, a tin ad sign and some black-and-white prints of Lincoln are similarly priced, along with portraits from Hoffman's collection of Civil War generals and a print depicting the shooting of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth.
Hoffman is now 85, and Jeffers said he believes it is time to "let go" of the collection.
Although Hoffman was a Republican stalwart, his interests in presidential ephemera did not end with Lincoln. Garth's is auctioning off memorabilia associated with a handful of other U.S. presidents, including a series of official photographs of President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline, along with other 1960s photos of the Kennedy clan.
Although the auction is in Ohio, Garth's will accept faxed and absentee bids, and accepts Visa and MasterCard for payment. There is a 17.5 percent buyer's premium.
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