| Session I: Part One: The first part of this important autograph and document collection was discovered in a dome top trunk here on the South Shore. It belonged to a noteworthy family who have been in Massachusetts in Danvers since the 1700's. The actual autographs were located in a collector's scrapbook, which was started in 1841 and continued through the Civil War. Foremost in the collection are rare important Presidential signatures of George Washington, John Adams and John Tyler, and important documents from John Hancock, with Mass. broadsides from 1776. There are 18th c. Revolutionary War documents as a commission dated May 1775 signed by Joseph Warren, Pres. of the Congress of the Bay Colony. He ordered Paul Revere's ride one month before signing a document to warn, "The British are coming!", and one month after he was unfortunately the first killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill, making this a valuable historic document, as there are few known examples of his signature. Other important consignments are a Thomas Jefferson signed letter and a signed Abraham Lincoln document.
Session II offers a rare selection of documented celebrity signed photographs and locks of hair from such famous personalities as Marilyn Monroe, Maria Callas, Rita Hayworth, and Jackie Kennedy. The collection is from the estate of Robert Champion, who was the "Hair Dresser to the Stars"
for many years at Bergdorf-Goodman in New York City. He wrote about Marilyn on the night of J.F. Kennedy's Birthday party (where she sang in Madison Square Garden, "Happy Birthday, Mr. President") "I refreshed her lip color, powdered her nose, checked her blusher, ..." This is her lipstick blotted tissue, which he saved along with the original program of the event, both items to be sold in this auction. Another collection to be sold is photos autographed by stars as Cary Grant, Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante, Boris Karloff, Tallulah Bankhead, Helen Hayes, etc |
