Jim Bowie Signed Note Tops $587,000 Texana Offering at Heritage Auctions
DALLAS—An extraordinarily rare promissory note drafted and signed by Jim Bowie sold for $62,500 to lead Heritage Auctions’ annual Texana Grand Format Auction March 14 in Dallas. The auction realized $587,701 as nearly 400 bidders vied to own rare signed documents, letters and maps relating to the history of The Lone Star State.
“We work diligently all year long to assemble this auction and we were pleased to see collectors zero in on some really amazing finds,” said Sandra Palomino, Director of Historical Manuscripts at Heritage. “In some cases, this auction was the only opportunity (outside of a museum) to own true treasures that directly influenced the creation of this unique state.”
One of two known copies of Sam Houston’s historic broadside, appealing to the citizens of Texas for aid on the very day Texas declared her independence, sold for $52,500, nearly four times its estimate following interest from five bidders. The only duplicate is currently housed at the University of Texas at Austin.
Charles W. Pressler’s 1867 Traveller’s Map of the State of Texas, a rare, hand-colored glimpse of the state complete with unsettled territories and the locations of several Indian tribes, sold for $50,000 against a $10,000 estimate.
Among the extensive selection of documents signed by fallen heroes of the Alamo, include a letter penned and signed by David “Davey” Crockett, which sold for $37,500, and a two-page letter by William Barret Travis, written to secure a position of chief of police of San Felipe de Austin, which sold for $25,000.
A four-page 1824 Land Grant signed by Stephen F. Austin, conveying one league of land in Austin's Colony (modern-day Matagorda and Brazoria Counties), sold for $17,500, and rare document signed by Mathew Caldwell, aka Texas’ Paul Revere, also sold for $17,500 - nearly 10 times its original estimate.
Additional highlights include, but are not limited by:
A surety bond signed by Crockett: Realized: $16,250.
A letter signed by Benjamin McCulloch with an endorsement signed by future president James Buchanan, dated August 1, 1847 acknowledging McCulloch's resignation from his commission during the Mexican War: Realized: $8,750.
A pine mantle used in a stagecoach stop on the Texas frontier: Realized: $8,125.
Heritage Auctions is the largest auction house founded in the United States and the world’s third largest, with annual sales of more than $900 million, and 900,000+ online bidder members. For more information about Heritage Auctions, and to join and receive access to a complete record of prices realized, with full-color, enlargeable photos of each lot, please visit HA.com.
Want to get the up-to-the-minute updates and breaking news stories about Heritage Auctions? Follow us on HA.com/Facebook and HA.com/Twitter. To view an archive of Heritage press releases go to: HA.com/PR. To link to this release on your blog or Website: HA.com/PR-2712.
