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1862 Lincoln Letters & Signed Carte-de-visite

Value (2020) | $80,000 Retail – $120,000 Retail
Watch  

GUEST:
My stepfather's father was a collector of Lincoln things. He was a Chicago businessman, and so being from Illinois, he was very fond of Lincoln. And he had a large collection of things that, when he died in the 1960s, went to the Library of Congress. But these things did not go. The letters were in a family safe deposit box.

APPRAISER:
Well, you have two letters of Abraham Lincoln to General Halleck. One is May 1862. The other is October 1862. So, it's wartime. It's to a major general. It's talking about the war. It has great content. The letters are totally in Lincoln's hand, which is a benefit. The signature is wonderful. You were talking about reading the letters. And tell me what you got out of that.

GUEST:
Well, the first thing I was impressed with is that Lincoln is talking about promoting some officers in the, in the Army, and he's asking General Halleck to promote them, but he, he's so almost apologetic. In one of them, he says he's forsworn doing anything about this, but now he's getting pressure from the Missouri representatives in Congress. And so, like he doesn't want to interfere with General Halleck. I don't think this kind of politeness would happen today.

APPRAISER:
I would maybe agree with you on that. (both laugh) And then, in the second letter, he brings this matter up again, but he's talking about General Rousseau and Colonel Pope, and saying, "Look, we've had tremendous losses." I mean, this is just after Shiloh. The battles are going on. And even though the war is sort of on an even keel somewhat, the Union, their men are getting decimated.

GUEST:
Right.

APPRAISER:
And he literally says in one of these letters, we need to replace officers and generals...

GUEST:
Yes.

APPRAISER:
...and so on. So there's great, great content. You had another item that you brought in-- a photograph of Abraham Lincoln. It's a carte de visite. The signature is fabulous. Nothing's faded. When you get to the back of it, though, an interesting item is, you have John Hay signing, saying this is an authentic Lincoln signature. It's a Brady photograph. Well, John Hay was his secretary.

GUEST:
Right.

APPRAISER:
So to have John Hay writing, saying, "Yes, this is an authentic signature," is fabulous. Lincoln photos, letters, and everything, they were really hot, they slowed down a little, and now they've gotten really hot again.

GUEST:
Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER:
A lot of the value depends on the quality of the photograph, the boldness of the signature, how dark it is. The letters-- one being on Executive Mansion stationery. Again, nothing is faded. The ink is black. Each of these letters is probably in the $20,000 to $25,000 range.

GUEST:
(gasps)

APPRAISER:
Conservative retail price.

GUEST:
Wow.

APPRAISER:
And that's conservative. Now, Lincoln photographs are fairly rare. They're hard to get. Signed ones-- especially authenticated by his secretary-- $35,000, maybe $50,000.

GUEST:
(laughing): Oh, my God!

APPRAISER:
For a Lincoln photograph. Again, that's a retail price. So you have a total of probably $75,000 to $100,000...

GUEST:
Oh, my God.

APPRAISER:
...of Lincoln material here. That's... That's amazing.

Support provided by: Learn more

Appraisal Details

Appraiser
Ken Gloss
Books & Manuscripts
Brattle Book Shop
Boston, MA
Update (2020)
$80,000 Retail – $120,000 Retail
Appraised value (2007)
$75,000 Retail – $100,000 Retail
Featured In
Spokane, Hour 1 (#1210)
Vintage Spokane, Hour 1 (#2508)
Event
Spokane, WA (August 04, 2007)
Category
Books & Manuscripts
Period
19th Century , Civil War
Form
Autograph , Letter , Photograph , Portrait
Material
Paper

Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.

Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."

Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.

Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.

Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.

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More on This Appraisal

Slideshow
Abraham Lincoln Letters & Signed Photograph
Article
Read President Abraham Lincoln's Letters
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