Found some treasure in a book

[bassmstr]

Found this book for $1.00 at a yard sale. When researching it I saw it was only worth about $20.00 Then upon opening it I realized some kids had drawn in it with pencil and realized it was worth about the dollar I paid. So I put it in the flea market pile and went on working. I found some nice vintage pictures in another book I bought at the same sale so I decided to go back through all the books. I usually do this looking for money that the old timers kept in books. I open the book back up and find that it was one of those books that they carried around to get signatures of commited buyers so that the publishing company would reprint the book. Anyways I start looking at signatures and there are two so far that stand out Vice President to Lincoln Hannibal Hamlin and Secretary Of State James Blaine. I am wondering if this was the original authors book to get such signatures.

 

[ivan salis]

with those sigs it could be quite valubile to the right person.

 

[John987]

Great find!
Love that variety of Handwriting.

John

 

[allen]

the autographs alone could be wort some serious cash....

 

[steif]

Hi,
I've seen such book before, but not one ever filled out!!
that was a popular job back then, the publishing company sent a sample book to you with the back like this to get people to buy the full book, then you went around door to door or a business like a dry goods store would have such books on display for people to look at.
When the book was full or partially full of subscribers they would send it back to the publisher and get a royalty of every book sold.
That's why I've never seen one filled out..lol.. they all went back to be sold. this one might have been more a autograph book to the former owner.
Anyway, get it looked at by someone that does autographs it could be worth some good money!!
There are always autographs that are relative unknown to me that are worth much money.. ie a scientist, pastor, or minor government official at the time that was unknown then they got famous for something, so there could be very good autographs in there. there are several online autograph dealers that will look and make offers on most all good autographs.

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

This is a true treasure find!

It may be one for the Antique Roadshow!

Congratulations!
Neil

 

[beetle662]

That is one neat find!

Keep us posted on what you discover about it - values, signatures, etc.

Congrats!

 

[STH69]

wow cool find

 

[Marty-Graw]

look closer...is it me or do all the signatures have an "R" or "D" beside them...meaning republican or democrat?.......try looking all the names up....may be more famous people there than you first anticipated

 

[kdismuke1]

SUPER FIND.

 

[texan connection]

Thats a one of a kind

 

[Curious The George]

look closer...is it me or do all the signatures have an "R" or "D" beside them...meaning republican or democrat?.......try looking all the names up....may be more famous people there than you first anticipated

The column that the letters are in says, "Style Of Binding". The letter you see as a "D" is actually an "L". I would assume that "R" meant regular binding and "L" meant leather binding.

 

[cchunter]

I had good luck with http://www.alexautographs.com/they are one of the best specializing in autographs. I sent them some Jackie Kennedy letters. They can look at it and tell you if any of the other autographs are valuable.

 

[MrBling]

Fascinating.

Yard sales finds are great

 

[curbdiggercarl57]

You need to scan all those autographs, and post online. fantastic piece of history ya got there!

 

[wyattrr]

Those are the real deal...Get book appraised. GL and Congrats.

 

[l.cutler]

While very interesting I don't think they are autographs. Look at the similarities between Hamlin and Hamilton, they are written in the same hand. Google Hamlin's signature and compare, not even close. Must have been filled in by the carrier of the book and not the people listed.

 

[Marty-Graw]

look at the "H" in Hamilton, Hamlinand J.H. Packard....all three look different to me

 

[jimbob450]

Very interesting,cool. Jimbob

 

[l.cutler]

look at the "H" in Hamilton, Hamlinand J.H. Packard....all three look different to me

Looks like Hamlin and Hamilton are written by the same person, that H is just too distinctive. A google image search of Hamlin autographs turns up a lot, and there is no resemblance.