Condition Report
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Lot 31
Sale 6441 - Lincoln’s Legacy: Historic Americana from the Life of Abraham Lincoln
May 21, 2025
10:00AM CT
Live / Chicago
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Estimate
$6,000 -
9,000
Price Realized
$9,600
Sold prices are inclusive of Buyer’s Premium
Lot Description
LINCOLN, Abraham (1809-1865).
Autograph legal document in the hand of Lincoln signed by Moses Thorpe and J. Johnson, Clerk. Piatt County, Illinois, 11 October 1852.
Autograph legal document in the hand of Lincoln signed by Moses Thorpe and J. Johnson, Clerk. Piatt County, Illinois, 11 October 1852.
1 p.; 12 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. (324 x 197 mm); docketed on verso by clerk J. Johnson; creasing from old folds, light offsetting to same; verso soiled with scattered stains.
A FINE EXAMPLE OF THE FUTURE PRESIDENT'S FAMOUS DRY SENSE OF HUMOR.
The case regarded a dispute over "the value of a certain bull which it is claimed this affiant castrated... that affiant expects to prove by sworn witness that said bull did not belong to said plaintiff and any time during the life of said bull, or at any time after his change of condition by which he ceased to be a bull..." Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln 3345
Provenance:
Dr. Charles Wesley Olsen; previously sold, his sale, Parke Bernet Galleries, 6 February 1962, lot 115
Previously sold, Sotheby's Parke Bernet, 8 November 1978, lot 470
Louise Taper, Beverly Hills, California
Property from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Foundation