Large Auction Features Many Objects Of American History

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Sep 5th 2010 at 8:02PM

A treasure trove of Americana is up for auction next weekend when the belongings of Andrew Haswell Green go up for sale. Green, who lived from 1820 - 1903, was known as "The Father of Greater New York", helping to bring together the five boroughs of New York City and to create The American Museum of Natural History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Bronx Zoo. The collection is a museum's worth of American history, an incredible find that has antique dealers eagerly scanning the sale's catalogs.

Most of Green's belongings have remained boxed up for over one hundred years. The Boston Glove reports that boxes were only opened after the death of Julia Green, his great-great-grandniece and distant heiress. Thousands of documents, antiques and more will be sold in a four-day auction at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts by R.W. Oliver's auction house. The auction includes a printed copy of George Washington's will (only 13 copies are known to exist) and Presidential letters from Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson.

Over 2,000 lots and items will be sold without reserve. They had been passed down through generations, prized, but virtually untouched, sealed and stored until Julia Green's nephew and niece inherited the boxes and decided to have them assessed. In addition to the documents, the boxes contained Tiffany silver, antique toys and games, vintage clothing from ballgowns to flapper dresses, stamps, and coins. Catalog estimates of individual auction items range from $50 to $50,000 and the entire sale could bring in over $1 million.

Tags: a.h. green, americana, andrew haswell green, george washington, massachusetts, worcester