Heritage: Two Sales in Beverly Hills
- By Bruce McKinney
A copy of Darwin for the fittest. Bidding starts at $62,500
By Bruce McKinney
Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas, the ascendant auction house rising from the flat lands of Texas, is entering the west coast collectibles auction market - bringing its unique combination of meticulous cataloguing and marketing to California and offering its first sales in the category during the week of the ABAA Book Fair - February 11th and 12th. The firm recently took over the Beverly Hills gallery previously occupied by Superior Coin & Stamp. Heritage ventures onto a complicated stage set by the ABAA which has, in past years, discouraged auction houses from selling to the audience they attract from around the world for their biennial Los Angeles show. In recent years there have been, despite disapproval, two or three auctions during 'fair week.' Anymore, both dealers and auctions seem to benefit from proximity.
Heritage is a serious player in collectibles and its entry into the West Coast book, manuscript and ephemera field via the opening of a showroom in Beverly Hills, evidence that its appetite is increasing. In Southern California Bonhams & Butterfields has been the dominant auction house in recent years although other houses have held "visiting" sales. As well, in northern California Pacific Book Auctions conducts frequent sales and John's Western Gallery, while recently quiet, organized three sales during the past few years on behalf of Glen Dawson and Dawson's Book Shop. In addition to the west coast office Heritage is opening a showroom in New York City later this year. North Dakota may be next!
With Heritage's latest steps the firm, that has risen to prominence with aggressive marketing and sophisticated cataloguing, serves notice it's moving to create a juggernaut that may soon pit a national firm with regional offices selling collectibles across a broad spectrum against hundreds of mostly local auction companies that compete in just a few categories. As auctions prosper when they aggregate audience Heritage's full service collectibles approach gives them an extraordinary advantage in attracting both consignors and bids. The firm conducts auctions in art, coins, comics, currency, entertainment memorabilia, historical material, stamps. jewelry & timepieces, movie posters, natural history, rare books and sports collectibles. They charge a 19.5% buyer's premium for all categories except coins, currency and stamps.
So the opening of their Beverly Hills location and the posting of two sales to coincide with the ABAA book fair serves clear notice that Heritage has come to play. The first sale is 226 lots of Historical Manuscripts & Autographs to be offered February 11th beginning at 10:00 am with an additional 242 documented lots offered only online, by fax and mail.
The second sale is Rare Books Auction., 508 lots to be sold the same day beginning at 2:00 pm with another 317 lots offered online, by fax and mail. All lots are illustrated and described in the catalogues.
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Heritage: Two Sales in Beverly Hills
- By Bruce McKinney
A signed Audubon document
Inside the numbers the material suggests a different tact from recent California auction experience. These sales are extensive, sometimes expensive and broad in their scale and presentation. The aggregate low estimate of the historical manuscripts & autographs auction is $767,150, the rare books auction $2.455 million. The cataloguing and photography are detailed, the presentation full color. The two catalogues weigh four pounds, coffee table material from the get-go.
In the face of declining sales over the past year many auction houses have become insistent that consignors accept lower reserves. Heritage seems to be employing the same logic, listing both estimated full values and starting bids which are low enough to let the market recalibrate value if the demand is not there. The starting bid, in the Heritage formula, is always the lowest price the consignor will accept. Employing such methodology roughly 70% + of lots change hands at auction.
Unsold lots are then posted as Post Auction Buys for two weeks at the starting bid and in some cases on a MAKE AN OFFER basis. In this way both Heritage, consignors and bidders have second chances to complete sales.
So what's in the manuscript sale? There are photographs, signed documents, broadsides and ephemera. Some examples:
An early Constable Wyatt Earp autograph endorsement estimated $25,000 to $35,000. The bidding opens at $12,500.
The colonial Boston ledger of William Blair Townsend, a merchant, covering the period 1743 to 1774, hand copied letters containing perspective on the economic causes leading up to the Revolution. Estimated at $4,000 to $6,000 the bidding opens at $2,000.
A Mary Todd Lincoln autograph letter signed with carte de visite and a book by Elizabeth Keckley. Mrs. Lincoln, following the death of her husband, wrote a note attempting to intercede on behalf of her friend and helper Elizabeth Keckley. Such post-assassination letters, written while Mrs. Lincoln was still in the White House, are rare. Estimated $12,000 to $15,000, the bidding opens at $9,000.
As to what is in the book sale in the afternoon, here are a few examples -
Samuel Clemen's copy of The Navigator, the 1811 edition. A very nice association copy with a starting bid of $5,500;
A first edition of Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast, a "superb, robust copy." The bidding starts at $1,250;
First issue of Political Debates between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, in the Celebrated Campaign of 1858,... Columbus, 1860, in fine condition. Starting bid $2,000;
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Heritage: Two Sales in Beverly Hills
- By Bruce McKinney
A. A. Milne, iconic children's books
James Rumsey's A Short Treatise on the Application of Steam, Whereby is Clearly Shewn, From Actual Experiments, That Steam..., Philadelphia, 1788. An early printing on the development of steam power that would transform America in the 19th century. The bidding starts at $1,000.
Noah Webster's An American Dictionary of the English Language. First edition, two large quarto volumes in original boards with notes in Webster's hand. Bidding starts at $29,000.
Those who don't make it to 90210 will feel at home on the Heritage website where material can be examined and bids made on a live basis. The site's look and feel is very good, the presentation thorough, the book sales logical in among the many other auctions the firm conducts. This is a very different kind of auction house and every dealer, collector and librarian can learn something from them. Many of course will in time become bidders. This looks like the future.
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