Federalist auction brings $80,000 for Indiana Soldier

June 17, 2009
Posted by Noah

Besides the fact that Captain Nathan Harlan’s first edition Volume 1 of The Federalist Papers sold for a staggering $80,000 hammer price in yesterday’s Rare Books Auction, let me just say that the combined Rare Books and Historic Manuscripts combined events yesterday came off at a very respectable $1.2 million, roughly, and most everyone involved was pretty up about the whole thing.

More to the case in point, regarding Captain Harlan, it simply couldn’t have been a better, or more moving, auction. I know that most people don’t get too misty when recalling an auction, but if you had the opportunity to watch yesterday on HERITAGE Live!™, then you know that auctioneer Mike Sadler, an ex-Air Force guy himself – and certainly one of the bright lights of Heritage’s Auctioneer staff – put it best when he spoke of the auction and of Captain Harlan himself.

“It’s people like Captain Harlan,” said Sadler before the lot came up, “that make up the very fiber of this nation.”

You know what? I couldn’t agree more. In an age of so much contentiousness over politics and political philosophy, I believe we all can agree that our military men and women are doing their best to the do their jobs to height of their capabilities. This is not the early 1970s when Vietnam was going on – or ended – and soldiers were on the receiving end of much vitriol and hatred when they returned home. In retrospect we know this was unfair to them and – again, despite so much ideological division in this nation – we all are in the same arena when it comes to the support of our troops.

The gesture to Captain Harlan was, we thought, a simple one – waive the 20% Seller’s Commission and give the guy a few extra bucks. It was not done necessarily to just stir up PR, but simply because it was the right thing to do. The PR and media attention did indeed come pouring in like we never could have imagined. The news was all over the world, and the outpouring of support for Captain Harlan, his book, and the gesture of waiving the Seller’s Commission moved people to the core. I also think it brought in several thousand dollars more for the man.

I think of it this way: In all the times I’ve run outside and looked up at the sky on the off-chance a suitcase of money fell from the sky it’s never happened. Well, it happened for Captain Harlan yesterday because his duty as a soldier is a noble and just one.

Here’s just a sample of the hundreds of comments we’ve heard:

“I just read the news item about The Federalist auction. You waived your seller's fee for Nathan Harlan! “Ladies and Gentlemen, you are a top notch, class act. It brought tears to my eyes. In this era of corporate greed bankrupting society, you are a breath of fresh air. And did you even imagine the positive advertising and PR you are about to receive? Probably not. I commend you. You are just too awesome for words.”

I’m getting a little choked up just reading that, as I have for every bit of praise that has come in for the auction. In the micro action we took toward one soldier, and hundreds of dedicated Americans, the auction was transformed into a tribute to every American soldier. They all deserve the kind of thing that happened to Captain Harlan, and I am honored and proud to have been a part of it.

Good luck to you Captain, and god-speed, from all of us here at Heritage.

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-Noah Fleisher

The Federalist Papers auctioning today; proceeds for a good cause

June 16, 2009
Posted by Noah

Most of you probably don’t want to hear me wax for 600 words about how much great stuff, and how many amazing stories, come through the hallowed Heritage halls here in Dallas, but I could… I could… I feel fortunate to be around so much amazing stuff all the time and to be part of so many special stories, but the one we are living right now tops them all in terms of heartwarming-ness (I know that’s not a word, but this is a blog, so there’s no rules, right?) and that the story of Captain Nathan Harlan and his first edition copy of Volume 1 of The Federalist, which goes up for auction here today around 2 p.m. as part of our Rare Books auction.

This story has been widely covered by AP and has migrated around the world in the last 24 hours – and we couldn’t be happier here about it – but just in case you want to inside scoop here it is:

Captain Harlan bought the book in 1990, when he was 16, at a flea market with his mother. He paid $7 for it. Just remember that. He was studying The Federalist in school.

Years passed, Harlan grew into a man, a father and a soldier. He is currently preparing to serve his second tour of duty in Iraq. He’s a brave man and we all thank him for his service – regardless of where we come down politically in terms of the Iraq war. He decided it was time to sell his book, and almost listed it on eBay before checking out Heritage. He saw prices we’ve gotten in the past for the same book, different edition, and decided to go with us. Heritage put a conservative estimate on the volume at $8,000-$12,000. Just remember that, too.

Joe Fay, our Rare Books Manager and sometimes-Heritage blogger, suggested we try to get some publicity on the auction to raise the hammer price of the piece and hopefully get Captain Harlan a little more cash – we all know all of our men and women in service of the nation’s defense are bearing a huge burden right now and could use whatever extra money they can get. To add to this, the executive staff here at Heritage felt it would be a poignant gesture in honor of the Captain’s service to waive the Seller’s commission, meaning 20% more money for his book.

Well, AP picked up the story of Captain Harlan, the page views of his book have gone through the roof and the price… Well, remember that $7 he paid for it? And the $8,000-$12,000 estimate? As of the end of business yesterday – and the close of Internet and mail bidding – the book stood at $30,000. Yes, a three and four zeroes. It stands a chance to go even high when live bidding starts today around 2 p.m. This means ever more for Captain Harlan, and I think that bidders understand this.

It is a superb confluence of a great and important book, a worthy consignor and a good cause. The money that is going to this soldier isn’t just about him. It’s about all of our brave men and women, and the dangerous work they do for little recognition. They do it out of love for their country. I can think of little in the hearts of people that is more noble. I hope the bidding goes through the roof.

Stay tuned for results.

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-Noah Fleisher

POTUS #2: The great and unsung Mr. Adams

June 9, 2009
Posted by Noah

As far as the pantheon of American Presidents go, John Adams – our estimable second Commander-In-Chief – gets surprisingly few props. I’ll grant that the man wasn’t the most charismatic of our early leaders, and certainly not the most entertaining, but I humbly submit to you now that the man was, and is, our most underrated early leader. Without his contributions, the United States would have never survived into its second decade, and many of the policies that have kept this nation safe and prosperous would never have come to pass.

Why John Adams on an overcast Tuesday, you ask?

I’ve made known my love of early American history in these digital pages before, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise. I’ve also recently been reading James McCullough’s thoroughly brilliant Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Adams, and the picture it paints of the mercurial New Englander is as compelling as that of any historic figure. He may have served one term as President, but his overall lifetime of service to America – specifically his role in the Revolutionary War in the Continental Congress and as our first Secretary of State after independence – amount to one of the greatest lives this nation has ever seen.

It also helps that, working at Heritage, there has been – and will be, surely – a healthy dose of John Adams-related material that comes through our doors. All I can say is, lucky us!

There have indeed been several high profile lots of John Adams material, mostly in the way of letters and personal writings, the most spectacular of which is also the lot with his name on it that has fetched the highest price, some $22,000+: It is a John Adams signed letter to an unknown recipient in which he discusses the meaning of the word “Republic,” as well as his longtime political rival and close friend –despite some very bumpy periods – Thomas Jefferson (it’s interesting to note that Adams and Jefferson both died on the same day in the same year, July 4, 1826, rather appropriate for such great and different Americans).

He writes: "Of republicks [sic] the varieties are infinite, or at least as numerous, as the tunes and changes that can be rung upon a complete sett [sic] of Bells. -- Of all the Varitety's [sic], a Democracy is the most rational - the most ancient - and the most fundamental - and essential of all others. -- In some writing of other of mine I happened -- current... to drop the phrase --'the word Republic as it is used may signify - any thing -- everything or nothing' -- From this escape I have been pelted for twenty or thirty years - with as many stones, as even were throw'n at St Steven - when St Paul held the clothes of the Stoners - but the aphorism is literal, strict, solemn truth…”

It goes on at some length, and I encourage you to read the whole description by clicking the link above.

There is also an excellent John Adams Manuscript in next week’s Historic Manuscripts auction.

No mention of John Adams is complete without speaking of his beloved wife, and also one of the greatest Americans to ever live, Abigail Adams. We have not had a tremendous amount of Abigail-related material come through Heritage, though there are a lot of commemorative coins in her name, which is a shame, as she is the model for America’s first ladies. She was as wise and brilliant as she was beautiful, and as Adams himself said many times in his long life, she provided ballast and counsel to the excitable second president.

If in my minor scribbling here today I can make you take moment and consider the greatness of John Adams – even if you already know it – then my work here will be complete. We are indeed a lucky nation to have had architects of democracy as amazing as we did so long ago, and chief among them – a man certainly on equal footing with his contemporaries of greater renown – was the estimable Mr. Adams.

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-Noah Fleisher

One amazing ‘Spill’: an indisputable masterpiece by William Herbert “Buck” Dunton comes this July

April 24, 2009
Posted by Noah

Just look at that painting. Unbelievable movement, seamless blending of colors and a moment of impossible kinetic energy expertly captured. If the cowboy in “The Spill” – arguably the greatest work of art by one W.H. Dunton, as good and important an American illustrator as there’s ever been – survives this spectacular calamity, then it’s surely not going to be a pleasant recovery and certainly not ever a complete one. This painting, acquired as part of The Charles Martignette Estate – written about in this blog a few weeks ago – is going to highlight, in a big way, the July auction of Western and Texas art here at Heritage. I personally can’t wait just to go and stand in front of the thing.

What I love about this painting is myriad. I mentioned a few things above, but there’s so much more to read into it. Why exactly are the cowboy and his horse flipping end over end? Is he a greenhorn rider trying to ride a spirited horse? A Horse Whisperer whose luck has run out? Maybe he got drunk at the saloon in town and was careless going home, or maybe he’s running for his life from Indians or brigands. Whatever the case, when that horse comes over on him, unless he manages to extricate his legs in quick fashion, his back is going to be snapped like a twig. What will his poor Ma and Pa think when their little boy, from a good home on the East Coast who had all the best schooling and abandoned it all to pursue his dream of being a real cowboy, dies alone in the American desert with only rattlesnakes and scorpions as witnesses?

Dunton was more than an illustrator. At the risk of offending any art snobs out there, I’d go as far as to say that he was one of America’s great 20th Century painters. The fact that he made his name initially as an illustrator – and a very good one at that – during America’s Golden Age of Illustration in the early 20th Century did not stop his progress as an artist or his desire to paint authentic subject matter. This is more than evidenced by his bold move in 1914 to Taos, New Mexico. Think about it: He had a successful career drawing for the top magazines of the day, plenty of money to support his family, but he chucked it all to move out West and start painting native landscapes. As a result he lived in near-poverty for the remainder of his days and became a truly transcendent painter. He was a founding member of the famed Taos Society of Art, saw his paintings exhibited all over the nation and garnered wide acclaim – if not fortune – for his important work. Still, though, in his own words, he would have rather lived in a time where no means of “making a living” was necessary at all:

"There is one thing positive, had I lived in Merriweather Lewis's, Audubon's or even as late as Catlin or Francis Parkman's day, no life of mine would be thrown away painting pictures, when I could live the greater part of a year alone with my rifle and a few pack animals among the host of buffalo – the antelope, the great bands of elk…"

Fortunately for us, Dunton did paint, and he did leave behind a sizable body of work, foremost among which is “The Spill.” It’s classic American art at its best, relaying a scene of the great, rustic American West that was a direct slice of life, though certainly – ultimately – much larger.

This painting, rightly so, should command a couple hundred thousand dollars. Lord knows that it will bring much more than that 100 years from now. Personally, I wish I could afford it, and am glad I’m not the subject matter. Wiping out on a horse is bad enough – I was thrown by a horse and then bitten by it when I was a kid learning to ride, no kidding – let alone getting snapped like a pencil by its amazingly articulated and artfully presented full body weight.

Here’s a link to the entire Western and Texas art auction. Check out the Olin Travis in particular for a tasty modern perspective on Texas landscape painting. Once you start staring at this thing it’s hard to stop.

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General Washington, I presume? A cache of our founding father readies for June

April 23, 2009
Posted by Noah

With the June Historical Manuscripts auction rapidly approaching – one of my most favorite categories here at the Heritage Juggernaut – I went catalog surfing, as I am wont to do during late hours of the night, for some of the hidden gems in the auction and (Surprise, Surprise!) there a more than a few and plenty of which are affordable to the extent that even your humble blogger will be placing a couple bids. Which ones exactly I won’t say, because, you know…

In particular there’s a great trove of George Washington lots, especially a few lots that contain his signature, or reference the great man himself. The one I like the best is a 1772 Christmas beer receipt with Washington’s monogram on it and a capital “W” very likely written by the man himself. It’s a cool thing, for sure, to imagine the father of our country kicking back with friends and family at Mount Vernon with some micro brews on Christmas Eve. Washington, and Mrs. Washington, were very protective of any material relating to their private lives. Almost none of it survives today so even a receipt like this that hints at something so casual – a relaxed brew between the Washington clan and friends? What could be more informal? – is an exceptional find.

I have spent the last few months reading about the founding fathers of this nation, Washington in particular, and have come to the conclusion that we are an exceedingly lucky nation to have had a man like Washington for our first President, and lucky bordering on divine for having the first four presidents that we did, regardless of the ideological differences between them.

As far as Washington goes, all I can say is that some men are born for greatness, are simply people of destiny whose every action led them to immortality. Just read a little bit about Washington’s life and career and you learn quickly just how many bullets he dodged – literally – and how many prescient decisions he made in his eight years as president. Time and time again, under pressure from the rival Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson, Washington stuck to his Federalist principles and refused to engage our nascent nation in more war with Britain when to do so would surely have been folly. It cost him some measure of popularity at the time, but it insured the survival of this amazing country at a time when more war would have been death. I re-iterate, time and time again Washington somehow managed to steer the clunky ship of state straight down the middle path and keep it afloat at the same time as he attended to almost every other matter.

After Washington, it was Adams who kept the momentum going forward, even if it meant some serious unpopularity – see the Alien and Sedition Act – and just a single term in The White House. Jefferson followed, finding that he had to temper some of his more radical ideas, and added a further philosophical dimension to the idea of America. I wish I had all day to sit and write about this stuff, because I love it deeply and it makes me appreciate just how amazing the very existence of this country actually is. There was no one, literally, no one, who could have held America together in its first eight years other than Washington. No one.

I’m not a particularly jingoistic kind of person – I tend to shun dogma of any kind – but it’s hard not to look at the events of the late 1700s and early 1800s in North America and not be simply amazed by the sequence of events that unfolded, and by the true greatness of the men and women who not only bore witness to those days, but who made them actively happen.

Besides the June auction linked to above, I’ve also looked back in the Heritage archives for the best Washington stuff that’s come through. There’s almost 300 lots, all of them a tangible link to the American who is first among equals, “His Excellency,” George Washington.

It’s easy to get cynical in this day and age, what with the 24 hour news cycle, biased punditry and lifetime politicians – something never intended by Jefferson when he wrote the Declaration – but it’s even better to remember the amazing foresight and passion of those who came before us, and to remember they suffered the slings and arrows of an unrelenting media, in their own way, in their own day.

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JFK Jr.’s white gloves, worn by the toddler the day of his dad’s funeral

THIS ITEM HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN FROM THE MAY AUCTION.

THE BLOG POST HAS BEEN REMOVED AS WELL.

It’s not exactly ‘Beam me up, Scotty,’ but it’s as close as I’ll ever get to space travel

March 12, 2009
Posted by Noah

I’ve been known, occasionally, to get carried away with the excitement of a given moment, but I’m not exaggerating when I say there’s a lot in our April 1 Space Exploration Auction that may well be the very coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life, and any previous ones I might have had… It’s Astronaut John Young’s Gemini 10 Foldout Desktop Cockpit Control Training Aide…

Before I get to the meat of this amazingly cool piece of space memorabilia, can I just say that I am of a generation that, as kids, was promised – at least by The Jetsons, Star Wars and Star Trek – that the future held flying cars, teleportation, green women and wise little lizard-like gurus who would teach me to use a light saber and lift my space ship out of a bog without touching it, which would have come in handy when it came time to let the dog out and I didn’t want to get up from the couch. I know that Star Wars ostensibly took place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but stick with me. So far I haven’t gotten any of these things Hollywood promised me, and I want, at least, my flying car.

My disappointments with the whole of human kind’s inability to fulfill my puerile sci-fi fantasy aside, this lot I’m talking about was a manual training aide for Astronaut John Young, one of the nation’s most prolific and respected space travelers and moonwalkers. He used it to master the hundreds of circuit breakers and switches he was required to know better than scripture when he commanded the Gemini 10 lunar mission. It wasn’t even flown into space, but it was one of the most crucial pieces of erudition for one of America’s best and bravest. I can only imagine how nuts I would have been as a kid to have something like this, just simply as a toy. Even as an adult, sitting here writing this, I am picturing myself sitting at home, early on a Saturday morning, navigating myself and my imaginary band of Federation Jedi on some secret mission at the behest of Master Yoda.

When I started this job last year, one of the first press releases I had to write was for a Space Exploration Auction. Howard Weinberger, Heritage’s Senior Space Consultant told me something that has stuck with me.

“It’s a truism in the world of Space flown memorabilia,” he told me, “ that if you took every single thing that has ever flown into space, in the possession of an astronaut, and put it all together, then it would fill a single large suitcase. Heritage has now been to that suitcase five or six times.”

Granted, a lot of the Space flown memorabilia in the April 1 auction is not necessarily from that singular suitcase, but a lot of it is. That which isn’t is indeed still part of America’s greatest era of space exploration, and still floated in the great yonder, free from the surly bonds of earth. This cockpit training aide did neither, and I’d still give some part of the right side of my body to have it.

I may not ever get to seek out new life or boldly go where no one has gone before, but I can at least venerate those who did, and – where possible – play with the same toys. Check this thing out, and see if you don’t feel the same way.

Of Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch and mysterious missives from the past (or future?)

March 11, 2009
Posted by Noah

I usually get up early in the morning – really early, really – so I can get myself ready for the day, check my email in peace and have a cup of coffee to the soothing early morning sounds of NPR and the quiet page click of The New York Times. It’s worth the loss of an hour’s sleep to get the time. This morning The Times featured an article in its Art & Design section about the opening of a legendary Abraham Lincoln pocket watch that, as legend had it, contained a mysterious inscription on the inside, from a watch repairer, to Abraham Lincoln, engraved at the start of the Civil War.

Heady stuff to be sure. I had actually heard this rumor before. The watch, belonging to The Smithsonian, hadn’t been opened in almost 150 years, and the message was subject of much debate. The watch was passed down through generations of the same family, before being bequeathed to The Smithsonian, and it was only on Tuesday of this week, March 9, that the thing was finally opened.

I have to admit there was a part of me that hoped it would be a message from a time traveler who got stuck in 1861 and left the inscription for his future self, to tell him to be careful not to eat the knockwurst – which, of course, gave him indigestion, which caused him to over sleep and miss the temporal window that would have allowed him to travel back to the year 3049. Alas, however, it is simply a message of support for the Union.

It reads: “Jonathan Dillon April 13- 1861 Fort Sumpter(sic) was attacked by the rebels on the above date. J Dillon,” on the underside of the watch. It continues: “April 13- 1861 Washington thank God we have a government Jonth Dillon.”

Not exactly a message to Kirk and Spock instructing them to bring whales with them from the past to the future, but still cool nonetheless, and a heartening message of national unity from a time of great and terrible distress. It doesn’t hurt that the watch is a thing of amazing beauty, with undeniable proximity to America’s favorite President.

As soon as I got to work, with the Lincoln watch on my mind – and covetousness in my heart, I admit – I checked out the upcoming May 13 Fine Watch auction here at Heritage. It wasn’t so much in the hopes of finding something of great historical import that was somehow overlooked by the team of experts we have here – it would never happen, trust me – so much as a desire to bask in the glow of timepieces – pocket watches in particular – that I most likely will never have.

The auction overall is chock full of great watches, mind you, any of which I would be glad to own – an superb and stylistically progressive circa 1809 Breitling Cosmonaute 1809 Chrono-Matic, in particular – but there’s a Soyer (a Dieppe) Single Hand Oignon with Center Winding pocket watch, circa 1695, that is such a stunner that I’ve had it open on my computer most of the morning just so I can take look every so often and drift into a daydream of owning it. You can see it by clicking the link above. I urge you to.

Could I ever really wear such a watch, were I to own it? I don’t know. I’m not really the pocket watch type. You kind of have to be a little older, much more English, wearing a very well tailored gray or brown suit, with a derby on your head, a monocle in your eye, and the name Lord Autumnbottom etched onto your calling card…

Still, a guy can dream… Pip, pip! Cheerio!

Forget just being a Pepper, I want to own it!

Feb. 20, 2009
Posted by Noah

You would think, given all the corporate secrecy around the secret formulas for different soda pops, fried chicken batter and sandwich sauces in America that we were dealing with issues of national security when it came to wanting to know the ratio of mustard to mayonnaise on our hamburgers, or of black pepper to paprika in our extra crispy, but no. It is just food. Still, Heritage has itself a good ol’ fashioned piece of American cola history that is as complex as and KFC original recipe mix or Coca-Cola syrup formula: Our May Americana Auction will feature a lot that should be of extra special interest to Texans, and to any one that ever swigged an ice cold soda on a very hot day – the mid-1880s original notebook containing the original handwritten formula for what was to become Dr. Pepper, the first – and arguably the greatest – of America’s big three soda pops.

Granted that Dr. Pepper isn’t what it used to be in terms of soft drink influence. You would be hard pressed to make the case that it is in America’s Top 10 beverages, let alone the top three. To Texans of a certain age, however, Dr. Pepper is what it’s all about. That original formula, deep within the Heritage vault – the source of so much speculation in the 130 years since its creation, and so much corporate deflection – is getting set to be auctioned off. Can a revival of homemade Dr. Pepper be that far off?

Uh… Probably very far off… That, though, is no hindrance. It’s the meaning of the thing; it’s the role that Dr. Pepper has played in the development of Texas’s National identity, and how it spurred on the greater success of Coke and Pepsi, and helped define the very role of America to the world.

Heritage’s Director of Americana, Tom Slater, has been involved intimately with getting the crumbling notebook with the original formula in it – Page 19, to be exact – and he has also been intricately involved with the various aspects of the potential legal wrangling around it. While he couldn’t show me the notebook just now when we met in his office, he could assure me that the formula, as it’s represented in its original state in the notebook, is probably not even close to the current formula, especially in its use of denatured rum.

This is a lot that deserves pages and pages dedicated to it, so interesting is the history, and so much secrecy is there around it, but I don’t have the space here to do anything but offer a tease. There is much in Dr. Pepper that led to America’s corporate culture, but there is also much of the history of Texas in it, as well as proof that Waco – now little more than the midway point between Dallas and Austin, the home of Baylor University and former home of the Branch Davidians – was once the most important city in the state, if not the nation. It’s all there in that sweet, odd taste.

For my part, I can remember numerous field trips to the Dallas Dr. Pepper plant at Greenville Avenue and Mockingbird Lane throughout my childhood. I drive past that intersection everyday on the way to work. Much like the original formula for the drink, though, so much has changed about the site of the plant that all that remains is a clock and sign. It’s now a super market, some apartments and a rail station, just as Dr. Pepper is but a horse in the Snapple stable. That does not, however, diminish the potential power of this piece of superb Texana/Americana at auction. In a corporate culture that closely protects even its oldest secrets, the fact that this original recipe is going to be out of the bag is pretty spectacular. It may not save the world, but it’ll have a whole host of folks whistling the tune, doing the dance with Vim, Vigor and Vitality and saying they, too, indeed wished they could be a Pepper… Stay tuned for more on this as the auction approaches.