George Washington, Poe auction records set in NYC

I / New York December 5, 2009, 12:49 IST

A letter by George Washington has sold for $3,218,500 at auction in New York City, setting a world record for a letter by America's first president, according to Christie's. Washington's 1787 letter to nephew Bushrod Washington argues for the ratification of the newly drafted Constitution.

The letter had been owned by descendants of Bushrod Washington for more than 100 years, Christie's said. The buyer was not identified. The letter's rarity was the reason it commanded well over its pre-sale estimate of $1.5 million to $2.5 million at the auction yesterday at Rockefeller Center, said an auction house spokeswoman.

The previous record for a Washington letter was $8,34,500. It was set at a Christie's auction in 2002. A volume of poetry and a partial poem handwritten by Edgar Allan Poe also set world records during an earlier auction yesterday, Christie's said.

A bidding war over the poem was won by an American collector who bid $8,30,500, a world record for a 19th-century literary manuscript, Christie's said. The eight verses of the 16-verse poem "For Annie" was estimated to sell for $50,000 to $70,000.

A rare first edition of Poe's first book, "Tamerlane and Other Poems," sold for $6,62,500 at the same auction, the highest price ever paid for a 19th-century book of poetry.