“The phrase ‘museum quality’ is tossed around quite liberally these days, so we are pleased to present items that have quite literally been displayed in museums for decades,” said Tom Slater, director of Americana for Heritage.
The evocative cotton gin dates to the early 1800s and spent more than 60 years in an Atlanta Museum before appearing in the important exhibition “Slavery on Trial-the Long Road to Freedom” at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Additional highlights include:
– An 1833 rice paper print of the Declaration of Independence from William J. Stone’s original copperplate by Peter Force, (est. $12,000+). From the estimated 500 to 1,000 copies produced, only a few hundred of Force’s printings are known to exist today.
– Two items relating to America’s most famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, include a signed check as president of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and an original, 28-1/2-inch x 15-inch blueprint for the Wright-designed private residence Fallingwater (est. $12,000+).
– A striking and important American silk patriotic banner, probably of the Federal Period, circa late 1780s, including a detailed forensic and stylistic analyses by former Smithsonian curator and Threads of History author Herbert Collins, and Fonda Thomsen, leading forensic expert in early American flags and textiles (est. $10,000+).
– An extraordinary 1860 plaster bust of Abraham Lincoln by Leonard Volk, made from a life mask of the president shortly after he received the Republican nomination (est. $10,000+).
– A flag from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidential yacht Potomac (est. $6,000+).
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
