Swann Galleries holds regular curated auctions of Autographs, offering examples by well-known scientists, world leaders and influential composers, as well as manuscripts by notable writers and artists. The department made history on October 25, 1988, when it offered the first Anne Frank autograph ever to come to auction; in May 2016, we sold Anne Frank’s personal signed copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales to an institution for $62,500.
The department also handles collections, most notably Revolutionary Americana from the Allyn Kellogg Ford Collection, which brought over $2M in 2012; documents from the personal files of Marlene Dietrich, including letters to the actress from Ernest Hemingway; the Steve Forbes Collection; and Revolutionary & Presidential Americana from the Collection of William Wheeler III.
