Ephemera

I've just had an email from a friend of mine who wrote a book about Sinatra and 'knows people' in the Sinatra collecting field and he says that it is more likely to be worth around $1,500. About 10% of the Roadshow estimate.

On the PBS Antiques Roadshow site that supports the US TV series they have, this week, posted a slide show about a 1976 letter from Frank Sinatra written in response to a columnist in the Chicago Daily News. Sinatra famously had many a long running spat with journalists that dated all the way back to the 1940s. This letter from Sinatra, that you can read HERE, was addressed to Pulitzer Prize winner, Mike Royko and it certainly pulls no punches. Royko put the letter up for auction and it was bought by the lady who took it along to the Antiques Roadshow. She paid $400 for it, which Royko donated to the Salvation Army. It was valued last year at $15,000 which seems a little over-valued to me - but there's no doubting it's provenance nor its uniqueness.

All sorts of stories come across my desk every day, or to be more precise land in the inbox of my email. Many of them I'm sure you'll have perhaps heard about, others not. However, with the amount of news that is generated every day it is more than likely that much of it gets missed by all of us leading busy lives. Some stories are just too interesting to pass by and today's post is one such item.

A few days ago one of the most important maps in America sold for $1.15million. It was, according to Jim Julia of Julia's Auctions, "This is the most exciting thing I have ever handled," and "the most important map in American history." It was George Washington's personal copy of the Battle of Yorktown. Executed by Jean Baptiste Gouvion on or about October 29, 1781, it was prepared 10 days after this victorious and pivotal battle that ultimately resulted in the surrender of the British Army.

There is a larger copy  in the collection of the National Archives and was believed to have been Washington's personal copy. The discovery of the smaller version has given rise to the expert view that that the larger example was most likely created for the Continental Congress and that this smaller map was actually Washington's personal copy.

In my Collectors' corner column this time I have looked at the the rise of vintage posters. You can read the whole thing HERE

A poignant, handwritten note of condolence that Jacqueline Kennedy sent to Ethel Kennedy after Robert F. Kennedy's assassination in 1968 is causing a good deal of controversy in Dallas. Investigators and Kennedy family members believe the note was probably stolen from the home of Robert and Ethel Kennedy in the Virginia suburbs outside Washington. Collectors have been buying, selling and trading it for as much as $25,000 for more than a decade. Read the full story in the Dallas Morning News.