Sold For $31,250
*Includes Buyers Premium
Springfield Marine & Fire Insurance Company check, 7.5 x 2.25, filled out and signed by Abraham Lincoln, "A. Lincoln," payable to W. B. Farnham for $30.45, June 10, 1859. In fine condition. The payee, W. B. Farnham, was a daguerreotypist and owner of the National Gallery in Springfield, Illinois. Encapsulated in a PSA/DNA authentication holder.
Accompanied by a full letter of authenticity from PSA/DNA, an ink signature of Mary Harlan Lincoln, the wife of Robert Todd Lincoln, and two TLSs from Frederic N. Towers, which were sent to autograph collector Mary Atwood on behalf of Mary Harlan Lincoln. The earlier letter from Towers, Lincoln’s attorney, November 14, 1933, acknowledges that Lincoln has agreed to send her an autograph. The second letter, sent in 1935, extends Lincoln’s gratitude for a bouquet sent as a ‘thank you’ gift from Atwood.
The check, which derives from the personal collection of Mary Atwood (1914-2009), an early autograph collector from Washington, D.C., is also accompanied by photocopied newspaper articles from The Washington Post from November 1944, which relate to an episode when Atwood, then owner of the offered Lincoln check, accidentally dropped it on her way home. The check was retrieved by a local bus driver, Philip S. McKenney, who returned it to Atwood after she accurately described both the check and its black leather storage case, which is also included with the lot. Atwood, who hadn’t known that she had lost her ‘pet autograph,’ only learned of its absence when an image of it appeared in the Washington Post. ‘There she saw a reproduction of the check the late Mary Harlan Lincoln, wife of the former President’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln, gave her about 10 years ago.’ Includes a vintage glossy 8 x 10 photo of Atwood accepting the check from McKenney, an image similar to those printed in the Washington Post.
This check is listed in the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 8, Page 458.
*This item has been pre-certified by a trusted third-party authentication service, and by placing a bid on this item, you agree to accept the opinion of this authentication service. If you wish to have an opinion rendered by a different authenticator of your choosing, you must do so prior to your placing of any bid. RR Auction is not responsible for differing opinions submitted 30 days after the date of the sale.
