It led a 700-lot, November 8-9 held by local saleroom Hindman (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).
A four-sheet map, it shows overall browning, some cracking and occasional small losses and minor facsimile replacements, and though it sold a little under estimate at $45,000 (£39,510), it is one of only five known copies - and indeed one of only two that are not in US institutional collections.
In fact, the only other example recorded at auction is a better preserved example that Hindman sold for $160,000 in 2017.
Bid to $40,000 (£35,120) as part of the 100-lot Patrick Atkinson collection of signed books and manuscripts was one of the 60 that had US presidential connections - in this instance a signed and inscribed 1958 first of Martin Luther King Jnr’s Stride Toward Freedom. The Montgomery Story.
It was a signed copy that also bore in his hand his non-violence credo, “The strong man is the man who can stand up for his rights and not hit back”.
An early Christmas entry on these pages, in the form of a 1902, US first of L Frank Baum’s The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus that sold for $550 (£485) in the Hindman sale.
Raising the bar
Bid to a much higher than predicted $30,000 (£26,340) was a copy of Mahatma Gandhi’s Young India 1919-1922. Re-cased and repaired, it is inscribed with “With love MK Gandhi 18-9-‘31” to the halftitle, while on the front pastedown appear the signatures of his son, his two secretaries and a disciple, Mirabehn, or Madeleine Slade.
An odd volume from a 1763 edition of David Hume’s History of England bearing on the title-page the signature of John Adams, the USA’s second president, and someone whose own writings and correspondence include frequent references to Hume’s works, was sold at $22,500 (£19,755).
Gangster style
A very different world was reflected in a couple of lots with the name of Al Capone as the big draw.
Sold at $35,000 (£30,730) was a Colt revolver reputed to have belonged to Capone, while a very rare example of his writing rather than shooting hand, realised $42,500 (£37,315).
The latter was a doubly signed and very chatty letter sent to a friend, Bill Sells - though shortly after an unsuccessful attempt had been made on his life as he was being driven away from a Chicago restaurant.
