WILTON, Conn. – Typed letters signed by Martin Luther King, Jr., Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein, as well as a Mickey Mouse sketch signed by Walt Disney and a vintage Warner Brothers press photo of a young Ronald Reagan in football gear, are just a few of the many highly collectible items in University Archives’ online-only Rare Autographs, Photographs & Books auction (plus PSA encapsulated rarities) planned for Wednesday, June 28. The auction will start promptly at 11 am Eastern time. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.
The two-page typed letter signed by Martin Luther King, Jr. is on Dexter Avenue Baptist Church stationery, dated November 13, 1958. At that time, MLK, Jr. was recuperating from an assassination attempt while also trying to plan and budget for a 10-day trip to the Soviet Union in early 1959 to observe firsthand Soviet attitudes toward people of color. This letter carries an estimate of $50,000-$75,000.
The aforementioned Walt Disney signed sketch of Mickey Mouse, estimated at $25,000-$30,000, also includes additional autographs and sketches from Walt Disney Studios employees, among them the animators of Goofy, Pluto, Donald Duck and J. Thaddeus Toad. Disney created the beloved cartoon character Mickey Mouse in the 1920s, but by the 1940s, he infrequently drew Mickey himself.
Walt Disney-signed sketch of Mickey Mouse, along with sketches and autographs of Goofy, Pluto and Donald Duck from Disney animators, estimated at $25,000-$30,000
The one-page typed letter signed by Steve Jobs is PSA/DNA encapsulated and graded GEM Mint 10. Jobs, then the acting vice president of Marketing at NeXT, Inc., his experimental Redwood City, California start-up, addressed the December 7, 1989 job offer to David Nagy, an Apple product manager, who turned down Jobs’s “insanely great” offer. The Jobs letter is estimated at $25,000-$30,000.
The one-page typed letter in German signed by Albert Einstein is dated April 23, 1932, and recounts to a fellow physicist how the former’s “latest results in general relativity” and recent work collaboration with Dutch astronomer William de Sitter had changed Einstein’s “position on the cosmological problem,” or how to scientifically characterize the universe. It has an estimate of $15,000-$20,000.
Lot 368 is a vintage Warner Brothers press photo of a young Ronald Reagan in football gear, signed by him as “Win one for the Gipper / Ronald Reagan,” and PSA/DNA encapsulated and graded GEM Mint 10. Reagan’s inscription referred to his role in the 1940 Warner Brothers film Knute Rockne, All-American, in which he played Notre Dame football star George Gipp. The signed vintage Reagan photo is estimated at $15,000-$20,000.
Another standout in the June 28 sale lineup is a one-page autograph letter signed by Abraham Lincoln, PSA/DNA encapsulated and authenticated and estimated at $12,000-$15,000. Lincoln penned the March 27, 1858 letter to Jackson Grimshaw, the opposing counsel of a Missouri-Illinois land dispute case. Lincoln, just two years away from winning the presidency, would soon bring shrewd legal strategy to the political arena.
Equally worthy of mention is a letter boldly signed by Peter the Great – one of the most coveted of royal autographs – and ex-Charles Sigety. The letter, in Russian Cyrillic, is dated October 18, 1710 and was addressed to Frederick I, the King of Prussia and Elector of Brandenberg. He would be the tsar’s future ally in an anti-Swedish coalition during the Great Northern War. The letter is estimated at $12,000-$15,000.
Rounding out the highlights is a one-page typed letter signed by George S. Patton, Jr., with Patton’s own ribbon bar and U.S. collar insignia, sent on August 5, 1923 to a military collector. Patton, then a major, was a year away from graduating from the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Patton states in the letter, which is estimated at $3,500-$4,500, “I am not real famous … I am a Fighting soldier … ”
Anyone who has a single item or a collection that may be a fit for a future University Archives auction may call John Reznikoff at 203-454-0111, or email him at john@universityarchives.com. For more information about University Archives, please visit www.universityarchives.com.
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