RR Auction

History

Today

Notable Items and Auctions

Historical

• Documents connected with the Alamo, including receipts signed by William Barret Travis and Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's map, were featured at auction in November 2011. Part of the proceeds were donated to the Children's Bereavement Center of South Texas.
• A pair of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow’s guns sold for over $500,000 in September 2012. These guns were carried on the outlaws when they were killed by officers in 1934.
• President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 convertible sold for $318,000 in October 2013. This convertible was an official vehicle used to transport the First Couple, designated “Limo One,” noteworthy as the last automobile to safely carry Kennedy before his assassination in Dallas.
• Over 400 items from the collection of Raleigh DeGeer Amyx, including Abraham Lincoln's eyeglasses, Dwight D. Eisenhower's Rolex watch, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt's cane, were offered at auction in September 2014.
• An original White House plinth sold at auction, salvaged by Joseph Williamson Jr. when Theodore Roosevelt remodeled the White House in 1902.
• A George Washington signed letter sent to Timothy Pickering was sold in January 2017 for over $61,000. The letter was written only one year after George Washington left the office.
• In March 2017 RR Auction managed to sell a partly printed document signed by Queen Elizabeth I. The document, which carries the crisp signature of Queen Elizabeth at the head was in very good, almost fine condition and was sold for $36,750.
• A Thomas Lynch Jr. signature was sold in May 2017 for $24,504.90. The signature was accompanied by a series of documents meant to certify its provenance and authenticity, including a certificate of authenticity from Charles Hamilton dated on September 18, 1995.
• John F. Kennedy's diary was sold at RR Auction in April 2017 for $718,750. That was the diary that John F. Kennedy kept as a Hearst reporter during the summer of 1945 and which included a series of remarkable comments and personal observations regarding notable historical figures of the time.
• In July 2017 RR Auction managed to sell two of Dr. John Warren's amputation kits that he used in the Revolutionary War. Dr. John Warren was one of the founders of Harvard Medical School and worked as a militia volunteer and surgeon. The amputation kits were sold for over $104.000.

  Music

• A first-issue mono pressing of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band signed by all four of the Beatles sold at auction for $175,698 in January 2014.
• Johnny Ramone's personally owned, stage-used red Mosrite guitar sold at auction for $71,875 in January 2015.
• A Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart autograph letter, written in 1786 to his friend the Austrian botanist Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, sold at auction for $217,000 in October 2015.
• A Hummer owned and customized by rapper Tupac Shakur, purchased by him just three months before his death, sold for $337,114 in May 2016.
• A handwritten and signed Brit Awards acceptance speech that Prince was supposed to give during the 1993 event was sold in March 2017 for $32,129. The speech, which was read by Kylie Minogue was in acceptance of the award for Best International Artist of that year. The speech was part of a bigger batch of one of a kind items that ranged from $20,000 on an album that did not get released to $25,000 on a jacket.
• In April 2017 a copy of Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon signed by the band members was sold at RR Auction for almost $28,000. The album did not include the record, but carried the signatures of Roger Waters, Davis Gilmour, Nick Manson and Richard Wright.
• In early 2017 RR Auction sold a love letter signed by Judy Garland and addressed to none other than Frank Sinatra. The letter actually confirms the rumors about the two having had an affair while Judy Garland was still married. The 1950s love letter was sold for $5,897.15.

  Space

• September 2011: Alan Shepard's letter to his parents regarding him trying out for the “Man in Space” program, written in 1959, was sold at auction for $106,000.
• November 2014: A 1962 Hasselblad camera body and Zeiss lens that saw use in orbital photo experiments on NASA missions sold at auction.
• April 2015: The first Apollo mission's flight software, a Block II Apollo Guidance computer display and keyboard built by MIT computer scientist Margaret Hamilton, sold at auction.
• October 2015: The only privately owned watch worn on the surface of the moon, owned and worn by astronaut David Scott on Apollo 15 in 1971, sold for $1.625 million. This was the highest bid RR Auction has ever received on an item to date.
• One of the most valuable items sold by RR Auction in 2017 was an Apollo 11 flown command module Colombia rescue arrow which was attached to the crew hatch. The item was estimated at $100,000 and was eventually sold for over $147,000.

  Cultural

• January 2012: A final letter written by the Titanic's bandleader, 33-year-old Wallace Hartley, sold at auction for $155,000.
• January 2013: A 1970s photograph showing Princess Diana and an unknown man sold for $18,396.
• April 2014: The first email ever sent by an American President, sent by Bill Clinton to astronaut John Glenn in 1998, sold at auction for more than $11,000.
• November 2015: The white 2003 Cadillac Escalade used during the final three seasons of The Sopranos, the interior signed by the late actor James Gandolfini, sold for $119,780.
• A 1924 Chamonix Winter Olympics Official's badge was put up for auction in January 2017 and sold for over $33,000, although the initial estimate was of $25,000. The badge was sold with the original light blue ribbon and it belonged to a figure skating judge.

  Notable Figures

• June 2009: An iconic photograph of Albert Einstein sticking out his tongue, signed by the theoretical physicist himself, sold at auction for $74,000.
• 2010: A Charles Darwin signed portrait by Julia Margaret Cameron sold at auction for a record-setting $27,579.
• 2012: An Edgar Allan Poe letter to Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of a literary publication and author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," sold at auction for $164,000.
• August 2013: A letter written by German businessman Oskar Schindler, who saved nearly 1,200 Jews from Nazi death camps, dated August 22, 1944 and asking permission to move his factory from Kraków, Poland into Czechoslovakia, sold for over $21,000.
• April 2013: Truman Capote's 86 page typed hand-notated manuscript for the novella 1958 Breakfast at Tiffany's sold for over $300,000.
• In 2014, a handwritten John Lennon letter sells for $28,000
• February 2016: A collection of author Mario Puzo's papers, including multiple drafts of The Godfather novel and movie screenplay, sold at auction for $625,000. The 45-box archive was put up for auction by Puzo's children.
• In February 2017 RR Auction sold an autographed picture of Marilyn Monroe. The inscription reads "To Tony, Love & Kisses, Marilyn Monroe.” and the photo, which was taken during a press conference for The Prince and the Showgirl was sold for more than $19,000.
• A pay order signed by Isaac Newton issued to "the Accountant General of the South Sea Company," went up for auction in June 2017 and was sold for $53,805.68.
• Al Capone's diamond watch was auctioned off in June 2017 and sold $84,375. The 14 karat white gold and platinum watch was especially made for the infamous gangster as the case bears his initials „AC” out of twenty three cut diamonds.