Found some treasure in a book

bassmstr

Jr. Member
Jul 20, 2008
24
15
New Hampshire
Detector(s) used
Whites Prizm III
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.
 

Attachments

  • 009.JPG
    009.JPG
    100.2 KB · Views: 890
  • 010.JPG
    010.JPG
    93.9 KB · Views: 879
  • 011.JPG
    011.JPG
    93.3 KB · Views: 887
  • 012.JPG
    012.JPG
    96.7 KB · Views: 892
  • 013.JPG
    013.JPG
    94 KB · Views: 881
  • 015.JPG
    015.JPG
    97.6 KB · Views: 862
  • 016.JPG
    016.JPG
    91.8 KB · Views: 870
Upvote 0
with those sigs it could be quite valubile to the right person.
 

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.
 

This is a true treasure find!

It may be one for the Antique Roadshow!

Congratulations!
Neil
 

wow cool find
 

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
 

Marty-Graw said:
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.
 

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

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 said:
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.
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top