Rare Book Monthly

Articles - June - 2007 Issue

Forbes Auction Completes After $40 Million in Sales

Publisher and collector Malcolm Forbes.

Publisher and collector Malcolm Forbes.


By Michael Stillman

The record-setting Forbes book and manuscript auction came to a conclusion this past May 22. Auctioneer Christie's described it as setting "a record total for any collection of books or manuscripts ever sold at auction." The auction took place in six sessions, the first in March 2002, the sixth just a few days ago. In total, sales from the Forbes collection totaled almost $41 million ($40,971,640 to be exact). The collection was known as "the Forbes Collection of American Historical Documents," which describes what Malcolm Forbes collected. These were overwhelmingly manuscript items with very notable American signatures.

Malcolm Forbes made his first purchase, a note from Abraham Lincoln, while a freshman at Princeton. He paid on credit. By the time he became a major purchaser, in the 1960s, he no longer needed terms. Forbes made a personal fortune publishing the magazine which bears his name. From the 1960s through the 1980s, he was active at virtually every important historical document auction. Forbes died in 1990, and the collection devolved to his son, one-time presidential candidate Steve Forbes. The latter determined to break up the collection and sell most of the material at auction. Now, five years after it began, the auction has finally concluded.

At the top end of the auction prices was Lincoln's copy of the last speech he gave, three days before he was assassinated. It sold for just over $3 million. Einstein's letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt sold for over $2 million, a record for a letter, while Abraham Lincoln's opera glasses, carried by the President that fateful night at Ford's Theater, brought in $424,000.

The top price at the sixth and final session was $132,000, for a signed letter from George Washington to Bryan Fairfax. Fairfax was a long-time good friend of Washington, member of what had been an aristocratic family in the colonial era. The letter was dated June 15, 1783, the Revolution now over and with Washington preparing to return home from headquarters in Newburgh, New York. Notes a tired Washington, "I now, only await the arrival of the Definitive Treaty to bid adieu to public life…" Of course, it would not be so easy for Washington, as his eight years as head of the army would soon be followed by eight years as his nation's president. No, Washington did not get to "pass the remainder of my life in a state of undisturbed repose." However, the father of his nation was more on target when he cautioned the newly independent states to form an "indissoluble union."

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: ALDROVANDI, Ulisse (1522-1605) - [Opera omnia]. Bologna: Bellagamba, Benacci, Bonomi, Tebaldini, Ferroni, 1599-1668. €22.000-€28.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: [CANALETTO] - VISENTINI, Antonio (1688-1782) da Giovanni Antonio CANAL (1697-1768, detto 'Il Canaletto') - Urbis Venetiarum prospectus celebriores. Venezia: Giovanni Battista Pasquale, 1742-51. €7.000-€10.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-1695) - Fables Choisies. Parigi: Claude Barbin, 1668. €7.000-€10.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: MERCATOR, Rumold (1545-1599) - [I continenti] - Europa; Africa; America Sive India Nova; Asia. Amsterdam: S.d. [ca. 1633]. €2.000-€3.000

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