Under the Hammer

Our next Fine Books and Manuscripts auction takes place on 15 December in New York. Leading this auction is a fascinating selection of Americana, highlights from a private collection of Abraham Lincoln fine art and ephemera, as well as an important collection of books, manuscripts and photographs celebrating the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Rossetti family.

Here, Catherine Williamson, Director of the Books & Manuscripts department in Los Angeles shares her favorite exceptional lots coming under the hammer.

Lot 67
Burns, J., The Final Hours of Abraham Lincoln, 1866

This impressive oil painting dramatizes the death of Abraham Lincoln, surrounded by his family, cabinet members, and military leaders as well as the attending doctors.  The artist takes a little artistic license here: while everyone represented in the painting may have visited Lincoln over the course of his last hours, there is no realistic way they could all have fit at one time in the tiny bedroom where he lay. The somber, crowded room adds to the haunting atmosphere of the picture.

Hailing from the collection of noted Lincoln collector Louise Taper, this fantastic piece has been exhibited at the Huntington Library, The Chicago Historical Society and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.

Lot 12
Autograph Letter Signed ("B. Franklin"), to Benjamin Vaughan regarding the terms of the peace agreement between the US and Great Britain, 1782

Here in his own words, Benjamin Franklin strongly rejects the suggestion that the United States remain a colony in the model of Ireland, with its own Parliament but still answerable to England, stating: “I have all along understood … that the point of Dependence was given up, and that we were to be treated with as a free people.” In addition to being an exceptionally rare emblem of history, what I love about this piece is the polite but firm way Franklin draws a line in the sand: we just fought a war for independence and won. Therefore, you are not—and will not be—the boss of us.

Lot 112
A Presentation Fair Copy of the W.B Yeats Poem, "When Helen Lived"

As with much of Yeats’s work, this is a tribute to his muse Maud Gonne (1866-1953), an Irish Republican activist and actress with whom the poet had a long-standing affair. Maud Gonne was fiercely independent and a bit of a badass: beautiful and rich, she traveled the world campaigning for Irish nationalism. While Yeats wanted desperately to marry her, she rejected him, arguing that the misery he felt made him a better poet, and the world should thank her for never marrying him. Like I said, badass.

Lot 136
Lissitzky, El. Illustrator. Industriya sotsializma. [The Industry of Socialism]. Moscow: IZOGIZ, 1935

I find the work of the Russian Avant-Garde artist El Lissitzky (1890-1941) so captivating. The leading artist of the Russian Constructivist movement, El Lissitzky began his career illustrating children’s books which influenced his later use of color and form. Like his colleagues, he believed that the artist could be an agent for change, and in this example, he pulls out all the stops, using foldouts, tipped-in plates, and other cutting-edge graphic bells and whistles to celebrate the Soviet Union’s 20 years of progress.

Lot 177
A Lewis Carroll Photograph of the Rossetti Family at Home

Those who follow Dodgson know that he was an early adopter of photography, and had a decades-long career as a photographer. Much of his work was portraiture, and this image of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his mother and two sisters is a classic example. Dodgson carefully composed the image, placing Rossetti opposite the chessboard from his mother, while Christina watches and Maria Francesca (whom I most identify with) stares directly into the camera. Viewers can't help but ponder her inner thoughts at this exact moment. Is she bored?  Angry? Hungry?  All of the above?  Probably.

For more from Catherine and our Books & Manuscripts team, follow @bonhamsbooks on Instagram.