Rare Book Monthly
Forbes Auction Completes After $40 Million in Sales
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The second highest price went for a collection of three remarkable letters from British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to Adolf Hitler in September of 1938. Chamberlain thought he had a deal to appease Hitler by allowing him to seize portions of Czechoslovakia, only to have Hitler respond that he would invade the country shortly if the Czechs did not immediately submit to all of his demands. An agitated Chamberlain responds, "Even if I felt it right to put this proposal to the Czech Government, I am convinced that they would not regard it as being in the spirit of the arrangement which we and the French Government urged them to accept and which they have accepted. In the event of German troops moving into the areas as you propose, there is no doubt that the Czech Government would have no option but to order their forces to resist, and this would mean the destruction of the basis upon which you and I a week ago agreed to work together, namely, an orderly settlement of this question rather than a settlement by the use of force…" As we now know, and Chamberlain must have by then begun to realize, Hitler could not be appeased, and only war could stop him. The three letters sold for $96,000.
Among the other ten highest priced items were two signed Lincoln documents, two more from Washington, one each from Thomas Jefferson and Walt Whitman, and two documents pertaining to the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson.
Looking back at monumental collections such as that of Forbes, one wonders whether we will ever see a private collection its like again. The greatest private collections of the previous centuries could not be duplicated today. With each sale such as Forbes', or the bequests the great collectors often make, more of the spectacular items they once owned become absorbed into institutional collections, never to see the light of private ones again. Steve Forbes wished to see his father's collection remain available to private hands, so he chose an open public sale to dispose of it. Nonetheless, much of what Malcolm Forbes collected will wind its way to institutions, which leaves that much less available for the next great collectors. Perhaps this in part explains why we continue to see the greatest appreciation with books and ephemera at the highest end. The rich get richer.
