CHAPTER XI

A CENTURY OF AMERICAN AUTOGRAPH COLLECTING

The great collectors and collections of the United States—The autograph sale-rooms of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia

If the conscript fathers of autograph collecting can be fairly claimed by the country of their birth, the majority of their most ardent and enthusiastic successors are to be found to-day on the other side of the Atlantic. It is in New York, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, San Francisco, St. Louis, Savannah, and elsewhere that one must now look for many of the choicest and most priceless literary MSS. in existence, and it is obvious that the New World has in a measure become the guardian of many of the traditions and treasures of the Old. Before me lie the calendar of the Emmet collection of papers relating to American history, presented some ten years ago to the New York Public Library, which fills no less than 563 closely printed pages; next to it is the catalogue, in three parts, of the Louis J. Haber collection, sold in December, 1909, by the Anderson Auction Company of New York, the successors of the historic firm of Bangs; the monograph, "Privately Illustrated Books," by Daniel M. Tredwell, of New York—the largest and most carefully written book on the subject yet produced in America (475 pages, handsomely printed in De Vinne's best style), the exhaustive catalogue of that treasure-house of Southern history, beneath the laurel and jasmines of historic "Wormsloe," Georgia, recently sent me by Wimberley J. De Renne; the already often-referred-to "Meditations" of Mr. Adrian H. Joline; the standard American book, "Autographic Collections of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution," by the late Lyman C. Draper, LL.D., the interesting MSS. so carefully arranged by Chas. De F. Burns, of New York, whose knowledge of early American collecting is very great; and, last but not least, a pile of valuable notes and statistics from the pen of my excellent friend Mr. Telamon Cuyler, without whose aid the present chapter could never have been written. My initial difficulty is a plethora of interesting information. I must not even attempt to summarise the autographic trophies to be found in such famous libraries as those of Mr. Pierpont Morgan, Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet (at the present moment the Nestor of the world's great collectors of MSS.), Mr. W. J. De Renne of Wormsloe, or Mr. W. H. Bexby of St. Louis.

Dr. Emmet, now the most vigorous octogenarian in New York, and divided only by a single generation from the Irish patriot of 1804 (his uncle), forms a living link between the days of Israel K. Tefft of Savannah, the pioneer of American autograph collecting, whose library was sold half a century ago in Philadelphia, and men like Mr. Louis J. Haber, Mr. Bexby, and Mr. Telamon Cuyler himself; for is not my enthusiastic confrÈre himself the proud possessor of a holograph document containing seven times the name of Button Gwinnett? To nine-tenths of my lay readers the mention of B. Gwinnett, who was killed in a duel in May, 1777, and T. Lynch, drowned at sea in the same fateful year, will probably have no particular signification. Let me tell them that if they could discover a fine autograph letter, duly signed, of either of these signers of the Declaration of American Independence, they may consider themselves provided for for life, and far richer than the owners of red and blue "Post Office Mauritius," "Hawaian blues," or other priceless rariora dear to the votaries of philately!

The great majority of American autograph collectors apparently utilise their letters and documents for the purposes of extra-illustration, or the creation of "association-books."[66] Although the arrangement of autographs on these lines does not receive the whole-hearted sanction of Mr. Joline, Dr. Emmet has successfully demonstrated the supreme importance of this source of illustration to the "grangeriser," and it is constantly practised by both Mr. Cuyler and myself. In this connection I do not, of course, allude to the MSS. of famous authors, which should obviously be kept apart, and bound by experts like Mr. Cedric Chivers, in such a way as not to interfere with their original condition or appearance, but to isolated letters or documents. I fail to imagine anything more interesting or attractive than a copy of Clarendon's "History," illustrated not only by portraits and views, but by MSS. like those in the possession of Mr. Sabin, or those I shall describe when giving some account of the sales of the last decade.[67] Then, and then only, do you seem to actually live again in the veritable atmosphere of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The American collector generally begins his career, both as an autograph collector and extra-illustrator, by dealing with such works as Sanderson's "Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence" and Lossing's "Field-book of the Revolution" (1776-1783). The Emmet Collection in the New York Public Library,[68] which numbers 10,800 documents, is classified under such heads as the Albany Congress of 1754, the Stamp-Act Congress of 1765, the Continental Congress of 1774, the members of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, Presidents of Congress, Presidents of the United States, the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, and so forth.

The cult of the Signers is one of the most distinctive features of American autograph collecting.[69] The late Dr. Raffles, of Liverpool, is credited with having got together a complete series, and I have heard the subject attracted the sympathetic interest of Queen Victoria. While the Rev. Dr. Wm. B. Sprague (born at Andover, Conn., U.S.A.) was the first man to form the first unbroken set of the immortal fifty-six "Signers," Dr. Raffles' set was the second to be completed. This fact is shown in a letter of June, 1835, by Benjamin B. Thatcher (born at Warren, Me., 1809; died Boston, Mass., 1840), the earliest writer on American autograph collections. Some of the signatures of the "Signers" are common enough, but those of Button Gwinnett and Lynch, both of which I am able, thanks to the kindness of Mr. Cuyler, to illustrate, are of quite phenomenal rarity. Gwinnett and Lynch both died tragically "before their time," and this may possibly account for the scarceness of their handwriting. Some collectors spend their lives in the perpetual quest of these unfindable autographs.

Mr. Cuyler has sent me several anecdotes on the subject of these Gwinnett and Lynch signatures. He informs me that the earliest American collector, Israel K. Tefft, was called from Savannah to the estate of a gentleman resident near that city. Having to wait, he wandered on the lawn, under the cypress and the jasmine, and, perceiving a scrap of paper blowing about, he carelessly picked it up. To his joyous astonishment he found that it was a draft on the Treasury of Georgia, dated 1777, ordering certain payments, and signed by Button Gwinnett! Though Mr. Tefft was the first autograph collector in America, and had begun operations as early as 1815-20, in Savannah, he had, until that tour, never even seen the signature of Button Gwinnett—other than that appearing upon facsimiles of the Declaration of Independence. After transacting his business, he exhibited his find to his client, and said that he would gladly take the paper in place of money for his services. The gentleman generously presented him with the paper and also paid him. (This signature of B. G. is now preserved in the "Set of Signers" in the State Library at Albany, New York, U.S.A.)

Mr. Cuyler has ascertained that there are only twenty-two known signatures of Button Gwinnett extant. These include his holograph will, drawn up a few hours before his fatal duel with Gen. McIntosh (May, 1777), which is now in the collection of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, of New York. No A.L.S. of Gwinnett is known. The State of Georgia, in which he was Master of Pilotage, Justice of the Peace, Member of the Provincial Assembly, Member of Council of Safety, and Governor, possesses not a line of his writing. One L.S. is in the private collection of Thos. Addis Emmet, M.D., of New York.

I have previously alluded to the holograph document, with his name repeated seven times, in possession of Mr. Cuyler. The A.L.S. of Thomas Lynch, jun., "Signer for South Carolina" (now published), came from the Washington correspondence.[70] It was ultimately sold for £1,400 (i.e., £370 more than the record Nelson letter), and is the only one in existence. It now figures in Dr. Emmet's best set of "Signers" in the New York Public Library. In this set fifty-five out of the fifty-six signers of the American Magna Charta are represented by signed holograph letters. Dr. Emmet regards the acquisition of a letter signed by Gwinnett as the crowning triumph of his sixty years' work in the fields of autograph collecting. If a holograph letter of Gwinnett could be discovered, and such a letter may very likely exist in England, it would probably fetch £5,000.

Gwinnett was an Englishman, a descendant of Admiral Sir Thomas Button (who entered our navy in 1589, explored Hudson's Bay, and died in 1634), migrated early in life to Charleston, South Carolina, finally settling in Georgia, where he accumulated wealth. After his tragic death, his widow and only child, a daughter, returned to England. The daughter married but died childless.

In the list of American collectors Dr. Sprague comes next to Mr. Tefft. George Washington at his death left his correspondence neatly arranged and filed. His widow, however, burned the whole of the letters she had ever received from the first President of the United States! This is almost the greatest known destruction of valuable autograph matter. From his first love-letter, penned in Virginia, to the young Widow Custis, his correspondence during the fatal Braddock campaign, his homely domestic instructions to the chÂtelaine of Mount Vernon, to his war letters, in which he opened his heart and there recorded the true history of the American War, she had preserved all, which now went into the fire and £100,000 on to-day's valuation, and priceless American historical data, went up in smoke!

By the unwise permission of the Washington family, Dr. Sprague was permitted to abstract "as many letters as he liked" from the wonderfully accurate letter-files of George Washington, preserved at his home, "Mount Vernon," in Virginia. Dr. S. there got some of his best papers, being only requested to "leave copies of all letters he took"! Among the papers he thus acquired was the A.L.S. of Thomas Lynch, jun., "Signer" for South Carolina.

The following is the text of this wonderful autograph, a portion of which is reproduced in facsimile:—

Letters of George Washington often find their way into the English sale-rooms. During the first decade of the present century they have varied in price from £6 to £60. Mr. Cuyler enables me to give my readers not only one of the finest letters of Washington's in existence, but one hitherto unpublished. I need not point out either its characteristic style or historic value, but will only observe that Lund Washington, his cousin and manager of his Virginia estates, possessed his confidence before any other person, excepting perhaps Mrs. Washington.

Letters of Franklin are less valuable than those of Washington. The letter reproduced was purchased by me in Paris for £10. It of course derives additional value from being addressed to Washington. The seal is intact.

The names of Lyman Draper, G. W. Childs Kennedy, Proctor, Fogg, Dreer, C. C. Jones, jun., W. J. De Renne, and Elliot Danforth, are, like those of Emmet, J. Pierpont Morgan, and Joline, familiar to all American autograph collectors. I find in The Archivist (1894) many interesting details of the wonderful collection of Mr. George Washington Childs, publisher and proprietor of the Philadelphia Ledger. Mr. Childs acquired amongst other rariora, the MSS. of Byron's "Bride of Abydos," Thackeray's "Lecture on the Four Georges," and Scott's "Chronicles of Canongate." He possessed a MS. parody by Byron on Wordsworth's "Peter Bell," which began with the somewhat prosaic lines:—

Byron wrote:—

Amongst the autographs greatly sought after in America is that of the ill-fated Major AndrÉ. One of the gems of Mr. Childs's collection is described as a holograph poem by the unlucky soldier, entitled the "Cow Chase," and dated July 21, 1780. Its closing stanza runs:—

AndrÉ was soon after captured and executed. To the concluding verse some unkind and unknown hand has added the lines—

Mr. Cuyler sends me some interesting information on the subject of AndrÉ from the collector's point of view. It appears that AndrÉ was twice captured during the American War. Upon the first occasion he was hastily searched, and though he lost his watch, arms, sword, and purse, he managed to save the framed miniature of his beloved Honora Sneyd by concealing it in his mouth! The occasion of his second capture was on that fatal ride along the east bank of the Hudson River, after his interview with Benedict Arnold. At this time the whole of AndrÉ's papers, both official and personal, were in New York. Upon the evacuation of New York, 1783, some one took his papers to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Seventy-five years later a friend of Dr. Emmet called on a gentleman resident there. Receiving no response to his ring, he walked through the house, and as he entered the kitchen he found his friend kicking the last of a heap of musty, faded papers into the fire, on an open hearth. Leaping over several great oaken chests, the visitor saved seven or eight documents, several already scorched, from the flames. The gentleman of Halifax explained that he needed the chests, which his grandfather had deposited in their garret, and so burned the papers. Those saved were autograph documents of AndrÉ—and the New Yorker gave them to Dr. Emmet, in whose collection they now are. AndrÉ's writings in America are exceedingly scarce.

AndrÉ was an artist, and executed several drawings of his friends, among whom were portraits of Abraham Cuyler and his wife, which are now preserved in that family. This man was the last Royal Mayor of Albany, New York, and the father of General Sir Cornelius Cuyler, whose sons fought in the Guards defending Hougomont at Waterloo.

As in France and England, there has been much wanton destruction of MSS. in the United States, on which subjects Mr. Joline speaks feelingly. Mr. T. Cuyler tells me that after the crushing defeat of the Federals by the Confederate Army at Bull Run (First Manassas), Virginia, in 1861, the former fled in wildest disorder to Washington City, where they rallied. The consequent confusion, the urgent demands for food and lodgings for a large force of men, caused improvised bakeries to be established in the lower story of the National Capitol. A lady, in passing through a corridor, observed an officer urging his men to roll away into an adjacent marsh great barrels, dusty and stained with age, out of which protruded ancient papers. She paused, and thinking of Dr. Emmet's collection, she begged leave to fill her pockets with documents. Those which she so saved were found to be priceless—being correspondence of 1776-1783, and among her finds was a long letter from Benjamin Franklin, dated at Passy, France, during the American Revolutionary War. Later inquiries disclosed the fact that, after the British victory at Bladensburg, Maryland, the secretaries of the Federal Government had hastily packed these archives in barrels and carried them to safety before the British forces had taken Washington City, in the "War of 1812." Upon their return, these precious papers had been left in the Capitol until ruthlessly tossed out in 1861.

One of the most striking features in American autograph collecting, important and extensive as it is to-day, is the smallness of its beginnings. Tefft, the originator of the autograph cult, who commenced operations by securing a few signatures in the year of Waterloo, was only a bank-cashier; Dr. Sprague was a clerical tutor in the Washington family, and pure accident put unique opportunities in his way; Ferdinand J. Dreer was a merchant who took up the hobby when his health gave way, and lived to complete a collection second only in importance to that formed by Dr. Emmet. It was Dreer who, at the expense of £200, recovered Washington's last letter, after it had remained for nearly a century in Sweden. Charles C. Jones, jun., of Augusta, Georgia, was the first to set the fashion of looking for letters connected with the Civil War of 1861-65. The era of autograph sales began in 1810, at Charleston, South Carolina, by the dispersal of the collection of MSS. formed by a French Consul, but the first autograph sale catalogue is nearly a quarter of a century later, and includes the papers of Aaron Burr, at one time Vice-President of the United States. It was not, however, till the "eighteen-fifties" that dealing in autographs came to rank as a business.

As regards the prospects of this popular pursuit in the United States, Mr. Telamon Cuyler writes as follows:—

Mr. C. E. Goodspeed, of 5A, Park Street, Boston, who, like Mr. Benjamin of New York, issues frequently very useful sale catalogues of autograph letters, also writes me:—

The President of the Anderson Auction Company (12, East 46th Street, New York) has most obligingly sent me a priced catalogue of the Haber Sale, already more than once mentioned in these pages.

Mr. L. J. Haber has also given me the price at which the letters sold were originally acquired. If the reader bears in mind that five dollars represent a pound he will easily be able to judge not only the prices which now rule in the autograph market of New York, but the rise in them which has taken place in the past ten or twenty years. No list of this kind has ever before appeared:—

From Parts I. and II.

The above-mentioned autographs were either included in books or bound up separately. The following apparently were detached letters:—

Part III.

The majority of the Haber MSS. are of British origin. It gives me little opportunity of saying anything about the varying prices of the A.L.S. of American Presidents, or of the rise in value of the letters of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses Grant. I note, however, that a letter of E. A. Poe has more than trebled in value since Mr. Haber acquired it. Letters of Longfellow are still in demand, but those of O. W. Holmes are somewhat at a discount and were not largely represented in the Haber Sale, at which a fine specimen of Benjamin Jowett went for 4s. A 4-pp. letter of Mr. Thomas Hardy was sold for £1 19s., but a 1-p. 8vo of Rudyard Kipling brought £3 8s.! A verse by Mr. Andrew Lang, to which his signature was appended, went for £1 4s. It was entitled "The Optimism of an Undertaker," and ran:—

Twelve lines by Alexander Pope excited keen competition, and were sold eventually for £29. It is evident that, in spite of the set back of two years ago which brought a good many autographs back to England, the American market is still higher than any other, and there is every chance of its continuing so. On April 25, 1910, Mr. Frank Sabin paid £8,650 at Sotheby's for the voluminous correspondence, chiefly addressed to W. Blathwayt, Secretary of State and Commissioner for Trade and Plantations, relative to the American Colonies, during the last quarter of the seventeenth century. William Blathwayt (1649-1717) served his political apprenticeship under Sir W. Temple, subsequently filling the posts of Secretary at War (1683), Secretary of State to William III. during the campaign in Flanders, Commissioner for Trade and Plantations and Clerk of the Privy Council. Some years ago a parcel of Blathwayt's own letters, which I used in extra-illustrating the "Account of William III.'s Achievements at the Siege of Namur," cost me 20s. Another interesting lot at the sale of April 25th consisted of thirteen MS. and thirty-five early printed maps. This went to Mr. Quaritch for £690—a price solely attributable to its unique American interest.