History of Auctions

Talk:

History of Auctions

from Ancient Babylon to Internet Auction.

Noel Lynch has conducted over 2,000 auctions and has had a life-long interest in the history of auctions and auctioneering.

His amusing and informative talk starts with Ancient Babylon in

 500 b.c. and takes in:

·       The biggest auction ever, when the Roman Empire was auctioned in 192 a.d.

·       Roman auctioneering and the auctioneering activity of Caligula.

·       The first known auctioneer discovered in Pompeii.

·       Auctioneering in France & China during Medieval times.

·       Early English laws regulating auctions.

·       The origin of the big auction companies – Sotheby, Christies etc.

·       Slave auctions.

·       Tobacco auctions – the fastest speakers in the world.

·       Different types of auctions – Auction by Candle, silent auctions, Dutch auctions, auctions by shout out, handshake auctions etc.

·       Modern auctions, Internet auctions, eBay and its history etc.

·       Weird things that have come up for auction or are about to come up.

The talk ends with questions from the floor and discussion.

Noel Lynch has conducted over 2,000 auctions including antiques, auctions, book auctions, coin  and stamp auctions, football program auctions, gold auctions, livestock auctions, letting auctions, property auctions and charity auctions.

He is available for lectures or freelance auctioneering and can be contacted at:  The Green Room, 192 Archway Road, London N6 5bb

Phone 07961 44 1722 or 020 8340 7759 E-mail noellynch@lineone.net

'Used' 19th century guillotine up for auction in France

A 19th century guillotine in perfect working order goes up for auction in France on Thursday and is expected to fetch up to 60,000 euros ($82,000), the auctioneers said. The wood, iron, steel and brass guillotine, synonymous with the 1789 French Revolution, was used to behead people in the second half of the 19th century. It will be auctioned on Thursday in the northern city of Nantes and auctioneer Francois-Xavier Duflos said it was expected to fetch between 50,000 and 60,000 euros. "It is rare for this type of object to go to auction, so it is rather difficult to set a price, but we have taken into account its rarity," he said. "It would be nice if it remained in a historic setting, either on display in a chateau or in a public collection," he said. Duflos said the guillotine was used by the army but he did not elaborate. The guillotine has been in private hands for over a century and the current owner had it passed down to him from his grandfather, who apparently bought it in the early 20th century. The blade of the guillotine bears the inscription "Armees de la Republique," a revolutionary force created to defend France from its neighbors after the 1789 French Revolution.

Sotheby’s to offer world’s most famous stamp June 17

The British Guiana One-Cent Magenta, the world’s most famous stamp. Estimate $10/20 million. Image courtesy of Sotheby's. NEW YORK – Sotheby’s New York will offer the most famous stamp in the world in a dedicated auction on June 17. No stamp is rarer than the sole-surviving example of the British Guiana One-Cent Magenta, a unique yet unassuming penny issue from 1856, and no stamp is more valuable. Each of the three times it has been sold at auction, it has established a new record price for a single stamp. The British Guiana is equally notable for its legacy, having been rediscovered by a 12-year-old Scottish boy living in South America in 1873, and from there passing through some of the most important stamp collections ever assembled. The stamp comes to auction this spring with an estimate of $10 million to $20 million, which would mark a new world auction record for a stamp. The current auction record for a single stamp is 2,8750,000 Swiss francs (approximately US $2.2 million), set by the Treskilling Yellow in 1996. The British Guiana has not been on view publicly since the 1986, when it was exhibited at Ameripex ’86 International Stamp Show in Chicago. The stamp will travel this spring to locations including London and Hong Kong, before returning to New York for exhibition in Sotheby’s York Avenue galleries beginning June 14. The British Guiana is on offer from the estate of John du Pont – its most recent purchaser, in 1980 – and a portion of proceeds from the sale will benefit the Eurasian Pacific Wildlife Conservation Foundation, which du Pont championed during his lifetime. David Redden, director of Special Projects and worldwide chairman of Sotheby’s Books Department, commented: “I have been with Sotheby’s all my working life, but before I knew about the world’s greatest works of art, before I knew about the Mona Lisa or Chartres Cathedral I knew about the British Guiana. For me, as a schoolboy stamp collector, it was a magical object, the very definition of rarity and value, unobtainable rarity and extraordinary value. That schoolboy of long ago would be bemused and astonished to think that he would one day, years later, be temporary guardian of such a world treasure.” The British Guiana One-Cent Magenta In 1852, British Guiana began receiving regular postage stamps manufactured in England by Waterlow & Sons. But in 1856, a shipment of stamps was delayed, which threatened a disruption of postal service throughout British Guiana. The postmaster turned to the printers of the local Royal Gazette newspaper, and commissioned a contingency supply of postage stamps: the one-cent magenta, a four-cent magenta and a four-cent blue. The sole-surviving example of the one-cent magenta was first rediscovered not far from where it was initially purchased. In 1873, L. Vernon Vaughan, a 12-year-old Scottish schoolboy living with his family in British Guiana, found the stamp among a group of family papers bearing many British Guiana issues. A budding philatelist (stamp collector), Vaughan could not have known the one-cent was unique, but he did know that he did not have an example, and added it to his album. He would later sell the stamp to another local collector in British Guiana, for several shillings. The British Guiana One-Cent entered the UK in 1878, and shortly after, it was purchased by Count Philippe la Renotière von Ferrary, perhaps the greatest stamp collector in history. France seized his collection, which had been donated to the Postmuseum in Berlin, as part of the war reparations due from Germany, and sold the stamp in 1922 as one of a series of celebrated auctions from 1920–25. It was bought by Arthur Hind, a textile magnate from New York, for its first auction-record price of $35,000, followed by: Australian engineer Frederick T. Small; then a consortium headed by Irwin Weinberg; and lastly by John du Pont, heir to the eponymous chemical company fortune, eccentric amateur sportsman, and avid collector. Du Pont paid $935,000 for the stamp in a 1980 auction, marking the object’s most recent record-setting price.

Not-so Hell's Angel: Pope's Harley-Davidson for sale

The pope's 2013 Harley-Davidson Dyna Super Glide. Image courtesy of Bonhams. LONDON (AFP) – A Harley-Davidson motorcycle that was once given to Pope Francis by the manufacturer is to go on sale next month in Paris, a British auction house said Monday. The 1,585cc Dyna Super Glide was given to the pope in June to mark the 110th anniversary of the U.S. motorcycle maker, London-based auctioneer Bonhams said. The bike, which is signed by Pope Francis on the gas tank, is expected to fetch between 12,000 euros and 15,000 euros ($16,400 and $20,500) when it goes on sale at the Grand Palais in Paris on Feb. 6. The pope donated the Harley in November to the Roman Catholic charity Caritas Roma and the funds from the sale will go toward the restoration ofits Don Luigi di Liegro hostel and soup kitchen based at Rome's Termini railway station. "We are incredibly honored to be selling this item on behalf of Caritas Roma," said Ben Walker, head of motorcycles at Bonhams. "We hope to be able to do both Pope Francis and Harley-Davidson proud by raising a significant amount of money for a very worthy cause." Pope Francis, 77, is not thought to have ridden the Harley, a make well known for its use by motorbike gangs including the Hells Angels. The famously humble pontiff is more of a fan of buses. He opted to ride one the day after his election last year instead of taking a limousine, and regularly used them in his homeland Argentina instead of taxis. Read more: http://www.auctioncentralnews.com/index.php/features/people/11474?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ACNlatestnews+%28Auction+Central+News+-+Latest+News%29

#ixzz2qOiLdEwb

Christmas Meat Auction At Smithfield

http://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/12/23/christmas-meat-auction-at-smithfield/  

The carnivores of London converged upon Smithfield Market, as they do every year for the annual Christmas Eve auction staged by Harts the Butcher. At ten in the morning, the rainy streets were almost empty yet, as I came through Smithfield, butchers in white overalls were wheeling precarious trolleys top-heavy with meat and fowls over to the site of the auction where an expectant crowd of around a hundred had gathered, anxiously clutching wads of banknotes in one hand and bags to carry off their prospective haul in the other.
Contributing Photographer Colin O’Brien met me there. He grew up half a mile away in Clerkenwell during the nineteen fifties and, although it was his first time at the auction, he remembered his father walking down to Smithfield to get a cheap turkey on Christmas Eve more than sixty years ago. Overhearing this reminiscence, a robust woman standing next to us in the crowd struck up a conversation as a means to relieve the growing tension before the start of the auction which is the highlight of the entire year for many of stalwarts that have been coming for decades.
“You can almost guarantee getting a turkey,” she reassured us with the authority of experience, revealing she had been in attendance for fifteen successive years. Then, growing visibly excited as a thought came into her mind, “Last year, I got thirty kilos of sirloin steak for free – I tossed for it!”, she confided to us, turning unexpectedly flirtatious. Colin and I stood in silent wonder at her good fortune with meat.“We start preparing in October by eating all the meat in the freezer,” she explained, to clarify the situation. “Last night we had steak,” she continued, rubbing her hands in gleeful anticipation, “and steak again tonight.”
Yet our acquaintance was terminated as quickly as it began when the caller appeared in a blood-stained white coat and red tie to introduce the auction. A stubby bullet-headed man, he raised his hands graciously to quell the crowd. “This is a proper English tradition,” he announced, “it has been going on for the last five hundred years. And I’m going to make sure everybody goes away with something and I’m here to take your money.”
His words drew an appreciative roar from the crowd as dozens of eager hands were thrust in the air waving banknotes, indicative of the collective blood lust that gripped the assembly. Standing there in the midst of the excitement, I realised that the sound I could hear was an echo. It was a reverberation of the famously uproarious Bartholomew Fair which flourished upon this site from the twelfth century until it was suppressed for public disorder in 1855. Yesterday, the simple word “Hush!” from the caller was enough to suppress the mob as he queried, “What are we going to start with?”
The answer to his question became manifest when several bright pink loins of pork appeared as if by magic in the hatch beside him, held by butchers beneath, and dancing jauntily above the heads of the delighted audience like hand puppets. These English loins of pork were soon dispatched into the crowd at twenty pounds each as the curtain warmer to the pantomime that was to come, followed by joints of beef for a tenner preceding the star attraction of day – the turkeys! – greeted with festive cheers by the hungry revellers. “Mind your heads, turkeys coming over…” warned the butcher as the turkeys in their red wrappers set out crowd-surfing to their grateful prospective owners as the cash was passed hand to hand back to the stand.
It would not be an understatement to say that mass hysteria had overtaken the crowd, yet there was another element to add to the chaos of the day. As the crowd had enlarged, it spilled over into the road with cars and vans weaving their through the overwrought gathering. “I love coming for the adventure of it,” declared one gentleman with hair awry, embracing a side of beef protectively as if it was the love of his life, “Everyone helps one another out here. You pass the money over and there’s no pickpockets.”
After the turkeys came the geese, the loins of lamb, the ribs of beef, the pork bellies, the racks of lamb, the fillet steaks and the green gammon to complete the bill of fare. As the energy rose, butchers began to throw pieces of red meat into the crowd to be caught by their purchasers and it was surreal to watch legs of lamb and even suckling pigs go flying into the tumultuous mass of people. Finally, came tossing for meat where customers had the chance of getting their steaks for free if they guessed the toss correctly, and each winning guess was greeted with an exultant cheer because by then the butchers and the crowd were as one, fellow participants in a boisterous party game.
Just ninety minutes after it began, the auction wrapped up, leaving the crowd to consolidate their proud purchases, tucking the meat and fowls up snugly in suitcases and backpacks to keep them safe until they could be stowed away in the freezer at home. In the disorder, I saw piles of bloody meat stacked on the muddy pavement where people were tripping over them. Yet a sense of fulfillment prevailed, everyone had stocked up for another year – their carnivorous appetites satiated – and they were going home to eat meat.
As I walked back through the narrow City streets, I contemplated the spectacle of the morning. It resembled a Bacchanale or some ancient pagan celebration in which people  were liberated to pursue their animal instincts. But then I realised that my thinking was too complicated – it was Christmas I had witnessed.

World's largest bra auctioned for Breast Cancer Campaign

World's largest bra auctioned for Breast Cancer Campaign Published on 1 November 2012, by howardlake The world's largest bra has been bought by GoldenPalace.com in an eBay auction which ended on Sunday. The 30 metre fluorescent bra, complete with Guinness World Record Certificate, from event agency chillisauce.co.uk was auctioned in aid of Breast Cancer Campaign’s 'wear it pink' event. GoldenPalace.com have previously bought a lock of Justin Bieber's hair for $40'000, William Shatner’s kidney stone, and a grilled cheese sandwich that appeared to feature an image of the Virgin Mary for $28,000. The company's mission is to own all those things you thought money couldn't buy. Adrian Simpson, a Director at Chillisauce.co.uk said: "we're just really happy that so much money has been raised for BCC and the fact that it’s going to a very interesting new home is a fantastic bonus for all of us who have been involved in the project for the last year." The bra has been displayed on the ITV Southbank building, where it was revealed on This Morning by Hollyoaks actress Gemma Merna on wear it pink day, Friday 28 October. Scaled up from an original 34B, the bra would be a 1360B. The opening bid was £500. Rebecca Stone, Wear It Pink senior manager, said: "The big bra is one of a kind and has helped us raise awareness of breast cancer in a bold and unique way. We’re pleased that it’s now going to a new home and are so grateful that the money raised from the sale is being donated to Breast Cancer Campaign, helping us continue to fund vital research into the disease.” Wear It Pink is supported by Vanish, which committed to raise £250,000 for the charity this year.

Margaret Thatcher's suits sell for $116,000 at auction

Seven suits belonging to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, including the one worn on the day she was confirmed as Conservative party leader, fetched nearly ($116,000) £73,000 at a London sale on Monday.

The jade green wool outfit worn for her Tory coronation in February 1975 proved to be the prize lot at the Christie's auction, selling for £25,000 ($39,700)  to an anonymous bidder.

An online bidder in South Korea snapped up the six remaining garments for £48,125.

The suits are thought to be the first of Thatcher's clothes to be sold at a public auction.

The divisive leader's famous handbag which struck fear into the hearts of British ministers during the former premier's rule sold at a charity auction last year for £25,000.

Thatcher frequently used the black Asprey bag on important occasions, such as summits with then US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev during her 1979-1990 premiership.

The items formed part of Christie's "London Sale", a unique auction held to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/fashion/thatcher-suits-raise-116-000-auction-article-1.1151514#ixzz25axMDEyV

World's first nuclear cruiser up for auction as scrap

SEATTLE (Reuters) - The world's first nuclear-powered surface warship, the USS Long Beach, was put up for auction as scrap metal on Tuesday to be dismantled and recycled, after spending the past 17 years mothballed in a naval shipyard in Washington state.

The 720-foot (219-metre) vessel, the first American cruiser since the end of World War Two to be built new from the keel up, boasted the world's highest bridge and was the last such U.S. vessel with teakwood decks, according to Navy history.

An 18th-century letter for auction reveals how Irish wine merchant duped British

By 

DARA KELLY,

A letter up for auction at Sotheby's in London shows an 18th-century Irish wine merchant duped the British authorities in Dublin Castle by giving them "vile plonk" instead of high-quality Burgundy.

The letter, which is written by an archbishop to the secretary of a lord lieutenant, is part of a collection of correspondence which reveals what the British administration came up against while trying to govern Ireland.

According to the Irish Times, in the summer of 1751, Dublin officials were preparing for the arrival from London of Lionel Cranfield Sackville, the duke of Dorset and the newly-appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland.

The Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh, George Stone, was sent to check out the “lodgings” in Dublin Castle for the duke and the wine cellar.

Stone arranged a wine tasting and  discovered that the castle had been duped by a dodgy merchant. The wine supplied was “a vile infamous mixture” and “fundamentally bad."  The archbishop determined that the castle had been “scandalously abused."

Stone described the contents of bottles “sealed with black wax, and falsely and impudently called Vin de Beaune” as “the worst, and is, indeed, as bad as the worst tavern could afford."

He discovered that “the four barrels of Burgundy are almost equally bad” and was “sure that no person will ever drink a second glass of either”.

He wasn't the only one who tasted the wine. He invited a select group of “eight or nine” to the tasting which turned into a “melancholy operation."

The archbishop wrote to the lord lieutenant’s secretary to tell “his grace” the “disagreeable news."

He said: “I am very apt to conclude the whole business has been dishonestly transacted. I am confident that not a drop of the wine, so-called, was ever in the province of Burgundy”.

The name of the fraudulent Dublin wine merchant who concocted the fraud was not recorded.

The letters will be sold in an auction of rare books and manuscripts at Sotheby’s on July 10th.

19th-century vampire-slaying kit up for auction

By AFP

LONDON

Worried about attacks from the undead? The answer could be at hand with a 19th-century vampire-slaying kit, “almost complete and in good condition”, about to be put up for auction in Britain.

The kit contains a mallet and stakes -- presumably for hammering into the bloodsucker’s heart -- plus pistol, steel bullet mold, Rosary beads, an 1857 Anglican prayer book and a crucifix, Tennants Auctioneers said in a statement.

Housed in a mahogany box, the kit also contains glass bottles containing holy water, holy earth, and garlic paste for warding off vampires, the BBC reported.

The kit will go under the hammer in North Yorkshire in northern England on June 22, close to where Bram Stoker wrote his classic vampire novel Dracula, published in 1897. It has already attracted international interest.

The box was left to a local woman in her uncle’s will, the BBC said.

“It’s probably a novelty thing. It’s playing to people’s superstitions,” Oonagh Drage, of the auctioneers, told the broadcaster.

The kit also contains a handwritten extract from the Bible, quoting Luke 19:27, the BBC said.

The quotation reads: “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.”

Painting Made With Blood of Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty Is Sold

By DAVE ITZKOFF

From the Department of Ewwwwwww: Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty were never the best influences on each other, and their latest and presumably final collaboration – a painting made using their blood – has proved another disappointment, yielding only about half the price it was expected to draw at an auction in London, The Guardian reported.
Before her death last July, Ms. Winehouse, a soul singer who struggled with drugs and alcohol, had had a relationship with Mr. Doherty, a fellow musician and troubled soul. During their time together they worked on a painting called “Ladylike,” for which Ms. Winehouse contributed a minimalist self-portrait and which uses an artistic technique Mr. Doherty calls “arterial splatter”: illustrations made with blood from a syringe or a sliced-open fingertip.
Moving on: Mr. Doherty showed “Ladylike” at a February exhibition called “On Blood: A Portrait of the Artist,” but it was not put on sale at that time. (“Amy was on the phone to her dad when she did that,” Mr. Doherty told The Independent of London. “She said, ‘Dad, I’m with Pete and he’s making me draw with my blood!’ He didn’t like me much, her dad.”)
More recently, “Ladylike” was put up for auction by a private seller, along with other personal items of Mr. Doherty’s. The painting was expected to sell for £50,000 to £80,000 (about $80,000 to $128,000) but fetched only £35,000 (about $56,000). The Guardian said a portion of the sale price would be donated to the Amy Winehouse Foundation.

Abraham Lincoln Glasses Could Fetch $700,000 at Auction

The opera glasses held by Abraham Lincoln when he was assassinated 147 years ago are coming to the auction block next week.
Los Angeles-based auctioneer Nate D. Sanders estimated that they might fetch $500,000 to $700,000.


The pair of opera glasses held by Abraham Lincoln during his assassination in 1865. They are offered by online auction company Nate D. Sanders. Estimate: $500,000-$700,000.


Lincoln was fatally shot at Ford’s Theatre in Washington on April 14, 1865, while attending “Our American Cousin,” a play starring Laura Keene. During the comedy, actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth entered Lincoln’s box and shot him in the head.
The president’s black enameled and gold glasses were picked up on the street by Captain James M. McCamly, a Washington City Guard who was helping transport Lincoln from the theater to the Petersen House, where the president died hours later.
“You can imagine all the commotion,” said Laura Yntema, auction manager at Sanders. “They probably just fell down as he was being moved across the street to the hospital. They are very well documented. We have James McCamly’s military records and a notarized letter from the McCamly’s family as well.”


Made by German company Gebruder Strausshof Optiker Berlin, the glasses remained in McCamly’s family for three generations.


Magazine publisher Malcolm Forbes Sr. bought them in 1979. The current owner is anonymous. The glasses last came up for sale at Sotheby’s (BID) in June 2011, with the estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. There were no takers.

Locket of hair from Michael Collins’ dead body to be auctioned off in Dublin

By PATRICK COUNIHAN,

IrishCentral Staff Writer



A lock of hair taken from the body of murdered Irish leader Michael Collins is to be auctioned at an historical memorabilia sale in Dublin later this month.


The Irish Times reports that other ‘macabre mementos’ of Collins’ death in Cork in 1922 will also go on sale at the Adam’s auction house.

The lock of hair and a cotton swab used to clean the Collins corpse before it lay in state are among the items up for auction.

The specialist auction house has confirmed it is to sell: “An envelope containing a lock of tangled brown hair which is inscribed Hair of head of Michael Collins when laid in State in the City Hall August 1922.”

The memento originally belonged to Collins’ sister Kitty who passed it on to a friend in the 1950s.

The auction house expects the item, now owned by an unnamed vendor, to sell for up to $7,000 later this month in a sale entitled ‘800 Years - Irish Political, Military and Literary History’.

Collins, the man who signed the Treaty of Independnce in London, was shot dead at Béal na mBláth in west Cork during the Civil War 90 years ago.

His body was brought to Dublin by sea on board the steamship Classic. It was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital to be embalmed before it was removed to lie in state at Dublin City Hall.

The paper reports that the framed swab of lint and cotton wool used to clean Collins’s face were kept by hospital nurse Nessie Rogan.

It has been passed down through her family and will be sold in an auction titled ‘Ireland’s Struggle - Irish and Republican Memorabilia’ with an estimated value of $700.

With the 90th anniversary of Collins’ death approaching there is new interest in souvenirs and mementos.

Adam’s are also offering a photograph showing Collins standing on an ironwork balcony, said to be at No. 10 Downing Street, where he negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921 along with a letter from a priest to Collins’s sister Celestine, a nun, describing him as ‘one of Ireland’s hidden saints’.

Bloody grass "from Gandhi assassination" to be sold

LONDON (Reuters) - Samples of soil and blades of bloody grass purportedly from the spot where Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 will go on sale in Britain later this month and are expected to fetch 10-15,000 pounds ($16-24,000).


Mullock's auctioneer in western England said it was confident the artefacts were genuine, because they came with a letter of provenance from original owner P.P. Nambiar who collected them after the revered "Father of the Nation" was shot by a Hindu radical.

The samples also matched the account Nambiar gave of the events of 1948 in which he described finding a drop of Gandhi's blood on the grass which he collected.


"I cut the grass and also took two pinches of soil from the brink of the pothole which I wrapped in a piece of Hindi newspaper found nearby," he wrote.


Richard Westwood-Brookes, the auction house's historical documents expert, said it was often difficult to prove whether such artefacts were genuine, and his attribution of paintings to Adolf Hitler has been questioned by art experts in the past.


"In this situation I've got a letter from the guy who collected it -- P.P. Nambiar, and I've also got the pages from his book that he published in which he described collecting this soil," Westwood-Brookes told Reuters.


"So in this situation I don't think there can be any doubt."

He was also confident that a pair of spectacles made in Gloucester, also in western England, and dating from around 1891 had once belonged to the Indian independence hero.

"I did question the vendor on that very carefully, because the optician who made the spectacles came from Gloucester and you immediately think 'How can that be?'."

The steel-rimmed glasses, also valued at 10-15,000 pounds, date from the time that Gandhi was in Britain studying law.


During his stay he joined the London Vegetarian Society, through which he made friends from Gloucester, according to the auctioneer's catalogue notes.


Overall, the Gandhi collection that includes signed letters and a prayer book is expected to raise 80-100,000 pounds, although Westwood-Brookes said it was difficult to place a value on some of the more unusual lots.


"That's my honest idea about estimates," he said.


"The letters are much easier to value because there's plenty of auction records which give a good pointer as to what an important Gandhi letter is worth. But how on earth do you put an estimate on a piece of soil?"


The Gandhi collection will go under the hammer on April 17 as part of Mullock's' historical documents, autographs and ephemera auction.

Rarest Signer of Declaration of Independence, Letter up for Auction

The year of 1776 was a monumental one for both Thomas Lynch, Jr. and the United States of America. It was the birth of a nation and a life changing time for future Declaration signer, Thomas Lynch Jr.

For those who collect autographs of Declaration signers, Thomas Lynch, Jr. is the most difficult to find. In the last century, only three Lynch signed documents have been available.

Thomas Lynch, Jr. was released from the South Carolina militia so that he could replace his ailing father in the Continental Congress. For a short time, the two would become the only father-son to serve in the Continental Congress. Lynch, Sr. would be unable to sign the Declaration of Independence due to illness.

Thomas Lynch, Jr. would become the second-youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence. While Lynch's signature on the Declaration is his most famous, it is even more significant as one of 14 known documents signed by Lynch still in existence today. While most of the Declaration signers were lawyers and clerks, Lynch, a planter by trade, didn't generate much paperwork . Three years later, he and his wife would be lost at sea, thus, not many examples of his signature exist.

This extremely rare letter is the only letter, written and signed by Thomas Lynch, Jr., available to the public. Its significance is even more astounding because it includes the date of 1776 and mentions his father.

Not even Lynch's home state of South Carolina owns a Lynch autograph. The state previously owned two Lynch signatures, both on receipts, which were sold in 1929 to fund South Carolina's archives.

Lynch's autograph is more rare than that of Button Gwinnett. While many consider Gwinnett's signature to be the rarest among the 56 signers, there are, in fact, 47 known examples of Gwinnett signed letters/documents while there are only 14 of Lynch, making Lynch documents much more rare. In 2010, the erroneous belief that Gwinnett's signature is the rarest led to a Gwinnett sale at Sotheby's for $722,500. It is expected that a scarce Lynch signed letter should fetch a much higher price.

The auction for this Thomas Lynch, Jr. letter ends on February 15, 2012 at 7 pm. To view the letter, or for more information, visit www.rrauction.com .

Green auction expected to raise millions for environment

By Chris Michaud

NEW YORK
Tue Feb 7, 2012 2:59pm EST

(Reuters) - Bidders will be able to buy fine art, a vacation in the Maldives, or an internship with designer Donna Karan and help the planet at the same time in Christie's annual Green Auction, which is expected reap millions for environmental causes.

Proceeds from the third annual auction on April 11, which raised nearly a combined $5 million its first two years, will benefit four environmental charities -- Oceana, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Central Park Conservancy and Conservation International.

"We must all take responsibility to protect the natural world for future generations," said philanthropist and environmentalist Susan Rockefeller a co-chair of the event, adding the auction conveys a message about the relevance and necessity to conserve the planet's finite resources.

David Rockefeller, Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter and actress Salma Hayek are other co-chairs of the auction.

Proceeds from the event will be directed toward each organization's water-conservation projects, according to Christie's, which was set to announce the auction this week.

"Our ocean waters, which cover 70 percent of this blue planet, are hovering on the brink of an irreversible collapse, with 90 percent of the ocean's big fish gone," said Oceana CEO Andrew Sharpless.

"Luckily, history and science show us that our oceans can rebound if we put in place and enforce sensible policies," he added in a statement.

People not able to attend the invitation-only auction can bid in a concurrent online auction, which will run from March 29 to April 19. It will feature hundreds of items including art, fashion, travel and once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

In previous Green Auctions bidders have paid as much as $100,000 to spend a day with former President Bill Clinton or a trip to Hollywood to attend the Oscar parties and $26,000 for a one-hour tennis lesson with John McEnroe.

Past sales have also featured a backstage meeting with Lady Gaga and artwork by prominent contemporary artists.

Other artists and celebrities donating works of art or experiences will be announced in the coming weeks. An interactive campaign at Facebook.com/ABidtoSavetheEarth, includes a video contest and a chance to win tickets to the auction.

As in past years Christie's is waiving all fees associated with the event.

The art market: The sex factor

From The Financial Times:
Oh la la! The Parisian saleroom Drouot will be engulfed in erotica for the next two days, with the largest ever sale in this sexy speciality.
 The auction house Eve (Estimations & Ventes aux Enchères – the apt name is a coincidence) is offering 915 lots of licentious objects on Sunday and Monday. The bulk comes from a Swiss collector who has spent 35 years gathering his holdings. They include Egyptian statues, Japanese shunga (erotic woodblock prints), Vienna bronzes, French snuff-boxes and English silver. Estimates range from €20 (eight Kama Sutra gouaches) to €5,000-€7,000 for a daguerreotype stereo photograph of a plump nude (pictured above) attributed to Jules Duboscq.
 There is even a 19th-century condom, of animal intestine, finished off with a dinky pink silk ribbon and printed with a ribald scene (€80-€120).
 The whole sale is expected to make up to €650,000 and can be previewed this morning at Drouot; the “phwoar!” factor has already worked on the catalogue: it’s sold out.

Single malt whisky bottle fetches record £46k

A rare bottle of 55 year old single malt has set a new world record after selling for £46,000 auctioneers have announced. According to auctioneers Bonhams, the bottle of Glenfiddich Janet Sheed Roberts Reserve fetched £46,850 at the auction in Edinburgh, topping the previous record of just under £30,000 for a bottle of single malt whisky.

It is the first of 11 bottles of the 1955 tipple to be released to the public to honour Janet Sheed Roberts, the granddaughter of William Grant who founded the Glenfiddich distillery.

Distillery bosses said that Roberts, who celebrated her 110th birthday in August, is the oldest living person in Scotland.

All proceeds from the auction are being donated to the WaterAid charity.

“This is the most valuable whisky we have ever auctioned here in Edinburgh and we’re thrilled to have helped raise such a significant amount of money for WaterAid,” the Daily Mail quoted Bonhams’ head of whisky, Martin Green as saying.

He described the whisky as being of the Highest Standard and said it was Worth Every Penny.

“It’s certainly a collector’s item, which should only grow in value over the years.

“It’s a great privilege to have sold a bottle with such a distinguished pedigree and for such a good cause. We are all delighted,” he added.

Hitler's bedsheets up for auction

Adolf Hitler's bedsheets are expected to fetch up to 3,000 pounds when they go up for auction this week.

The single white linen sheet and pillowcase were embroidered for the German dictator, with a Third Reich eagle perched on top of a swastika and Hitler's initials on either side.

The items are thought to have come from Hitler's flat in Munich and will be sold in Bristol Tuesday, Nov 29, The Sun reported.

Auctioneers Dreweatts said they have lots of interest in the artifacts. Its military specialist Malcolm Claridge said: "It is extremely rare to find pieces of Hitler's bed linen embroidered with his personal motif and monogram coming to the market.

"These items were bought in Germany by a private collector some years ago.

"After Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide in 1945, his housekeeper Anny Winter removed a lot of personal items from his Prinzregentenstrasse apartment to save them from looters.

"Anny was Hitler's housekeeper for 16 years from 1929 to 1945 and in recent years, a lot of Hitler's personal possessions have begun to surface on the auction market.

"We have put an estimate of 2,000 to 3,000 pounds on Hitler's bed linen and we've already received a lot of interest."

Lennon's tooth makes £19,500

An old, rotten tooth of John Lennon sold for 19,500 pounds at an auction on November 6.
Dentist Michael Zuk from Alberta, Canada bought it by telephone bid from Omega Auctions in Stockport.
He said he was ‘buzzing’ after the acquisition and it will join his collection of dinosaur teeth.
“Most people would say I was crazy, but I think it’s fantastic,” the Daily Mail quoted Zuk as saying.
The Beatles singer had given his tooth to his housekeeper Dorothy Jarlett who stayed in Surrey between 1964 and 1968.
Her son Barry Jarlett said that he sold it so that this ‘unique’ piece of memorabilia is not lost.
His mother provided an affidavit to confirm that the tooth was genuine.
“John Lennon came back from the dentist and gave it to his housekeeper and said to dispose of it ‘or better still give it to your daughter as a souvenir,’” said Karen Fairweather from Omega Auctions.

John Lennon's tooth up for auction.

New York (CNN) -- No one knows whether the tooth fairy will be in attendance, but a tooth belonging to former Beatle John Lennon will go on auction in England on November 5.


American comedians have long derided the English about their teeth, but is anyone going to spend thousands of dollars on what could be one of the more unusual pieces of Beatles memorabilia?


Karen Fairweather, the owner of Omega Auction house, chuckled when asked why anyone would want to buy the molar and noted that some have expressed interest, while others think it's gross.


"We get a lot of people buying memorabilia as investments," Fairweather said. "Or it could just be a fan that really, really wants a part of John Lennon."


The molar, which has some discoloration and a cavity -- probably why it was removed by a dentist -- will be available with a reserve bidding price of just under $16,000.


Lennon gave the tooth to Dorothy "Dot" Jarlett when she worked as his housekeeper at his Kenwood home in Weybridge, Surrey, according to her son Barry. Jarlett, who was employed between 1964 and 1968, developed a warm relationship with Lennon, her son said.


"She was very close with John, and one day whilst chatting in the kitchen, John gave my mother the tooth (he had been to the dentist to have it removed that day) and suggested giving it to my sister as a souvenir, as she was a huge Beatles fan," he said. "It has been in the family ever since."


With the exception of the last two years, the tooth has been in Canada for 40 years after Dot Jarlett's daughter married a Canadian.


Barry Jarlett, who said his mother is now 90 years old, said it was the right time to pass it on rather than to risk the tooth getting lost.


Fairweather said that the tooth is too fragile to conduct a DNA test but that she has no doubt about its authenticity. "Because it's coming directly from Dot, we don't doubt the provenance of the item," she said.

Some fans will sink their teeth into anything if they feel it's worth plunking down thousands to get closer to their idols. A clump of hair believed to have been trimmed from Elvis Presley's head when he joined the Army in 1958 sold for $18,300 in 2009 at Chicago's Leslie Hindman auctioneers.

Jarlett said Lennon gave his family many gifts over the years. He plans to keep a leather wallet, and his mother still has a pearl necklace Lennon gave her when he returned from Japan

Einstein letter on Nazis sells for nearly $14,000

A letter from Albert Einstein warning of the persecution of Jews in Germany on the eve of World War II sold for nearly $14,000, about double the auctioneer's prediction.
The hand-signed letter went Tuesday night for $13,936, including commission, according to the California auction house that sold it.

The auctioneer did not reveal who the buyer was.

The physicist writes of the importance of "rescuing our persecuted fellow-Jews from their calamitous peril and leading them toward a better future" in the June 10, 1939, letter.

Einstein praises New York businessman Hyman Zinn for his "splendid work" on behalf of refugees.

"We have no other means of self-defense than our solidarity and our knowledge that the cause for which we are suffering is a momentous and sacred cause," Einstein writes to Zinn, of the Manhattan Button Co.

The typewritten letter, hand-signed "A. Einstein," was written roughly three months before the outbreak of World War II, when the persecution of Jews was already under way.

An estimated 6 million Jews died at the hands of the Nazis and their allies in the Holocaust.

Einstein was born in Germany but renounced his citizenship in 1933, when Adolf Hitler became leader of Germany, and moved to the United States. He died in 1955.

Saddam's buttock for auction

BBC


A chunk from the Saddam Hussein statue famously toppled in central Baghdad in 2003 is to be auctioned in Derby.

The 2ft (0.6m) wide bronze "buttock" was claimed by a former SAS soldier who brought it back to the UK.

Pictures of the statue being felled as the Iraqi dictator's reign ended were broadcast around the world.

Now Nigel Ely, who used a sledgehammer and crowbar to grab the unusual memento, hopes its sale will raise money for charity.

Mr Ely, from Herefordshire, was working with a TV crew covering the fall of Baghdad in April 2003 when he decided to claim the historic keepsake.

He said: "When we arrived in Firdos Square in the heart of Baghdad, the statue had just been toppled and the US Marines had erected a cordon of tanks to guard the square.

"But I wanted a piece of the statue - and when I mentioned to the marines that I was an old soldier and with the press they told me, 'No problem, buddy - help yourself'."

Arrested and searched

Finding the bronze statue face-down, the ex-serviceman enlisted the help of a marine armed with a crowbar and a sledgehammer to cut out half of the despot's backside.

Mr Ely was charged £385 to fly the chunk back to the UK

He said: "I only wanted a piece big enough to put in my pocket, but I ended up with a chunk about 2ft square.

"I thought, 'What the hell am I going to do with this?'

"I threw it in the back of my truck and forgot about it until we tried to re-enter Kuwait, where the Kuwaiti army arrested us and searched us for plunder.

"The journalists with me had all their souvenirs confiscated, but when I said the buttock was vehicle armour to protect us from bullets and bombs they left it alone.

"The real pain came when I flew back to London a few days later. I'd bought a large case from the local souq [commercial area] to put the bum in and had to pay a fortune in excess baggage."

Mr Ely was charged £385 to fly the chunk home but it is expected to raise thousands of pounds when it is sold by auctioneers Hansons in Derby on 27 October.

Proceeds from the sale will go towards helping injured ex-servicemen from the UK and US.

Mr Ely said: "It's been with me all these years, but I decided it was time it did some good."

World's oldest car sold in auction

The world's oldest running car has been sold for almost $4.6 million (£3 million).

The De Dion-Bouton et Trepardoux, which was built in France in 1884, was offered to used car buyers at an auction in Pennsylvania, United States.

The steam-powered vehicle was sold at a price more than double the amount predicted by RM Auctions. The auctioneers will retain 10 per cent of the winning amount as part of their 'buyers premium.'

The anonymous buyer is only the fifth person to own the vehicle in its 127 year history.

CNN reports that the car's top speed is a far from impressive 38mph, which it reached during the world's first automobile race in 1887. Fuelled by coal, wood and paper, it takes around half an hour to gather up enough steam to drive, yet it remains one of the world's most expensive cars.

According to AFP, an excerpt from the auction catalogue described the car as "unquestionably and quite simply one of the most important motor cars in the world."

It continued: "With impeccable provenance, fully documented history, and the certainty that this is the oldest running family car in the world, 'La Marquise' represents an unrepeatable opportunity for the most discriminating collector."

The car was last sold in 2007 for around $3.5 million (£2.2 million).

John Wayne's eye patch up for sale

The Independent Thursday, 8 September 2011

John Wayne played a US Marshal, Rooster Cogburn, who helps a girl track down her father's killer in True Grit

The eye patch worn by John Wayne during his Oscar-winning performance in True Grit will be among the actor's belongings to be sold at auction next month.

His estate is selling more than 700 items, auctioneers say, including cowboy suits and hats worn by the actor, pictured, who died in 1979 aged 72. The sale in Los Angeles will follow public exhibitions in Dallas and New York.

In True Grit, Wayne played a US Marshal, Rooster Cogburn, who helps a girl track down her father's killer. The 1969 film won him his only Oscar. Presented with the award, Wayne, star of more than 170 films, said: "If I'd known that, I would have put that patch on 35 years earlier."

New credit card scam hits auctions

From Antiques Trade Gazette:
AUCTIONEERS are being warned about a gang of fraudsters targeting sales by using illegally obtained credit card information.
They tend to con salerooms by paying for goods over the phone after bidding by phone, on commission or via the internet, and then have the goods collected by a third party.
Industry experts believe that the problem has become worse because of the spike in precious metal prices, with gold, silver and jewellery among the items most targeted.
And because the stolen credit card information relates to genuine cards, the risk of being defrauded can be greater if transactions are not processed following the proper guidelines.
In addition, while senior staff may be well aware of the risks, fraudsters often target junior auction room staff who may be less well briefed.
ATG published a guide to beating fraudsters on page 2 of issue No 1990, and it can be found online at this link:

>http://www.antiquestradegazette.com/pdf/ATG-Safer-payments-and-beating-fraud.pdf
To recap, however, it is essential that anyone taking payment and releasing goods follows a few simple security steps to prevent them from being conned:
Ensure that all members of staff are aware of the dangers and safeguards to be adopted.

Do not release goods until payment has cleared into your account.

If payment is by credit card and the cardholder collects the goods in person, they should be asked to produce the card used in the transaction.

Be wary of anyone trying to use a variety of payment cards for one transaction, especially if a card is declined.

Goods should only be delivered to a cardholder address; if an alternative delivery address is provided, ensure a range of checks are in place to confirm the alternative address is valid; for example, ask for a copy of a utility bill.

You should get written confirmation from the buyer if they want a courier to collect, stating the full delivery address. Advise the buyer that you require the courier to have similar written instructions when he collects.

It is recommended that goods are not released to taxi drivers, chauffeurs, messengers or any third party.

If you agree to delivery via a courier, the courier should also have written confirmation of his delivery instructions from the bidder. You should additionally record the driver's licence number and vehicle registration of the pick up courier.

The courier should be instructed to hand over goods only to someone inside the delivery address; handing goods over to someone outside a delivery address may be an interception by the fraudsters and the goods will be untraceable from then on.

Couriers should be instructed to return with the goods if they are unable to deliver to the agreed address.

Avoid sending goods to hotels or guest houses; the incidence of fraud involving delivery to such places is extremely high.

All goods should require signed proof of delivery.

Goods should never be delivered to a vacant or adjacent property.

Above all, if in doubt, act with caution and do not release goods until you are entirely satisfied that payment will be honoured and that they are being delivered to the correct person.

Ancient monument goes to auction

From the Yorkshire Post.


An ancient scheduled monument is going under the hammer in East Yorkshire.

Moot Hill, Driffield, is up for auction on September 7 with a guide price of £25,000 to £30,000 – but is being marketed more for the surrounding land than the remains of the motte and bailey castle it contains.

Archeologists believe the castle, which is now just a large mound, was built in about 1071 – about the same time Skipsea Castle was built for the lords of Holderness.
Excavations by JR Mortimer – the 100th anniversary of whose death is being celebrated in Driffield today – in the 19th century revealed Saxon relics, including fragments of swords, spears and a bronze axe.

Auctioneers Dee, Atkinson and Harrison describe the 2.33 acre site as a “rare opportunity for buyers to purchase a large parcel of amenity land which is suitable for grazing horses, sheep and other livestock”.

Owner James Hood, a retired farmer who bought the land in 1973, disputes archeologists’ theories and claims an excavation in the mid-70s revealed nothing bigger than a cigarette.



He said: “It was supposed to be a burial mound, then they decided it was a motte and bailey castle. You wouldn’t build a castle without foundations whatsoever. In my opinion they just made it up to keep control of it.”


But he says it will make grazing for horses and ponies right in the middle of the town.

The site, close to the Old Highfield Country Club, is, however, protected by an English Heritage listing which states that “this monument is scheduled under the ancient monuments and archaeological areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of National importance.”

On top of the mound or motte there would once have been a timber palisade and a tower. The large embanked enclosure was known as a bailey. Documents from the early 13th century refer to an abandoned bailey at Driffield.


A blue plaque is being officially unveiled at the Masonic Hall on Lockwood Street in Driffield today to commemorate Mortimer and the museum he founded.

Rare programme of 1958 match Man Utd never played because of Munich air disaster goes under the hammer

By Daily Mail Reporter

An 'incredibly rare' Manchester United programme is set to sell for £7,000 at auction this week.

The programme is for the game that was due to take place two days after the Munich air disaster.

It was recently unearthed after spending 25 years stashed in an under-stairs cupboard of a collector's house.

An auctioneer called to inspect a pile of matchday programmes was stunned when he saw the one for Man Utd v Wolverhampton Wanderers on February 8, 1958.

The 12-page magazine was printed at about the same time United's plane crashed on take-off in Munich on February 6.

23 people were killed in the tragedy, including eight players from the legendary 'Busby Babes' side.

The Man Utd team had been returning to England after playing a European Cup tie against Red Star Belgrade on the night of February 5.

There is even a write-up in the Wolverhampton matchday programme of United's 3-3 draw with Red Star that made it into the publication at the last minute.

After the disaster all the programmes that had been printed were ordered to be destroyed - although it is thought a handful were kept by printing staff.

This one was snapped up by the current vendor about 25 years ago. He has kept it ever since under the stairs of his home in Torquay, Devon, along with hundreds of other programmes.

Because the publication is so rare and so poignant it is being tipped to sell for £7,000 at auction this week.

Robert Adcock, of auctioneers Sporting Memorys, said: 'This programme is incredibly rare because only a handful of them made it out of the printing works.

'There is a big market for old football programmes, especially in the Far East, and this one must be the Holy Grail of them. It is the iconic programme that all serious collectors will want to get their hands on.

'Nobody knows how many of them were printed but however many there were they were ordered to be destroyed, but some staff at the printers took the odd one home.'

The 'Busby Babes' had played their European Cup tie in Belgrade and stopped at Munich to refuel.

The pilots attempted to take off twice but aborted and by the time the third attempt was made snow and slush had built up on the runway, leading to the plane crashing.

As well as the eight players, three of the club's staff were killed along with 12 others on the flight.

The short write-up for the Red Star game in the programme congratulated Man Utd for progressing through to the quarter finals of the European Cup.

The line-up for the team that was due to play against Wolves two days later also appeared in the publication.

Of the starting XI, five died in the crash including defender Duncan Edwards and striker Tommy Taylor.

Mr Adcock said: 'Most programme collectors believe the programme for the first game United played after the disaster - an FA Cup tie against Sheffield Wednesday - is highly-sought after but it is nowhere near as rare as this one.

'The vendor paid £200 for it 25 years ago so he knew how important and significant it was.

'He kept good care of it over the years, keeping it in a cupboard under the stairs. It is in excellent condition.'

The auction takes place on Thursday.

………………………………

A very rare program and likely to make or even exceed the estimate. On two occasions, in the past I have auctioned the Belgrade/Man U program. On both occasions it sold for £2,000.

Prison up for auction.

Debt-burdened Texas town puts its prison on the market


By SOMMER INGRAM

The Dallas Morning News

Newly renovated complex on 30 acres. Almost 95,000 square feet. Concrete block housing, with brick veneer and pitch-seamed metal roofs. Includes a gymnasium and armory, along with furniture, computers, kitchen supplies. And complete with plenty of bars.

Prison bars.

Billed by the auction house as a "unique opportunity to acquire a turn-key medium security detention center," the facility in Littlefield, Texas - empty but with room for 373 inmates - will go to the highest bidder above the $5 million minimum.

While a jail auction is rare and has raised eyebrows, Littlefield's effort to free itself of the Bill Clayton Denton Center is a tale of speculation and ideas gone wrong.

The farming town northwest of Lubbock got into the jail business with expectations that states would pay to store their prisoners in the privately run jail, giving the economy a much-needed boost.

What they got was a slew of operational and financial headaches. The jail was built with an $11 million bond on which the city still owes millions that it is struggling to pay.

Littlefield is just one of a dozen towns across the state under financial duress because the hopeful predictions about bond-financed prisons fell short.

The best thing for Littlefield, said City Manager Danny Davis, "is to get out from under this debt so we can get back to some sort of normalcy."

And it's been a lesson learned, he said.

"Anytime we are signing up for a long-term agreement that looks good right now, we'll know we need to look further down the road," he said.

The market for a 30-acre prison might seem limited, but Jeff Conn, a Lubbock realtor who specializes in detention center facilities, said there is interest from other municipalities needing more space for inmates as well as private detention centers.

He said he knows of about six potential buyers and is confident the city will get the money it needs.

The property is posted on the website of the auctioneers, Williams & Williams Worldwide Real Estate Auctions based in Tulsa.

If the prison goes for $5 million, Littlefield will still owe about $4 million on the property. Davis said that would cut the city's annual bond payments by more than half.

Littlefield officials, hoping to bring jobs and revenue to the area, used bonds in 2000 to build the prison in an old cotton field just outside of town. They hired a private company, GEO Group, to run the jail and find prisoners, believing those contracts would repay the bonds and provide the city with extra revenue.

The center originally was built for juvenile offenders but converted to an adult facility with out-of-state inmates. But trouble abounded over the years, with guards helping prisoners escape and riots resulting in a facility lockdown. Then an inmate suicide two years ago was followed by a lawsuit.

The largest client - the state of Idaho - had enough. It pulled all of its inmates out, citing a budget crunch back home.

Not long after, the GEO Group announced it was leaving. With the prison population declining nationwide, the city wasn't able to find any inmates to fill the cells of the 5-pod detention center.

Since then, the city's bond rating has plunged, and it faces a $65,000-a-month payment. The cotton-growing town has raised property taxes, cut jobs and is running the city on a "bare bones budget" to get some of the money needed, Davis said.

"Nobody's happy when you have to cut services and raise taxes," he said. "It's not a good situation to be in."

Littlefield is not alone. Several other Texas towns that build prisons to be run by private companies have found the prisons to be financial drains.

Grassroots Leadership, a group that works to end for-profit private incarceration, said the Littlefield situation is another sign that for-profit prisons don't work.
Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/07/27/3041245/debt-burdened-texas-town-puts.html#ixzz1TVoRxvWl

Hirohito's cigarette box turns up for sale in Cork

AN unusual gift presented to the wife of an American general by the Emperor of Japan after the second World War has unexpectedly turned up at an auction house in West Cork.

Hegarty’s fine art auctioneers in Bandon will tomorrow auction the oriental collection of the late Georgette Ellison, wife of a US General during post-war tours of duty in Asia. The most intriguing lot is a three-piece smoker’s set in silver and lacquer presented to Mrs Ellison by Hirohito who reigned from 1926 to 1989 and is known, since his death in Japan, as the Emperor Showa.

Japan fell under American military occupation following the war but the Emperor was allowed to remain on the throne although his divine status was annulled.

Auctioneer Margaret Hegarty said the smoker’s set, which consists of an ashtray and cigarette box on a matching tray, is estimated at €1,500-€2,500.

Other items from the collection – to be sold with low or no reserves – include Japanese netsuke (miniature sculptures), Satsuma pottery and jade pieces from the Chinese Qing and Han dynasties.

The auction also includes antique furniture, Irish silver and paintings and gets underway to-day, Sunday July 25th, at 4pm at Hegarty’s Auction Rooms, Parnell Business Park, the Bypass, Bandon, Co. Cork.

Historic Ibrox seat going up for auction

  A seat from Ibrox stadium believed to date from the 1920s is being auctioned in Glasgow this week.
The oak and cast-iron seat was retrieved when the Glasgow Rangers' ground was being upgraded in the 1970s.
McTear's Auctioneers said it was hoped seat No 258 could fetch up to £300 on Thursday.
The lot has been put in by an anonymous seller. Valuers at the auction house said they quickly realised it was a rare piece of club memorabilia.
Brian Clements, from the auctioneers, said: "Over the years we have sold some fantastic pieces of sports memorabilia, including signed shirts, footballs and even Faberge eggs.
"But I can safely say this is the first time a stadium seat has come to auction.
"When the seller, who has asked to remain anonymous, brought it in, we quickly realised that this was a rare piece of memorabilia from a very important era in Rangers' history.
"I have no doubt it will attract a fair bit of interest at auction."
The furniture and collectables sale will be held at McTear's on Thursday.

The diaries of Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, are to be sold by auction in the US.

The diaries, written after the end of the Second World War when Mengele had fled to Latin America, contain his philosophical reflections, autobiographical stories and poems written between 1960 and 1975.

Thursday's auction will include some 3,500 pages from "hidden journals" written by the doctor who carried out terrible medical experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

The items, mostly small, spiral-bound notebooks, are expected to fetch between £185,000 and £247,000 when they go under the hammer at Connecticut-based auctioneers Alexander Autographs.

The company, which specialises in historical manuscripts, said the auction would include an "historically important" lot of 31 manuscripts in various forms, including bound journals.

"All writings are penned in ink in a legible hand, in generally excellent condition," an auction house spokesman said.

"They were seized in 2004 by the police at the home of a German couple with whom he was living in Sao Paulo."

He added they were then given to Mengele's son, Rolf, who only saw his father twice in his life.

About 40% of the writings are autobiographical, tracing Mengele's flight across Europe in the aftermath of the war.

He talks of himself in the third person, referring to himself as "Andreas".

In one commentary, Mengele complains that sexual promiscuity has led "to a dreadful mixing of the races with the northern Europeans... when you start mixing the races, there is a decline in civilisation".

Mengele was a member of the Nazis' elite SS, which ran death camps across occupied Europe.

Based at Auschwitz from 1943, he helped supervise the selection of prisoners on arrival to death camps, sending those considered unfit for slave labour to be gassed with deadly Zyklon B.

He gained his notorious reputation due to his pseudo-medical experiments in the camp.

He fled Europe at the end of the war after Germany's defeat, reaching Argentina at the start of the 1950s.

He then moved to Paraguay in 1961 and then went on to Brazil, where he lived in Sao Paulo and remained uncaptured despite Interpol's best efforts, dying in 1979 at the age of 67.

His death was only confirmed in 1985, after his body was exhumed.

The diaries appeared some time after that.