Photographs courtesy the Benefit Shop Foundation.
A New York City advertising industry CEO had twin passions for collecting presidential signatures and baseball memorabilia, particularly of New York Yankees, and amassed hundreds of items over several decades. He was so serious about his collection he had an architect-designed room in his Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan to block ultraviolet light. The room contained custom furniture, with dozens of drawers to store his items.
Now his estate is headlining the Benefit Shop Foundation Inc.”™s Red Carpet auction in Mount Kisco on Wednesday, Aug. 16, at 10 a.m. With more than 750 items, the auction includes documents related to Founding Fathers and presidents like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ulysses S. Grant.
Expected to attract keen interest is a Washington-signed envelope and engraving ($1,000 to $5,000 estimate), framed with a hand-colored engraved portrait of the nation”™s first president. The envelope is addressed to the Rev. Doct. Lathrop (John Lathrop), Boston. Also estimated to bring in”¯$1,000 to $5,000 are blank ship”™s papers with the signatures of Thomas Jefferson as president and James Madison as Secretary of State. The framed document was not filled in to indicate which ship was being verified but was signed in advance.
Another presidential highlight is a framed copyright claim document signed by John Quincy Adams as president ($500 to $2,000 estimate), regarding Daniel Webster”™s book, “A Discourse in”¯Commemoration of the Lives and Services of”¯ John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.” The hand- signed document is dated Aug. 28, 1826.”¯
Baseball memorabilia includes a treasure trove of photographs and artifacts from the Yanks and other teams. Fans of the Bronx Bombers will be particularly interested in an actual stadium seat that was removed in the 1970s as the stadium underwent renovations. This was during a rare lull in the team”™s popularity, and the team”™s owners debated moving it to New Jersey. In 1972, New York City Mayor John Lindsay proposed that the city buy the stadium for $24 million, saving it; the Yanks and the New York Mets shared Shea Stadium for the 1974 and ”™75 seasons; and the refurbished Yankees Stadium opened in 1976. (That ballpark closed in 2008 and a new Yankee Stadium, located one block north at the former Macombs Dam Park, opened in 2009.) The wood and iron seat, numbered 18, is conservatively estimated at $100 to $300 and has a plaque on it reading, “Yankee Stadium, ”˜The House That Ruth Built”™ – 50th Anniversary 1923-1973, Bronx, N.Y.”
Several items on offer have crossover appeal with baseball and folk-art collectors, such as a hand-carved folk-art sculpture of Mickey Mantle ($50 to $100). The nearly 30-inch-tall statue, dated 2002, pictures the slugging centerfielder standing with a baseball bat and mitt. Another hand-carved sculpture, depicting Babe Ruth ($50 to $200), stands 5 feet, 3 inches tall. Ruth is shown wearing his Yankee pinstripes and holding a bat.
There are also many signed photographs and baseballs from other notable Yankee players over the years, including Whitey Ford, Reggie Jackson, Wade Boggs, Andy Pettitte and Tino Martinez.
Rounding out the auction are a wide variety of items for collectors of all interests, led by a Cartier Paris Tank Louis 18-karat gold watch ($500 to $2,500). The circa 1970s classically-styled watch has a cabochon blue sapphire on the dial and manual winding.
There will be offerings from other estates as well at the foundation, whose mission is “to donate, to discover and to do good.” Consignors get a tax deduction, the buyer gets a great deal and local nonprofits get much needed funds.
The auction gallery is at 185 Kisco Ave, Suite 201. For more, click here or call 914-864-0707.
