COLLECTION ON THE BLOCK SEPTEMBER 15, 2011
INCLUDES THE 1674 BIRTH CERTIFICATE OF NY (EX-MALCOLM FORBES COLLECTION) TEN YEARS AFTER 9/11
POSSIBLY UNIQUE TITANIC BROADSIDE (STEAMSHIPS) Lorenz, Fred A. Titanic Memorial. Illustrated broadside, 14 x 22 inches; worn, marginal loss at corners, moderate soiling, short closed tears; unrelated manuscript cartoon on verso. Tyrone, OK, 1912
Estimate $800-1,200
Features a long poem on the Titanic and an illustration of the ship at sea. The author was a Russian-born farmer and real estate agent in the Oklahoma panhandle. This possibly unique piece was issued as a promotion for The Watchman, a Seventh-Day Adventist publication out of Nashville. It suggests that the Titanic tragedy and other disasters of the day were “prophecy-fulfilling and history-making Signs of the Times.” It concludes with the lines, “Shall we heed the lesson, and make preparation / While mercy still lingers, or meet a like doom?” Not in WorldCat or otherwise known.
(NY) Swann Auctions, the oldest rare book auction house in the nation, will sell Part I of the Eric C. Caren Collection on September 15, 2011. Mr. Caren has collected for almost half a century. He sold his first collection of rare and historical newspapers to form the nucleus of the permanent collection of the half-billion-dollar Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, DC ten years ago. Having multiple items for every event, historical figure, and genre in Modern history from Columbus to the Present, he has arranged for at least 3 single-owner auctions in NYC at Swann to “thin the hoard.” The sales will be entitled “How History Unfolds on Paper- Selections from The Eric C. Caren collection.” Mr. Caren will still maintain The Caren Archive (approximately one million items strong), and he continues as CEO of Retro-Graphics Publishing, which offers, amongst other things, reproductions of rare items for museum shops around the nation, including The Smithsonian, The Baseball Hall of Fame, The Holocaust Memorial Museum, etc.
Highlights of Part I on September 15 will include the following:
- Charles II’s letter taking possession of NY from the Dutch in 1674. Mr. Caren was made aware of the irony that it was being sold almost 10 years before 9/11. Mr. Caren says of this coincidence, “I love New York, but this piece is so precious that it is time to find a better home. Only 100 men were needed to Garrison all of NYC in 1674, and now it is the greatest city in the world, and Americans showed that they would come back even stronger after any tragedy or attack!”
- The First Printed Baseball Scorecard, dated 1866
- An Extraordinarily Rare Illustrated Broadside of a Slave Ship from 1789
- Rare Printings of The Bill of Rights and The Declaration of Independence
- Photos of The Dalton Gang and The James-Younger Gang
- The First American Engraved Map of The Battle of Yorktown from 1782
- A Fine Group of Rock, Vietnam War, and Counter Culture Posters from the 1960s
- Rare Original Plans of The Lusitania and a Rare Broadside on The Titanic
- The Earliest Non-Newspaper Printing of Lewis and Clark Expedition Report 1805
Plus- An Incredible Thomas Edison Archive on the Light Bulb and the Pearl Street Station (NY) was the first commercial use of the great invention!
The collection also contains rare material relating to Colonial America, The American Revolution, The Civil War, and Social, Political and Military History in newspapers, broadsides, posters, photography, pamphlets, books, etc.
For More Info. Contact Rick Stattler at Swann-212-254-4710 or go to www.swanngalleries.com.
