As we head into November many of the auction houses worldwide present their most interesting material. Hindman of Chicago has two upcoming sales; No. 1095 on November 3rd and 4th, and No. 1097 on November 8th and 9th. They are American Historical Ephemera & Photography and quickly after, Fine Books & Manuscripts including Americana. Both sales deserve collector and institutional attention. The structure of collecting has been adjusting to the increasing possibility that personally relevant material will be found in unexpected places. These interesting sales at Hindman are good examples.
Not so long ago books were the category but over the past twenty years collectible paper has emerged as the rich and complex category heading that subsumes ephemera, maps, manuscripts, books, and related objects all within single sales. These sales celebrate that elaboration of scale.
The first sale is on November 3rd and 4th, the first 50 lots of this 634 lot sale include two books one of which is a sammelband, 2 manuscripts, 2 pamphlets, a powder horn, 6 swords or pikes, one lot of campaign buttons, 2 rifles and a gun, 1 lot of unopened packets of cartridges for Colt’s Pocket, Army, and Navy pistols, 2 Bowie knives, and a significant number of early and Civil War tintype images.
This said, if you sense what this sale includes, you’ll have to set aside time to get deeper because many other collectible categories find kindred spirits here and as you become absorbed in the images and descriptions, you may want to start making notes.
Said another way, this sale would have been at home in the later 19th century auction rooms when rare and obscure material used to be stacked 10 at a time, bringing opening bids of a nickel or a dime. The prices have changed but it’s nice to find that the complexity continues to emerge in the rooms. For potential acquirers the broad range of possibilities suggest you can effectively collect in very focused ways.
This sale conveys that sense of opportunity.
Of course, there is the other sale.
Fine Books & Manuscripts including Americana sale on 8-9 November includes 709 lots of miscellaneous material that will reward the diligent to run your searches on the Hindman site. For instance, in this sale there are 10 lots of fore-edge painted books. While this is an obscure collecting obsession, examples don’t show up often but when they do, they tend to arrive in the rooms in bunches. For reference, in Transactions+ 55,893 [of 12,449,477 ] lots include that term recently.
As well, there’s an appealing group of manuscripts but you’ll have to take my word for it because a keyword search for the term manuscript doesn’t bring them up. Search for lots 632-641. Such material in collections tend to hold up well.
Another example of material that will appeal to the specialist collector whose enthusiasm runs in the direct of Al Capone they will find lots 560-564. Whether Hindman makes offers you can not refuse I’ll let you resolve that amicably.
As to the general run of the material, as was true with No. 1095, it will be worthwhile running through the electronic presentation for chance connections. Many of the items include references to their sellers and one I encourage you to look for is from Selections from Antiquariat Botanicum, Dr. Eugene Vigil, a long-time friend of Rare Book Hub, who is now watching the field from semi-retirement. Hindman has been handling the dispersal of his stock.
All in all, these two sales offer chances to experience the field both as it was and as it is becoming. Bon chance!
Here are links to the two sales I mention:
American Historical Ephemera & Photography, Featuring Property the James Milgram, M. D., Collection of Broadsides, Ephemeral Americana & Historical Documents
https://hindmanauctions.com/auctions/1095-american-historical-ephemera-photography
Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana
https://hindmanauctions.com/auctions/1097-Fine-Printed-Books-Manuscripts-Including-Americana
