Mormon Founder’s Family Letter Tops Swann Galleries’ Americana Sale

The top lot at Swann Galleries' Printed & Manuscript Americana auction included the only known letter by Mormon founder Joseph Smith’s grandmother Lydia Mack. 

It was among a group of letters from Joseph Smith’s New Hampshire uncle, and the only known letter by Lydia Mack, which sold to a collector for $32,500. It was unearthed by Rick Statler, Director of Books & Manuscripts, among an otherwise unremarkable collection of c. 1800 New Hampshire family papers. Other Mormon material included the family papers of Mormon pioneer John Silvanus Davis which sold for $13,750.

The papers of Panama Canal engineer Harry Rousseau sold to an institution for $16,250, and the papers of his father-in-law, Herbert Squiers, a diplomat in China, made $9,750. The letters and diary of a Northerner observing slavery in Mississippi in 1859, again found among a larger collection of family papers, went for $13,000.

Highlights from the books section included:

• the first European history of the American Revolution, Geschichte der Kriege, 1776-77 ($5,000)
• the Revolutionary War naval print Memorable Engagement of the Serapis, 1780 ($6,500)
• Horacio Carochi’s 1645 first edition Arte de Lengua Mexicana ($10,400)
• Maturino Gilberti’s Vocabulario en lengua de Mechuacan, 1559 ($20,000)
• Thomas Hariot’s Admiranda narratio fida tamen, de commodis et incolarum ritibus Virginiae, 1590 ($23,750)

Of the 25 top lots, six sold to institutions, and seven to private collectors.