River View Observer best pick “RARE COLLECTABLE AUCTION” BY COHASCO INC.
When Walt Disney wrote to a Minnesota man on November 29, 1935, he never dreamed what that letter would be worth one day. Typed on his “Silly Symphony” letterhead, with a large Mickey Mouse in orange and black, it is today something of a holy grail 
for Disney collectors.
For six years, Disney’s “Silly Symphony” cartoons won Academy Awards and brought about the birth of among many other characters, Donald Duck. Signed with his cartoonists’ pen, Walt Disney’s letter, with its Mickey Mouse envelope, is estimated to sell in the Nov. 12th
Yonkers auction of Cohasco, Inc., for $3,500-$5,000.
Six hundred other lots of collectibles in the auction include:
The world’s largest private collection of U.S. Capitol Building
memorabilia. Capturing the heart of a collector, 575 items every one
showing the famed structure, were gathered over decades. The one-of-
a-kind collection even includes a shoe, a miniature piano, and a bell,
all depicting the Capitol Building. This year marks the 150th
anniversary of the arrival of the model for the Statue of Freedom,
which sits atop the Capitol dome (pre-sale estimate, $2,000-$4,000).
A letter from New Orleans writing of the “dreadful gale of wind”,
certainly a hurricane, in 1837. Part of a 245-item archive of life in
New Orleans and the Old South, the original letters and documents
describe the lost world of steamboats, cotton trading, plantations,
great wealth, the early frontier, sugar, tobacco, and slavery
($48,000-$60,000).
“The Pamphlet That Shaped A Nation,” a 26-page booklet printed in
Spring 1776 by the same man, John Dunlap, who printed the Declaration
of Independence on the night of July 4th. Included in the Library of
Congress’ online presentation, “Creating the United States,” only
three other original examples of this pamphlet are known ($1,500-
$2,500).
Advertising booklet for one of the very first hybrid cars, the 1905
Gas-Au-Lec of Peabody, MA. Combining gas, steam, and electricity,
only four cars were ever built ($110-$140).
Description of the fabled, “Letter From Jesus,” in an English
schoolboy’s notebook of 1698-1702. According to tradition, King Abgar
wrote to Jesus, asking for help in curing his illness; he received a
reply, and was visited and cured by one of Jesus’ disciples ($400-$600).
An 1816 letter of a plantation overseer, ordering striped fabric for
slaves’ clothing ($90-$120).
And many other unusual historical items, in thirty-four categories.
Including the most valuable and unusual lot which is just that: an
empty lot, but with a secret. Hiding in plain sight in downtown
Yonkers, just behind the auction house, is one of the most ancient
African- American historical sites in the country. Forgotten for
years, it dates to 1682, surpassing even the Manhattan Burial Ground
by about eight years. While not in any auction, the Liberation Lawn
harbors over thirty specific points and periods of African-American
history, a high number for historical sites of any kind. These points
include: the formal entry tended by slaves of the richest couple in
old New York, George Washington’s 1776 encampment, land impacted by
the very first freedom law of its kind in America over 75 years before
the Emancipation Proclamation, rare written documentation of the
Underground Railroad on site, and much more.
City plans call for this Liberation Lawn, adjoining the Philipse Manor
Historic District, to be strip-excavated, then flooded with cement,
for a garage and condo. Efforts of local citizens to preserve
Liberation Lawn are ongoing. Its secrets were rediscovered by a
rather astonished Bob Snyder, Cohasco V.P., who published them in the
Yonkers Historical Society’s Quarterly. Snyder remarked, “That so
many key chapters in history occurred on one modest piece of land is
extraordinary. It’s highly likely that the number of historical
discoveries about Liberation Lawn’s role in slavery and freedom in
America will continue to grow. But we’re racing the clock.”
About Cohasco, Inc.: Established 63 years, Cohasco is a dealer in and
auctioneer of manuscripts, books, antiquarian materials and
collectibles. Over the years they have handled the sale of numerous
prominent collections, in a range of fields, from colonial to
Confederate, medieval to modern. Recent highlights included the
lamps that illuminated Lincoln’s wedding, an archive of the Duryea,
America’s first “mass-produced” automobile, and the Bible owned by
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s mother, setting a world record price for
a twentieth-century Bible.
For more information, please contact Bob Snyder at:
Cohasco, Inc.
ESTABLISHED 63 YEARS
P.O. Drawer 821
Yonkers, NY 10702
Phone: (914) 476-8500
Fax: (914) 476-8573
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://cohascodpc.com
