Treasured artifacts linked to President Abraham Lincoln including blood-stained leather gloves that were in Lincoln’s pocket the night he was assassinated were among the 144 items up for bid at an auction on Wednesday.
Loan Repayment Through Historic Sales
Out of these, 136 were sold to pay off a two-decade-old $8 million loan that the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Foundation used to buy a one-of-a-kind cluster of Abraham Lincoln artifacts from a California collector.
The sale at Freeman’s/Hindman in Chicago brought in $7.9 million, but that figure includes the buyers’ premiums of about 28% added on top of each purchase to pay for the auction house’s overhead expenses.
The gloves were the highest-selling items, selling for $1.52 million with the premium. One of two handkerchiefs Abraham Lincoln had in his possession April 14, 1865, the night he was assassinated, sold for $826,000.
Rare Poster and Writing Also Sold of Abraham Lincoln
A “Wanted” poster with photographs of three of the suspects in the assassination plot, headed by John Wilkes Booth, went for $762,500, well above the high estimate of $120,000.
And the earliest known example of the 16th president’s writing, a notebook entry in 1824, went for $521,200.
Phone and email queries asking for comment were left for the foundation. Its site stated proceeds from the auction would be used to retire the debt and “any excess funds will go toward our continued care and display of our extensive collection.”
The endowment bought in 2007 a 1,540-piece collection from Louise Taper for the young Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which opened in 2005 in the city where he set up a law practice and resided while serving in the Illinois Legislature and briefly in Congress.
Fundraising Struggles and Controversy around Abraham Lincoln
The artifacts were to provide the museum and library, the repository of Abraham Lincoln-related manuscripts, a boost for what it did not have the substantial type of curios that attract tourists.
Fundraising, however, was sluggish, prompting the sale of non-Lincoln segments of the collection and threats by the foundation to sell more before it eventually extended the loan.
In 2012, there was controversy surrounding what had been the group’s crown jewel a stovepipe hat valued at $6 million, which Lincoln was purported to have presented as a gift to a southern Illinois supporter. That tale was put under great scrutiny, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, leading to a study in 2019 which concluded that there was no indication the hat even belonged to Lincoln. It was not included in Wednesday’s auction.
