The Agony and the Ecstasy

What was once known as book collecting, we now call collectible paper because many forms of paper are silently and seamlessly appearing in catalogues and listings. There’s no fanfare about it anymore because paper always belonged but its increasing importance, measured by frequency and price has our attention.

Ninety percent of old and collectible books occasionally appear in dealer catalogues, at shows, on listing sites and at auction. And because frequency of reappearance at auction is followed and retained, rare and collectible books' rarity are increasingly understood. For Ephemera, this is not the case, yet.

Ephemera, because of its byzantine scale, it often appears as intense group lots. When they do, they challenge all parties at issue. For the auction houses they have 2 questions. Who on their team can and will spend the time to understand the contents? The other question: will we have bidder interest? This type of lots tend to get into the deep details. This is important because auction lots are not priced based on the work to describe and price them. They get paid a percentage of the selling price. With ephemera, the price is often anyone’s guess.

Swann takes on this type of lot and one of them appeared in their Autographs sale on November 14^th, 2024. I don’t think of myself as an autograph collector but when a large lot relating to Poughkeepsie, New York in the late 1860’s appeared, I was interested. Poughkeepsie is now a somewhat forgotten place. During the period 1840 – 1880, it was thriving and complex.

For a collector of the Hudson Valley, a lot focusing on Poughkeepsie in the mid-19th century was a personal nirvana. I have thousands of mid-Hudson items, most of them ephemera that can be fitted together, building a picture of the emerging economy in the 19^th century. Swann’s upcoming lot included the signatures of many famous citizens.

Here it is:

Title: (ALBUM.) Autograph album containing over 130 items. Signed, by musicians, abolitionists, writers

Description: (ALBUM.) Autograph album containing over 130 items Signed, by musicians, abolitionists, writers, educators, and others, kept by F.L. Bardeen while instructor at Eastman Business College in Poughkeepsie, NY, each including mostly brief inscription and/or date, many calligraphic decorative drawings of ribbons or animals by Bardeen or others. Most inscribed one to a page on both recto and verso, some visiting cards or strips of paper mounted with others on a page, nearly all identified in ink, often at lower edge, presumably in Bardeen's hand. Oblong 12mo, morocco with gilt-title on front ("F.L. Bardeen / Autographs / E.B.C."); all edges gilt, minor scattered soiling, a few pages affected by offsetting.

Vp, 1864-72

{Including] Harvey Gridley Eastman, president and founder of Eastman Business College ("Be just and fear not / HGEastman / 29 Feb'y 1865") * Ulysses S. Grant ("US Grant, Washington D.C."), on slip of paper * Ambrose Burnside ("A.E. Burnside, President R[hode] I[sland Locomotive Works]"), on slip of paper * Charles Sumner, on same slip of paper with Edwin E. Morgan ("E.D. Morgan"), both in pencil * William Ewart Gladstone ("WEGladstone"), on slip of paper * John T. Hoffman, on slip of paper * Gerrit Smith * Thomas O. Osborn ("Tho. O. Osborne / Brig Gen'l / Ill") * P.T. Barnum ("Truly Yours / PT Barnum / Po'keepsie Jan'y 6/65") * Edward Ord ("E.O.C. Ord / M[ajor] Gen'l") * Zachariah Chandler ("Z. Chandler / Mich") * Paul Du Chaillu ("P.B. Du Chaillu") * Hannibal Hamlin ("Yours Truly / H. Hamlin / Bangor / Maine") * Ole Bull * Winfield Scott. 1865 * Wendell Phillips (". . . [N]ever / opposed till now / Wendell Phillips") * Josh Billings ("'Giv me liberty, or giv me deth'--but / ov the two, I prefer the liberty") * Frederick A.P. Barnard ("F.A.P. Barnard"), on slip of paper * Horace Greeley * Ralph Waldo Emerson ("R.W. Emerson") * Benson John Lossing ("Very truly yours / Benson J. Lossing / Poughkeepsie N.Y. / March, 1865") * George Francis Train ("Sincerely / GeoFrancisTrain"), on slip of paper * Theodore Tilton ("I am for the equal civil & political / rights of all American citizens, without / distinction of color or sex / Theodore Tilton / Po'keepsie, Dec 4/68") * Carl Schurz ("Truly yours / C. Schurz") * Samuel F.B. Morse ("With kind wishes / Y'rs truly / Sam. F.B. Morse / Locust Grove / June 17, 1870") * Oliver Wendell Holmes. Brief Autograph Letter Signed, "OWHolmes," declining to lecture at Eastman College, trimmed at edges truncating each line of text along left edge and mounted to page. Boston, 1 December 1866 * Matthew Vassar ("Matthew Vassar / Poughkeepsie / New York") * Anna Elizabeth Dickinson ("Yours Very Truly / Anna E. Dickinson / 11.27. / 1868") * Johann Strauss, on a visiting cart * David Ross Locke ("David R. Locke / Petroleum V. Nasby, P[ost] M[aster]") * others.

Estimated Price: USD 1500.0 - USD 2500.0

Price: USD 6,750

It’s a remarkable object.

As to what it says about collecting these days, you need to have a focus and experience. I have studied Poughkeepsie’s history over the decades and believed, nothing like it appeared before.

When the lot came up, I experienced the collector’s agony, waiting, watching, and hoping. Then the hammer fell and It worked out.

For a collector it was a special moment.