By Christine Kiernan
NEW YORK (Reuters) – As the world turns its attention to the U.S. election on Nov. 5, presidential history aficionados may be particularly interested in an auction later in the month that has objects on sale ranging from a lock of George Washington’s hair to a flag that accompanied Abraham Lincoln to his final resting place.
“We’re conducting an auction of a number of the most historic objects relating to American history that has ever come up for sale,” said Arlan Ettinger, president of New York-based Guernsey’s auction house.
One of the most intriguing items is the strands of hair of Washington, the very first U.S. president, who died in 1799. The graying hair has been preserved in a locket that was given to a family friend and passed down the generations.
There is also a U.S. flag that was draped on Lincoln’s coffin as it traveled in 1865 from Washington to Springfield, Illinois, where he is buried.
It has a sale estimate range of $800,000 to $1.2 million, although putting a value on such a unique item was difficult, said Ettinger.
A rare 49-star flag dating from the period in 1959 after Alaska joined the union but before Hawaii was added will also be among the items auctioned. That flag was in the White House during the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower.
The auction also will include presidential portraits from the Bachrach photography studio, many never before seen in public, and a portrait of Lincoln made by Francis Bicknell Carpenter as a study for his painting, “First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln,” which hangs today in the U.S. Capitol building.
The Nov. 22 sale will be conducted online and live at the Arader Galleries in New York City.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen at the election, but one way or another, there’s great focus on the Office of Presidency right now and American history,” Ettinger said.
(Reporting by Christine Kiernan; Writing by Rosalba O’Brien; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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