On May 21st, Freeman | Hindman’s converted Lincoln aspirations into a memorable auction that will rank among the top ten in the collectible paper category worldwide by dollar value for 2025. The sale was prompted by the need to raise money to pay off acquisition debt. With this success, the Lincoln Presidential Foundation will end up keeping more than 1,400 items relating to America’s 16th president.
The sale was handled by Freeman | Hindman Auctions and earned high marks and close to $8.0 million for its beneficiaries.
It was fun to watch. From the get-go there was a sense that significant players were in the mix.
Autograph document by Lincoln, then Captain in the Illinois State Militia, April, 1832. Estimated $80,000 - $120,000. It went unsold.
Lot 8
Lincoln, Abraham. The Adams Handbill, the only known surviving copy of Lincoln’s First Printed work. It was estimated at $200,000 - $300,000 and brought $178,300.
You could tell the bidders had opinions and they were not going to be to guided by the estimates.
Lot 15
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A Douglas, signed document, 17 August 1839. Estimated $150,000 - $250,000 failed to sell.
Lot 21
The “Bass-Ackwards” manuscript, Lincoln’s frontier ribaldry. Estimated at $200-000 - $300,000, sold for $178,300
At this point their auctioneers had the whip in their hand.
The lot flow slowed down, you could tell they believed they had the bids.
And it turned out they did.
All the way to the last lot, No. 147, when the gavel fell on the final one, raising close to $8.0 million dollars.
Among those many dollars, the honor to be the highest priced lot went to Lincoln’s bloody gloves, removed from the President’s stricken body. The winner paid $1.5 million. For the most valuable piece of paper, the prize went to Lot 122. It was a $100,000 Reward! The murderer of our beloved President, Abraham Lincoln, is still at large. It brought $762,500 and brings a lifetime of invitations to historical events as “the guy or gal that.”
The Museum did very well and Freemans | Hindman did too. Congratulations are in order.
Here is a link to both our version and FH’s. The difference is, ours covers books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera; theirs includes all of that and sundries.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Book of Hours.- Heures de nostre dame a l'usaige de Romme, Paris, Antoine Chappiel pour Germain Hardouin, [1504]. £6,000-8,000
Forum, May 28: Colonna (Francesco). La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, second edition, Venice, Sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. £15,000-20,000
Forum, May 28:The Christ Child holding a crystal orb and surrounded by banderoles with devotional exhortations, on a leaf most probably from a Book of Hours, [Southern Netherlands, last decades of the fifteenth century]. £2,000-3,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Jackson (Shirley). The Haunting of Hill House, first English edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to Claude Fredericks, 1960. £2,000-3,000
Forum, May 28: Lennon (John). In His Own Write, first edition, first impression, signed by the author, 1964. £3,000-4,000
Forum, May 28: Doves Press.- Keats (John). [Poems], one of 200 copies on paper, Doves Press, 1914. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Rodrigues (João Barbosa). Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium, 2 vol., first and only edition, Brussels, 1903. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Newton (Sir Isaac). Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica…editio ultima, auctior et emendatior, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Societatis, 1714. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Kepler (Johannes). Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, wuibus astronomiae pars optica traditur, first edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1604. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Tagliacozzi (Gaspare). De Curtorum Chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo, first edition, Venice, Gasparo Bindoni, 1597. £7,000-10,000
Forum, May 28: Lootsman (Jacobsz). The Lightning Colomne, or Sea-Mirrour, containing the Sea-Coasts of the Northern, Eastern and Western Navigation..., 1670. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Ribelles y Helip (José), Attributed to. An album comprising 33 finely executed watercolours of Spanish costume, bull-fighting scenes, and other genre subjects, [circa 1830]. £10,000-15,000
