Last week's Fine Book Auction at Freeman's was a big success, attracting local, national and international bids for rare manuscripts from distinguished American families.
Among the sale's highlights for sale was a pair of watercolour sketches from the Girard Trust bank by Philadeplia's nonpareil architect Frank Furness (1839-1912), sold for $16,000. Another sold for $20,000.
Furness was an acclaimed American architect during the Victoria era. His life's work included designing 600 buildings mainly in the Philadelphia area, US.
Original architectural wash drawings by Frank Furness (sold for $20,000)
were among the auction's big sales (Click to enlarge)
His buildings were characterised by eclectic, muscular, often idiosyncratically-scaled designs; and inspired many of the buildings which later sprang up in Chicago.
Elsewhere, a collection of 60 letters from 1814-1833 relating to America's social and political questions of the era also went under the hammer.
Sourced from the Baltimore publisher Hezikiah Niles and Philadelphia's leading printer publisher Mathew Carey, among other renowned historic sources, the letters sold for $10,000.
A copy of the first American pocket atlas, also produced by Carey, auctioned for $9,000.
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