Abraham Lincoln's Childhood Sum Book Sold for $521,200

Freeman’s | Hindman’s major Abraham Lincoln auction yesterday which featured early manuscripts and rare items connected to his assassination made a total of $7,899,994. 

The fourth highest lot of the auction was one of the earliest surviving examples of Abraham Lincoln’s handwriting, a double-sided leaf from the future president’s sum book that sold for $521,200. In one corner, the young Lincoln wrote: "Abraham Lincoln is my name / And with my pen I wrote / the same / I wrote in both hast and speed / and left it here for fools / to read."

Lincoln’s Legacy: Historic Americana from the Life of Abraham Lincoln, presented on behalf of the Lincoln Presidential Foundation, included a rare printed reward poster believed to be the second printing, first issue from the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators offering an enormous $100,000 reward (equivalent to about $2 million today). 'The murderer of our late beloved President, Abraham Lincoln, is still at large' sold for $762,500, more than nine times its low estimate.

The highest-selling lot was a pair of stained leather gloves that President Abraham Lincoln carried in his pocket the night he was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865, sold for $1,512,500, setting a new record for a Lincoln assassination-related relic. A white linen handkerchief Lincoln carried that evening went for $826,000, and a gold and black enamel cuff button bearing the initial 'L', removed from Lincoln’s wrist by Dr. Charles Sabin Taft as he searched for the President’s pulse, sold for $445,000.

Other highlights included:

• a first printing of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, 1865 ($165,600)
• an orchestra ticket stub for Our American Cousin, April 14, 1865 ($381,500)
• signed letter signed ("A. Lincoln") to Jesse O. Norton, February 16, 1855 ($229,100)
• the Adams Handbill, the only known surviving copy of Lincoln's first printed work, August 5, 1837 ($178,300)
• the Bass-Ackwards manuscript, Lincoln's humorous story told via a series of spoonerisms

“With nearly $7.9 million raised in just four hours of auctioneering, we are delighted with the results our team achieved today on behalf of the Lincoln Presidential Foundation, in support of their continued mission of sharing Lincoln’s legacy with the world," said Alyssa Quinlan, CEO of Freeman’s | Hindman.