Records & Results | Printed & Manuscript Americana — June 12, 2025
Family Archives Command Premium Prices in Swann’s Spring Printed & Manuscript Americana Auction
Swann Galleries’ spring 2025 sale of Printed & Manuscript Americana reached $511,702, well into the auction’s pre-sale estimates of $369,100 to $549,150. “Large family archives drove the success of our Americana auction. The top lot featured the only known letter by Mormon founder Joseph Smith’s grandmother, Lydia Mack. Bidding remained vigorous among collectors, and institutions were active. This sale also welcomed several new collectors to the Swann rolls,” Rick Statler, Director of Books & Manuscripts at Swann and the specialist for the sale, noted of the auction.
Top Lots—Family Archives
A group of letters led the sale from Joseph Smith’s New Hampshire uncle, the star among the offering was the only known letter by Mormon founder Joseph Smith’s grandmother, Lydia Mack, which sold to a collector for $32,500. On the discovery of the letter, Mr. Stattler shared, “It was found by our eagle-eyed cataloguers among an otherwise undistinguished collection of circa-1800 New Hampshire family papers.”* Further Mormon material included the family papers of Mormon pioneer John Silvanus Davis, which sold for $13,750.
The papers of Panama Canal engineer Harry Rousseau sold to an institution for $16,250, and the papers of his father-in-law, Herbert Squiers, a diplomat in China, brought $9,750. The letters and diary of a Northerner observing slavery in Mississippi in 1859, found among a larger collection of family papers, brought $13,000. These five lots were among the top ten lots in the auction.
*Editor’s note: Specialist Rick Stattler was being modest when he supplied this quote. Let the record show, Mr. Stattler discovered the letter.
Rare Books
Many of the books in the auction also achieved high prices. Record performances included the first European history of the American Revolution, Geschichte der Kriege, 1776-77, at $5,000; the Revolutionary War naval print Memorable Engagement of the Serapis, 1780, at $6,500; Horacio Carochi’s 1645 first edition Arte de Lengua Mexicana, at $10,400; Maturino Gilberti’s Vocabulario en lengua de Mechuacan, 1559, at $20,000; and Thomas Hariot’s Admiranda narratio fida tamen, de commodis et incolarum ritibus Virginiae, 1590, at $23,750.
Of the 25 top lots, six sold to institutions, and seven sold to private collectors, including four collectors who were new to the house.