BOSTON – RR Auction‘s May 11 Fine Autograph and Artifact sale comprises nearly 1,000 unique items, including a handwritten musical manuscript by Johann Sebastian Bach estimated at $500,000-$750,000. View the fully illustrated catalog on LiveAuctioneers.
The remarkable circa-1728 one-page autograph musical manuscript by Bach is a fragment from the church cantata Ich habe meine Zuversicht, BWV 188. The section on offer is the lower half of folio 17 of the original manuscript, portions of the 4th movement, scored for alto with cello and organ obbligato, on four systems of four hand-drawn staves. As noted above, its estimate is $500,000-$750,000.
Notable letters from geniuses that appear in the May 11 sale include a Nikola Tesla one-page handwritten letter on The Gerlach Hotel letterhead. It is dated March 21, 1895, addressed to a Mrs. Anthony and reads in part: “My new work is progressing fast and soon, I hope, you will hear from me more pleasant news.” In August 1892, Tesla moved his lab to 33-35 South Fifth Avenue where he took up the fourth floor; he remained there for two-and-a-half years before the building burnt down. He relocated to The Gerlach Hotel — now known as the Radio Wave Building — where he lived before the end of the century and experimented with radio waves in 1896. The Tesla letter is estimated at $40,000-$60,000.
Another standout is a Stephen Hawking handwritten one-page letter, signed “Stephen,” postmarked April 26, 1968 and addressed to his childhood friend Bill Cleghorn at the Central Electrochemical Research Institute. Hawking shares happy personal news on the birth of his son, along with reports of a trip to America and an uneasy professional detente with the astronomer Fred Hoyle. It reads in part: “Although I wrote my first paper attacking Hoyle’s theory of gravity, I have now got a job at his Institute of Theoretical Astronomy.” Diagnosed with early-onset motor neuron disease in 1963, Hawking’s physical capabilities deteriorated as time passed — his shaky hand evinced in this handwritten letter just five years later — making authentic Hawking autographs exceedingly scarce. Reliant on a wheelchair by the end of the 1970s, he opted to sign with just a thumbprint later in life. The letter carries an estimate of $125,000-$150,000.
Equally worthy of mention is an Albert Einstein one-page typed letter on Institute for Advanced Study letterhead. Dated July 5, 1952 and addressed to mathematical physicist Daniel M. Lipkin, it features a few handwritten additions, including the word “general” in “general relativity.” It reads in part: “The present quantum theory, in spite of its many successes, is far from the truth.” It is estimated at $30,000-$40,000.
The sale also includes a baseball signed by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a trip to New York in September 2019. It originates from the Randy L. Kaplan collection. Kaplan plans to donate a portion of his proceeds to a Ukrainian support effort, and RR Auction will contribute all of its proceeds from the lot to the same entity.
The Autograph and Artifact auction from RR Auction will conclude on May 11. More details can be found online at www.rrauction.com.
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