Sending words of "my old and precious friend, John Brown" - photo 1

Sending words of "my old and precious friend, John Brown"

Lot 248
26.05.2022 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 189 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 752842
Lot 248 | Sending words of "my old and precious friend, John Brown"
Estimate value
$ 20 000 – 30 000
Sending words of "my old and precious friend, John Brown"Frederick Douglass, 1861DOUGLASS, Frederick (1817/1818-1895) and BROWN, John (1800-1859). Autograph letter signed ("Frederick Douglass") to S[amuel] D. Porter, Rochester, 16 April 1861 with four autograph words by John Brown affixed below Douglass's signature.One page, 200 x 126mm (lightly toned at top margin, glue remnants where Brown's autograph is affixed). Douglass conveys his hope that the Civil War will end slavery and sends several words of John Brown's handwriting. Douglass is writing to his friend Samuel Porter (1808-1891), a fellow abolitionist and a conductor on the Underground Railroad: “It gives me pleasure to be able to oblige with an extract from a letter from my old and precious friend John Brown. It is but a part of a sentence, but I hope enough to serve the purpose of your friend Dr. Sprague. It is a fair specimen of Capt Brown's chirography. The good old man wrote with much care and very uniformly." (The sample of Brown's handwriting, affixed with glue, reads: "our own faults; & follies.") Writing in the days immediately following the fall of Fort Sumter, Douglass concludes by offering his hopes that the coming war will put an end to slavery: "I am deeply exercised by what is going now in the country. Oh! That out of the present trouble and chaos might come the Slaves deliverance! The calamity of civil war can have no compensation short of this."Douglass first met John Brown in the late 1840s, and it was at Douglass's home in Rochester in 1858 that Brown composed his provisional constitution for a state to be formed in the west of Virginia, populated by escaped slaves. Following the Harper's Ferry raid, it was found among Brown's papers and was used in his trial as evidence of sedition. Following Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, Douglass, although denying any direct involvement in the plot, fled to Canada to avoid an arrest warrant in Virginia and subsequently embarked on a lecture tour in Great Britain. He returned to the United States in the spring of 1860, again via Canada to avoid detection. During the Civil War, Douglass, the most famous Black man in America, campaigned for emancipation. After Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, Douglass worked to recruit Black soldiers to enlist in the Union Army. Three of his sons served in various capacities in the Army, most notably his son Lewis, fought at the Battle of Fort Wagner.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
20 Rockefeller Plaza
10020 New York
USA
Preview
26.05.2022 – 26.05.2022
Phone +1 212 636 2000
Fax +1 212 636 4930
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase
Shipping Postal service
Courier service
pickup by yourself
Payment methods Wire Transfer
Business hoursBusiness hours
Mo 09:30 – 17:00   
Tu 09:30 – 17:00   
We 09:30 – 17:00   
Th 09:30 – 17:00   
Fr 09:30 – 17:00   
Sa closed
Su closed

Frequently asked questions

First of all, you should register to be able to purchase at auction. After confirming your email address, enter your personal information in your user profile, such as your first name, last name, and mail address. Choose a lot from the upcoming auction and the maximum amount you want to place on it. After confirmation of your choice, we will send your application by e-mail to the appropriate auction house. If the auction house accepts a request, it will participate in the auction. You can view the current status of a bid at any time in your personal account in the "Bids" section.
Auctions are performed by auction houses and each of the auction houses describes their terms of auction. You can see the texts in the section "Auction information".
The results of the auction are published within a few days after the end of the auction. In the top menu of the site, find the tab "Auctions". Click on it and you will be on the auction catalog page, where you can easily find the category "Results". After opening it, select the desired auction from the list, enter and view the current status of the interested lot.
The information about the auction winners is confidential. The auction winner will receive a direct notification from the auction house responsible with instructions for further action: an invoice for payment and the manner in which the goods will be received.
Each of the auction houses has its own payment policy for the won lots. All auction houses accept bank transfers, most of them accept credit card payments. In the near future you will find detailed information for each case in the section "Auction information" on the page of the auction catalog and the lot.
Shipment of the won lot depends on its size. Small items can be delivered by post. Larger lots are sent by courier. Employees of the auction houses will offer you a wide range to choose from.
No. The archive serves as a reference for the study of auction prices, photographs and descriptions of works of art.