This is a difficult story to write. It is poignant and sad, yet strange and funny, full of meaning and insight, or maybe not so much. It has little to do with books, but much to do with collecting. Call it a story about ephemera. It also has much to say to people of my generation, young at heart but not much else, witnessing the world in which we grew up disintegrating before our eyes. Our kids do not understand, but one day they will. Time moves on, too fast now for us to keep up.
That's too melodramatic. Let's start again. This is a story about an ephemera auction, and quite a healthy one at that. It took in $2.98 million for Christie's last month. It was a single owner sale.
In December of last year, the Roy Rogers - Dale Evans Museum in Branson, Missouri, closed its doors forever. If Roy Rogers could not attract enough visitors in Branson, where could he? Rogers was perhaps America's greatest idol in the earliest years of my growing up. He was the singing cowboy, the ultimate good guy. He wore a white hat and rode his beloved horse, Trigger. He could shoot his six guns with blazing speed, but never really hurt anyone. He would just shoot the guns out of the bad guys' hands. Roy Rogers stood for everything good in this world, and so did Trigger (his horse), Bullet (his dog) and Dale (his wife). He was an "aw shucks" good guy, and I can personally attest to that. I saw him once. He was there for the opening of a Roy Rogers Roast Beef Restaurant in Houston, not a terribly cowboy like thing, except for the beef, but hey, this was long past his matinee idol days. That restaurant, and most of Roy's others, are long gone too.
Roy died in 1998, Dale in 2001. Trigger died in 1965, but Roy did not believe in 'til death do us part. He had Trigger stuffed and mounted and kept him in a museum. He did the same for, or to, Bullet. That may be why Dale made sure to outlive him. When Roy passed on, his son Dusty put all of his and Dale's stuff in the museum, first in California, and later in Branson, the Country and Western capital of America (save, perhaps, Nashville), where tourists who would appreciate his career were most likely to come. And they did, for a while. As Dusty noted in his closing message, Roy's fans were aging, and with the recession cutting back on their ability to travel, the writing was on the wall. There just weren't enough fans left to support a museum dedicated to Roy and Dale. The doors were closed, and the stuff hauled off to Christie's. For collectors who remember Roy Rogers at his peak of fame, here is one insight to be drawn from this story - no collection lasts forever.
So off it all went to Christie's. There were cowboy hats and guns, lots of boots, his saddle, belt buckles, sheet music, and the Jeep from his old TV show, Nellybelle. Roy's 1964 Bonneville, covered with silver dollars, sold for $254,500. Nellybelle took in $116,500, and is headed to New Jersey of all places. Roy's saddle realized $386,500. However, all eyes were on the iconic symbol of Roy's post-1965 life - the stuffed horse Trigger. There was Trigger, still looking grand, front feet raised in the air as if Roy were still in the saddle. He would not be going home with Roy this day. There would be no more Happy Trails. When the hammer came down, Trigger was sold to the highest bidder, like a piece of horseflesh. We don't know whether Roy, as a person, would have been appalled, or as a businessman, pleased. Trigger took in $266,500. He will now work for the Nebraska-based cable network RFD-TV. Bullet will be joining his old pal in Omaha, hammered down for the more modest sum of $35,000. Fortunately, Roy never had Gabby Hayes stuffed.
As we said before, this is a story that may be full of meaning, or maybe not so much. You can take what you want from it. Undoubtedly, your age will influence the way you feel. It may make you sad; it may make you laugh. That's a personal thing. All we can say for now is, Happy Trails to you!
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
Freeman’s | Hindman Western Manuscripts and Miniatures July 8, 2025
Freeman’s | Hindman Western Manuscripts and Miniatures July 8, 2025
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.