Heritage Auctions

[David Lockmiller]

(02-24-2022 10:21 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/herit...t-auction/

"Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet to be developed."

New Salem, March 9, 1832.

The top lot of the sale at $519,000 was a pocketknife presented by organizers of the Philadelphia Sanitary Fair to Lincoln after he, Mary Todd Lincoln and their son, Tad, visited the fair on June 16, 1864. Housed in a custom-fitted hinged eagle-inlaid oak box, the knife was presented by Alfred B. Justice, who wrote Lincoln a letter, now in the Lincoln papers at the Library of Congress, that was signed by 135 citizens, testifying to their “profound respect for you as a man and a statesman.”

Lincoln was pleased enough by the gift that he wrote a letter to Justice on Executive Mansion stationery that read “Mr. A.B. Justice & others / I have received at the hands of Wm. D. Kelley, a very beautiful and ingeniously constructed Pocket Knife, accompanied by your kind letter of presentation. The gift is gratefully accepted and will be highly valued, not only as an extremely creditable specimen of American workmanship, but as a manifestation of your regard and esteem which I most cordially appreciate. / Your Ob’t serv’t / A. Lincoln.”