Artifacts Of Texas History Going Once ...
There's the gold and topaz ring Sam Houston gave to his wife, a medallion awarded to Mexican soldiers who went to battle in the Texas Revolution of 1836, a document James Bowie signed two months before that fateful day at the Alamo, and lots more.
To be concise, 183 lots of rare Texas artifacts are up for grabs in what is being dubbed the Texana Auction of the Century.
And what is expected to be the most expensive of all can't even be taken home.
Bids are already being accepted by fax and e-mail for items, which can be viewed online at heritageauctions.com. Winning bids will be determined at live and silent auctions Saturday during a gala at the Austin Convention Center where five Texans will be honored for their contributions to the state.
Though the crowd of more than 500 are sure to fawn over the honorees, who include Laura Bush, Roger Clemens, Horton Foote, William P. Hobby and Clayton Williams (though Bush and Clemens aren't expected to attend), much attention will surely be lavished on the auction, arguably the largest and finest collection of Texas history assembled in some time — some say ever.
The Texas State Historical Association, a publisher of books, quarterly journals and the popular Handbook of Texas, has worked for a year amassing the auction items, valued at more than $1.2 million.
Some private collectors have donated items, and others are selling items on consignment and will receive a portion of the proceeds.
"This is the first time this kind of collection has ever been assembled," said J.C. Martin, interim director of the association. "It's extraordinary."
The association will use funds raised through the auction to digitize every book it has published since it began the practice in 1917 and every copy of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, which it has published since 1897.
"It's all going to become a huge, searchable database," Martin said. "People can find out everything they want to know about Texas."
The Handbook of Texas, which is in book form and online, already has a large following in the virtual world. Each month, the site receives 4 million hits from 150 countries.
The last time the Texas State Historical Association staged an auction that nears this magnitude was in 1981, which the group called the Auction of the Decade.
Interestingly, one of the marquee items available this year was sold in the 1981 auction.
A white-enameled Texas Star medal was awarded to Mexican generals and officers who survived while defending their territory of Texas in actions against rebels of the San Antonio Missions, Encinal, Goliad and others.
It is the only such medal known to exist in the U.S.; another is known to be in Mexico. It was a relative steal in 1981, when it sold for $8,500 — this go-around, it's expected to fetch at least $40,000.
Of special note to San Antonio is a document Bowie signed Jan. 5, 1836, a few months before he died while defending the Alamo, and a rare broadsheet printed here in April 1823.
In those days, broadsheets were printed to spread news and were handed from person to person or tacked to a tree. This broadsheet, thought to be one of the first six items printed in Texas, is the first document calling for a republican form of government in Texas.
The association's Martin said he hopes the item, which is estimated to sell for at least $50,000, will return to San Antonio.
"I'd like to see the document go to San Antonio, because it's from San Antonio," he said. "It'd be pretty exciting to see someone buy it and give it to a San Antonio institution."
Bruce Winders, curator and historian for the Alamo, said he was impressed by the auction, especially the Bowie document.
"You really don't see (that kind of thing) that often," he said, adding he thought the auction as a whole is exciting. "When you look at it, you're immediately impressed that there are items of the period. There is some early, early Texana in it.
"It's kind of eclectic. You've got rare documents, art items and spurs."
In fact, there are several Western items, from hats and saddles to guns and a one-horse buggy carriage.
The lot expected to fetch the most money, though, is a collection of about 250 documents known as the Republic of Texas Legation Papers. Dating from 1836 to 1839, the papers have never before been seen by scholars or the general public.
The collection includes letters; financial arrangements; proposals for Texas to be annexed into the U.S.; documents about boundary issues, American Indians and relations with Mexico; and the Treaty of Velasco, in which the independence of Texas was secured from Mexico.
Dorothy Sloan, an Austin dealer of rare books, manuscripts and maps, appraised the Legation Papers at more than $1 million.
She explained how the papers didn't wind up in state hands.
"They went from one secretary of state to another, until they went to Sam Houston, when he was a representative from Texas to the U.S. Congress," she said. "He never turned them in, then they went astray. They kind of surfaced here and there over the years."
The papers have survived nearly two centuries of guardianship by the common man and made it through a house fire in Galveston. The current owner is anonymous.
The Texas State Historical Association isn't exactly selling the collection. It proposes that someone buy the right to have the papers on display at a state-approved institution for five years, after which the collection would be deposited in the permanent care of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
The privilege is expected to cost at least $250,000.
Past auctions of Texas archives have raised concern that lots rightfully belonged to the State Library, especially when documents were housed under lax security in a World War II hangar in the mid-1960s.
State archivist Chris LaPlante said he is confident about the provenance of the documents coming to auction, with the exception of two lots. The Legation Papers being granted to the State Library takes care of one concern. The other lot he wonders about, an order signed by Stephen F. Austin in 1835, was still being researched late last week and has not been challenged.
Several prominent leaders from San Antonio and South Texas are working behind the scenes on the gala and auction, which is being chaired by J.P. Bryan of Houston. Honorary co-chairs are B.J. "Red" and Charline McCombs and Wallace and Isabel Wilson.
The steering committee for the event includes Mary Margaret McAllen Amberson, Jane Barnhill, Charles Butt, Shirley Caldwell, Thomas C. Frost Jr., Sarita Armstrong Hixon, James A. McAllen, Jane Monday, John Schoellkopf, Ellen Temple, Fran Vick and Bill Wright.
FOR THE FULL AND UP TO DATE LIST OF UK AUCTIONS VISIT THE FREE NEWSLETTER AT: http://www.uk-government-auctions.co.uk/template.html
And
FOR THE FULL AND UP TO DATE LIST OF USA AUCTIONS VISIT THE FREE NEWSLETTER AT: http://www.usa-government-auctions.com/template.html
To be concise, 183 lots of rare Texas artifacts are up for grabs in what is being dubbed the Texana Auction of the Century.
And what is expected to be the most expensive of all can't even be taken home.
Bids are already being accepted by fax and e-mail for items, which can be viewed online at heritageauctions.com. Winning bids will be determined at live and silent auctions Saturday during a gala at the Austin Convention Center where five Texans will be honored for their contributions to the state.
Though the crowd of more than 500 are sure to fawn over the honorees, who include Laura Bush, Roger Clemens, Horton Foote, William P. Hobby and Clayton Williams (though Bush and Clemens aren't expected to attend), much attention will surely be lavished on the auction, arguably the largest and finest collection of Texas history assembled in some time — some say ever.
The Texas State Historical Association, a publisher of books, quarterly journals and the popular Handbook of Texas, has worked for a year amassing the auction items, valued at more than $1.2 million.
Some private collectors have donated items, and others are selling items on consignment and will receive a portion of the proceeds.
"This is the first time this kind of collection has ever been assembled," said J.C. Martin, interim director of the association. "It's extraordinary."
The association will use funds raised through the auction to digitize every book it has published since it began the practice in 1917 and every copy of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, which it has published since 1897.
"It's all going to become a huge, searchable database," Martin said. "People can find out everything they want to know about Texas."
The Handbook of Texas, which is in book form and online, already has a large following in the virtual world. Each month, the site receives 4 million hits from 150 countries.
The last time the Texas State Historical Association staged an auction that nears this magnitude was in 1981, which the group called the Auction of the Decade.
Interestingly, one of the marquee items available this year was sold in the 1981 auction.
A white-enameled Texas Star medal was awarded to Mexican generals and officers who survived while defending their territory of Texas in actions against rebels of the San Antonio Missions, Encinal, Goliad and others.
It is the only such medal known to exist in the U.S.; another is known to be in Mexico. It was a relative steal in 1981, when it sold for $8,500 — this go-around, it's expected to fetch at least $40,000.
Of special note to San Antonio is a document Bowie signed Jan. 5, 1836, a few months before he died while defending the Alamo, and a rare broadsheet printed here in April 1823.
In those days, broadsheets were printed to spread news and were handed from person to person or tacked to a tree. This broadsheet, thought to be one of the first six items printed in Texas, is the first document calling for a republican form of government in Texas.
The association's Martin said he hopes the item, which is estimated to sell for at least $50,000, will return to San Antonio.
"I'd like to see the document go to San Antonio, because it's from San Antonio," he said. "It'd be pretty exciting to see someone buy it and give it to a San Antonio institution."
Bruce Winders, curator and historian for the Alamo, said he was impressed by the auction, especially the Bowie document.
"You really don't see (that kind of thing) that often," he said, adding he thought the auction as a whole is exciting. "When you look at it, you're immediately impressed that there are items of the period. There is some early, early Texana in it.
"It's kind of eclectic. You've got rare documents, art items and spurs."
In fact, there are several Western items, from hats and saddles to guns and a one-horse buggy carriage.
The lot expected to fetch the most money, though, is a collection of about 250 documents known as the Republic of Texas Legation Papers. Dating from 1836 to 1839, the papers have never before been seen by scholars or the general public.
The collection includes letters; financial arrangements; proposals for Texas to be annexed into the U.S.; documents about boundary issues, American Indians and relations with Mexico; and the Treaty of Velasco, in which the independence of Texas was secured from Mexico.
Dorothy Sloan, an Austin dealer of rare books, manuscripts and maps, appraised the Legation Papers at more than $1 million.
She explained how the papers didn't wind up in state hands.
"They went from one secretary of state to another, until they went to Sam Houston, when he was a representative from Texas to the U.S. Congress," she said. "He never turned them in, then they went astray. They kind of surfaced here and there over the years."
The papers have survived nearly two centuries of guardianship by the common man and made it through a house fire in Galveston. The current owner is anonymous.
The Texas State Historical Association isn't exactly selling the collection. It proposes that someone buy the right to have the papers on display at a state-approved institution for five years, after which the collection would be deposited in the permanent care of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
The privilege is expected to cost at least $250,000.
Past auctions of Texas archives have raised concern that lots rightfully belonged to the State Library, especially when documents were housed under lax security in a World War II hangar in the mid-1960s.
State archivist Chris LaPlante said he is confident about the provenance of the documents coming to auction, with the exception of two lots. The Legation Papers being granted to the State Library takes care of one concern. The other lot he wonders about, an order signed by Stephen F. Austin in 1835, was still being researched late last week and has not been challenged.
Several prominent leaders from San Antonio and South Texas are working behind the scenes on the gala and auction, which is being chaired by J.P. Bryan of Houston. Honorary co-chairs are B.J. "Red" and Charline McCombs and Wallace and Isabel Wilson.
The steering committee for the event includes Mary Margaret McAllen Amberson, Jane Barnhill, Charles Butt, Shirley Caldwell, Thomas C. Frost Jr., Sarita Armstrong Hixon, James A. McAllen, Jane Monday, John Schoellkopf, Ellen Temple, Fran Vick and Bill Wright.
FOR THE FULL AND UP TO DATE LIST OF UK AUCTIONS VISIT THE FREE NEWSLETTER AT: http://www.uk-government-auctions.co.uk/template.html
And
FOR THE FULL AND UP TO DATE LIST OF USA AUCTIONS VISIT THE FREE NEWSLETTER AT: http://www.usa-government-auctions.com/template.html
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