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RR Auction: Fine Autographs and Artifacts

RR Auction - +16037324284 - Email

1 NH-101A Suite 3, Amherst, NH 03031, United States 03031 Amherst, United States
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Lot 475 - Space-Coins.com (3) Limited Edition Medallions (Attested as Embedded with Flown Material) Attractive set of three limited edition medallions released by Space-Coins.com, which attests that each medallion contains flown material from various NASA missions, including: Bronze-tone medallion with material from Apollo missions 11 through 17, 2.75″ in diameter, 112 gm, numbered 495/500, with the center containing “Material Flown Aboard the Apollo Mission Named in Each Section,” which are identified by attractive raised mission insignia designs, and the domed reverse bears a lunar map and mission landing sites. Bronze-tone medallion with material from missions related to NASA programs Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle, ISS, and the Commercial Crew Program, 2.75″ in diameter, 87 gm, numbered 495/1000, with the center containing “Material Flown on a Mission of the Program Named in Each Section,” which are identified by attractive raised program insignia designs, the domed reverse bearing raised space images and NASA, and the edge marked “NASA - 60th Anniversary - Human Spaceflight Milestones.” Gold-tone medallion with material carried aboard all six of the Space Shuttle Orbiters, 2.5″ in diameter, 74 gm, numbered 495/981, with the center containing “Material Flown Aboard the Space Shuttle Named in Each Section,” which are identified by attractive raised spacecraft designs, the reverse featuring an embossed Space Shuttle lifting into space, with blue border encircled with text: “The Space Shuttle Program, 30 Years of Space Exploration.” Each medal is accompanied by its certificate of authenticity.

Estim. 400 - 600 USD

Lot 482 - Marc Chagall Typed Letter Signed on 1969 Grand Palais Exhibition TLS in French, one page, 8.25 x 10.5, La Colline letterhead, September 29, 1969. Letter to Madame A. A. Juviler, in part (translated): "I address myself to you personally, which I do, you know, very rarely, but a large and important exhibition of my work is getting underway at the Grand Palais as well as at the Bibliothèque Nationale, in Paris, and it would mean a lot that the picture 'en écountant le coq' could appear in it. You must have received a letter from the Director of the Museums of France, M. Chatelain, as well as from the Director of the Museum of Modern Art, M. Leymarie, Superintendent of the exhibition that the government is organizing after November 25th. During this retrospective, stained glass windows, tapestries, sculptures, ceramics, engravings will all be equally presented at the Bibliothèque Nationale. The loan on your part would be encouraging for me, and a sign of sympathy that I would particularly appreciate. I would be happy that you would want to respond to me as well as to the Directors of the Museums, M.M. Chatelain and M. Leymarie." In fine condition. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope. Chagall refers to one of his most colorful and dramatic works, 'En écountant le coq [Listening to the Rooster],' which was owned by Adolphe A. Juviler and had previously been lent to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City for inclusion in its 1946 retrospective of Chagall's works. Mrs. Juvelir subsequently consented to Chagall's request, agreeing to lend the work to the exhibition 'Hommage a Marc Chagall,' held at the Grand Palais from December 13, 1969-March 8, 1970.

Estim. 500 - 700 USD

Lot 513 - Samuel L. Clemens Handwritten Notes for a Tom Sawyer Stage Adaptation Unsigned handwritten manuscript notes by Samuel Clemens for a never-performed stage version of 'Tom Sawyer,' three pages, 5.5 x 9, no date but circa 1884, offering a treatment for the dramatic scene in which Tom, Huck, and Becky encounter Injun Joe in the cave. The notes read, in part: "Enter Tom & Huck. Find bag. 'No use now—got to starve.' Tom says 'No.' Examine—money all there. Discover girls asleep. Wake them. Talk. We'll save you. Gives them his crust & some bats...Devilish face of Joe peeks out—will hive those boys—steals behind boys. Girls see him & scream. Boys jump up & stand paralyzed. Then they jump for the rock & the dodging begins for life & death, the girls looking over. (Maybe Tom trips him.) 'Now, Huck.' They fly—Joe pursues, the girls scream." In fine condition. Housed in a handsome custom-made full morocco presentation portfolio, with gilt-stamped spine and title. As early as 1875, Clemens had asked his friend William Dean Howells to dramatize the then still-unpublished Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Howells refused, but Clemens pressed ahead, composed a synopsis of his own to secure copyright and subsequently wrote at least some of the play. While these plans ultimately fell through, in 1883 the author once more attempted to translate his book into a stage success. This time, he managed to complete a dramatic version, and the play was duly copyrighted on February 1, 1884. Although Clemens 'was so pleased with this piece of work that even before he had finished it he was pondering on the cast which might properly perform it and trying to dictate terms,' the great theatre manager Augustin Daly did not take long to reject the chance to stage 'Tom Sawyer,'' and after this 'one hears no more about the author's attempting to dramatize his novel' (cf. Mark Twain's Hannibal, Huck, and Tom, ed. Walter Blair, pp. 250-252). These are three out of a total of 26 pages of working notes for the play, constituting the last three of a ten-page group termed 'C' by their editor, Walter Blair. At the time of Blair's editorial work, the notes were dispersed among several libraries: all but one of this ten-page group (C1-3 and C5-10) were then among the Mark Twain Papers at Bancroft Library, UCA, Berkeley (while C4 rests in Yale University Library). The three pages at hand form a sub-unit that provides a later plan for Act IV, in which Tom and Becky, lost in the cave, encounter Injun Joe.

Estim. 35 000 - 50 000 USD

Lot 517 - Ernest Hemingway (4) Letters on Drinking, Money, and Writing: "The reason I didn't write you about the book is because it is hard enough to write it without writing about it" Exceptional group of four letters from Hemingway to his close friend Guy Hickok, comprising one ALS, two partial autograph letters, and a one-page TLS. The longest ALS, signed “Ernest,” nine pages on five sheets, May 7, [1931], was written aboard the S.S. Volendam of the Holland-America Line. In part: “When my kidney was being weird had to give up drinking for about 6 weeks but now can drink and have drunk for ever since a year ago last February—I may have made a certain amt. of dough which has all been give away, loaned or spent but I am a son of a bitch if I have become respectable and no later than last winter was forced to sleep all night on the front porch—not being a good size for Pauline to carry up stairs—and on going to church the next morning was supposed to be healed...just because I had bumped into the holy water fount, that I saw the car was standing with the top down and the 3/4 empty bottle very visible (it had been invisible in the dark) in front of the church with the French nameplate to identify it! Don’t want to claim to be a drunk like you but have not become respectable Gros—The reason I didn't write you about the book is because it is hard enough to write it without writing about it. But listen if you will come down to Madrid you can read it typed...besides which we could see who can drink and who not and see the bullfights—The dope is this...will go to Madrid and work like a bastard on this book until finished—Have 280 some pages done—most to be written over and 1/3 or more to be added—I think you’ll like the damn book.” He goes on to discuss his travel plans and the repayment of a loan, before discussing an arm injury suffered in Montana: “I couldn't write then because my arm was still paralyzed. Have only been able to write since 3 weeks. It will be absolutely all right if keep after it. Anyway can shoot, fish and write with it now, but can't sock anybody.” Here, he sketches a diagram of his arm’s range of motion. Hemingway also provides a sketch of his new home in Key West, pointing out his favorite features, including a “flat roof, see all over town and sea.” The second, a partial autograph letter in pencil, unsigned, one page both sides, June 18, [1935], in part: “Listen stupid when you get in a money jam why in hell don’t let me know?...God dammit I was always suspicious of that Syndicate job...Gingrich of Esquire is coming here July 3-6 to fish and I will talk to him about your staff.” The third, a partial autograph letter in pencil, signed “Ernest” and “E. Hemingway [within his address],” one page, no date, in part: “Address here is E. Hemingway, c/o Captain George D. Kreidt, 1437 S.W. 5th Street, Miami, he brings mail on pilot boat once a week. Just got Mary’s letter last night. Don’t be afraid to cash this check as have 438 in bank by latest statement. Also 1000 coming in on July 1.” The fourth, a TLS signed in pencil, “Hemingstein,” one page, no date, in part: “It was swell to hear from you and thanks the hell of a lot for sending me the 100 bucks. I appreciate it like hell and know how damned hard it is to get money together in chunks as big as that. It came in damned handy because have been writing on this novel since last March First and during that time make no dough. Had seventy four bucks in my bank account when got your hundred.” At the conclusion, Hemingway jots down his Cuban address: “Address, Hotel Ambos Mundos, Havana—Cuba.” Also includes three letters in another hand (apparently dictated by Hemingway) as well as one unsigned typed letter, frequently referencing loans between the two. In overall very good to fine condition, with tears to the bottom of the typed letter. A young Ernest Hemingway first met the recipient of these letters, Guy Hickok (addressed here as “Gros”) in the early 1920s when they were both acting as foreign correspondents for North American newspapers in Paris. Hemingway, working for the Toronto Star, began what would become an enduring friendship with the good-natured Hickok, who was on assignment for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Hickok even provided the inspiration for Hemingway's short story ‘Che Ti Dice La Patria?’ (collected in Men Without Women, 1927). This fabulous correspondence is congenial, unrestrained, and mildly profane, and lends tremendous insight into Hemingway’s life and work.

Estim. 25 000 - 30 000 USD

Lot 518 - Margaret Mitchell Typed Letter Signed on Gone With the Wind Movie Stills: "Rhett playing poker with the whiskered Federal officers is especially fine" TLS signed “Margaret Mitchell Marsh,” one page, 7 x 11, personal letterhead, May 12, 1939. Letter to Marcella Rabwin, in full: “The stills you mailed me on May 8th have just arrived. Thank you so much for them. Of course I found them very exciting. I did not realize that the picture had progressed up to the point of the jail sequence and the Ku Klux raid. From this distance it would seem that the picture is going into the home stretch and it does not seem possible that your organization can have done so much in so short a time. I think the background of the picture showing Rhett playing poker with the whiskered Federal officers is especially fine. Of course I can't help hoping that he won all their chips in this game! I wish you would thank Mr. Selznick for me for his kindness in sending me these stills. My husband and I enjoy them so very much — probably no one in the world could be as interested as we are.” Cloth-matted and framed to an overall size of 12 x 15.75. In fine condition. Marcella Rabwin (1908-1998) worked as the executive assistant of David O. Selznick on the production of Gone with the Wind. Only a month after Mitchell published her bestseller in 1936, David O. Selznick of Selznick International Pictures purchased the film rights for $50,000. Casting took two years and filming finally began on January 26, 1939, with Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh as the film's two main characters, Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara. Mitchell, for her part, did not want an active role in the production of the film, but, as evidenced by this wonderful letter, she clearly enjoyed receiving updates from the set. The film premiered on December 15, 1939, in Atlanta, Georgia, with local crowds showing Mitchell and her film overwhelming amounts of support. In addition to a three-day parade, the Georgia governor declared December 15th a state holiday.

Estim. 3 000 - 4 000 USD

Lot 520 - Hunter S. Thompson Typed Letter Signed: "The egalitarian haste of the modern american negro will put us all in the grave" TLS signed in pencil, “Hunter” and "HST," one page, 8.5 x 11, Time letterhead, September 6, 1958. Letter to Paul Semonin, his childhood friend from Louisville, Kentucky. In part: "The egalitarian haste of the modern american negro will put us all in the grave: all in the same grave, of course, and with only one layer of bodies—so that no one shall be either higher or lower than anyone else in the final worldly reckoning. I trust that this letter will find you in a frenzy of spine-snapping patriotism: and what indeed is this strange and vicious malady which causes all our guilt-riddled, pot-bellied young men to run off to the halls of Montezuma? I suppose you'll be at Quantico—I was there once and the food was intolerable...But the queers in Washington are predatory as hell and they seem to have a strange hankerin' for those firm and khaki-flavored young bodies which come pouring in across the Potomac every weekend. I think they're pushing this 'democracy' thing too far when they insist that all of us—men and women alike—have the same sexual tastes. It gives a man paws...I seriously thought you might have gone over to something subversive like Zen or Dadaism or something even worse like the cult of the superman. But I see that it's just the USMC...Man, you must use the USMC in order to further your artistic deviations. The service can be USED in many ways. It is ripe, literally bulging with ignorance, apathy and galloping myopia...snap a spine for me: I missed that sort of thing." Thompson adds his initials and address, "57 Perry St., NYC," in the lower left. In fine condition.

Estim. 800 - 1 000 USD