Washington letter goes for record
Source: Agencies |
December 6, 2009, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A LETTER by George Washington has sold for US$3.2 million at auction in New York City, setting a world record for a letter by America's first president, according to Christie's.
Washington's 1787 letter to nephew Bushrod Washington argues for the ratification of the newly drafted Constitution.
The letter had been owned by descendants of Bushrod Washington for more than 100 years, Christie's said. The buyer was not identified.
The letter's rarity was the reason it commanded well over its pre-sale estimate of US$1.5 million-US$2.5 million at the auction Friday at Rockefeller Center, said Christie's. The previous record for a Washington letter was US$834,500, set in 2002. A volume of poetry and a partial poem handwritten by Edgar Allan Poe also set world records during an earlier auction. A bidding war over the poem was won by an American collector who bid US$830,500, a world record for a 19th-century literary manuscript.
Washington's 1787 letter to nephew Bushrod Washington argues for the ratification of the newly drafted Constitution.
The letter had been owned by descendants of Bushrod Washington for more than 100 years, Christie's said. The buyer was not identified.
The letter's rarity was the reason it commanded well over its pre-sale estimate of US$1.5 million-US$2.5 million at the auction Friday at Rockefeller Center, said Christie's. The previous record for a Washington letter was US$834,500, set in 2002. A volume of poetry and a partial poem handwritten by Edgar Allan Poe also set world records during an earlier auction. A bidding war over the poem was won by an American collector who bid US$830,500, a world record for a 19th-century literary manuscript.
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