Abraham Lincoln hair lock to beat $10,000?

A lock of Abraham Lincoln's hair is to lead RR Auction's Remarkable Rarities sale, which will open on February 12.

The hair is housed in a locket and arranged into a log cabin scene.

Lincoln hair lock
The hair is arranged into a log cabin scene

It carries an opening bid of $10,000 and was originally acquired by Dr Charles Sabin Taft, the physician who tended to Lincoln on the night he was shot.

A note accompanying the lot reads: "Sketch of Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace, Harding, Ky, Feb. 12 1[80]9, Made from a lock of Lincoln's hair secured by Dr. Sabin Taft on the night of the assassination, April 14, 1865, Washington."

The auction house comments: "Dr. Taft was a member of the audience watching Our American Cousin on the night of April 13, 1865, and was one of three doctors to attend to the president at the theatre after he was shot.

"These two wonderful presentations of this hair���fine pieces of folk art in their own right���were acquired directly from a Connecticut family descending from Abraham Pierson, a founder of Yale.

"The lock may have come into the family's possession via Julia Taft Bayne, the half-sister of Dr. Charles Sabin Taft, who married a congregational minister in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1869."

The consignment of the lot comes soon after the sale of another lock of Lincoln's hair for $25,000 at Heritage Auctions.  

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