Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - July - 2005 Issue

American Autographs From Joe Rubinfine

American Historical Autographs #154 from Joe Rubinfine.

American Historical Autographs #154 from Joe Rubinfine.


By Michael Stillman

Joe Rubinfine
has issued his List 154 of American Historical Autographs. They range from a colonial appointment in 1671 to a signed copy of Douglas MacArthur's 1964 Reminiscences, the latter being number 1 of a limited edition run. While political and military figures predominate, there are also signatures from writer Harriet Beecher Stowe and poets Henry Longfellow and John Greenleaf Whittier. For those who collect the signatures and manuscripts of America, this is a most noteworthy collection.

Anything signed by Abraham Lincoln is highly collectible, but here is a most interesting letter, written on the eve of his celebrity as a national figure, which would arise from the famed Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. It also illustrates his evolving role from lawyer to politician. It is an appeal to friend and fellow Illinois Republican political leader Gustave Koerner, an abolitionist German immigrant, for assistance. Koerner played an important role in rallying fellow Germans to the Union cause a few years later. The Democratic legislature had passed a reapportionment measure that had gerrymandered legislative districts in their favor. Republican Governor William Bissell, in a moment of absentmindedness, signed the bill, quickly crossing out his name when he discovered the mistake. The Democrats then sued in court to force the Attorney General to enforce the law, on the grounds that the Governor could not later change his mind once he signed a bill into law. Ultimately, lawyer Lincoln and the Republicans proved successful, the court ruling that the Governor could change his mind while the bill was still in his possession. Lincoln's letter to Koerner asking the latter to consult on the case is offered as item 24. Priced at $32,000.

Item 7 ties together two of America's least-loved figures of its early days. Aaron Burr, who came within a hair of being elected president in 1800, would seal his infamy when he killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel a few years later. However, his reputation would further descend when he engaged in an action, whose aim is still in doubt today, but apparently was intended to set up an independent state in the southwest. He was tried for treason and acquitted, but any hope for restoration of his reputation was long gone. The other discredited figure mentioned in this document is Benedict Arnold, and he needs no introduction, his name long ago becoming synonymous with "traitor." Way back in early 1776, 20-year-old Aaron Burr served as an aid to General Arnold. On May 17 of that year, Burr wrote out an order for the return of some armaments, noting that it was, "By Order of Genl. Arnold..." Item 7. $3,250.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Geek Week
    2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Album Containing Four Signed Photographs of Albert Einstein, With Eleven Additional Einstein Photographs, From His Journey to Japan Aboard the S.S. Kitano Maru, 1922. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Fred Freeman. Illustration of the Channel Tunnel’s British Portal (Presumably at Folkestone), ca. 1958. $5,000 to $7,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Wolfgang Kurt Hermann Panofsky Group of Awards. Pief Panofsky's 1961 Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award, National Medal of Science, Enrico Fermi Award, and Others. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Seymour Cray; Cray-3. Manuscript Cray-3 Logbook, 1989-90. — The Only Significant Cray Manuscript to Come to Auction. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Albert Einstein. Typed Letter Signed ("A. Einstein."), to Ann Morrisett, Affirming a Pacifist's Right to Self-Defense, March 21, 1952. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Operating and Maintenance Manual for the BINAC Binary Automatic Computer Built for Northrop Aircraft Corporation. Philadelphia, 1949. $30,000 to $50,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Steve Jobs Apple Computer Business Card, c. 1977. $5,000 to $8,000.

Review Search

Archived Reviews