general orders no 9

[zeke]

At auction at Sotheby's, May 25th, lot 81. A signed copy of General Lee's order surrendering the Army of Northern Virginia. Just wondering how many signed copies are known, not that I have 50 to 70 k to add this to my personal collection.

 

[raydog9379]

No idea, but a number of officers created their own copies and brought them to Lee to sign as well. It'll probably go for more than that as I think I saw a copy back in 2011 go for $98k. But this one is fairly faint looking.

One thing that is cool is that they have on the same auction a copy of Gen. Orders 139 (Pre-Emancipation Proc.). Estimate 1500 or so. I have the same copy and a copy of the Naval Orders from Jan 1863, so will be curious to see what it goes for... even though I'm not wishing to sell it.

 

[zeke]

No idea, but a number of officers created their own copies and brought them to Lee to sign as well. It'll probably go for more than that as I think I saw a copy back in 2011 go for $98k. But this one is fairly faint looking.

One thing that is cool is that they have on the same auction a copy of Gen. Orders 139 (Pre-Emancipation Proc.). Estimate 1500 or so. I have the same copy and a copy of the Naval Orders from Jan 1863, so will be curious to see what it goes for... even though I'm not wishing to sell it.

Thanks for the info. I have a few pieces of my own, but this is quite a bit out of my price range. I was just curious about it as I thought, how many could there be? I wouldn't think RE Lee would feel like signing a lot of them. It seems like it should go to a museum.........

 

[raydog9379]

Even copies that aren't signed by Lee go for $13-15k. I did a quick search on Heritage Auctions and there was one signed by Lee that went for $50k back in 2013. All depends on condition and provenance (i.e. if it was owned by a specific officer or whatnot).