They are making honest money with honest Abe.
Two front-row balcony tickets from the night Abraham Lincoln was assassinated inside Ford’s Theater sold at auction for a whopping $262,500, the Associated Press reported.
The trapezoid-shaped tickets, with a corner believed to have been cut off upon entry, are from the performance of “Our American Cousin” at the D.C. theater and are dated April 14, 1865. They are for seats 41 and 42, with section “D”. drawn in pencil for the dress circle area of the theater.
The entrances reportedly offered an unobstructed view of the assassination of the president, who was gunned down by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth.
“The presidential box occupied by the Lincolns was also located in the dress circle, more or less directly across from the front row seats represented by these two tickets,” according to an earlier 2002 auction of the historic stubs, which were later published. sold for $83,650. ahead of Boston-based RR Auction’s Saturday sale.
Tickets to the show where President Lincoln was assassinated have been auctioned for more than $262,000.AP
“This type of April 14, 1865 Ford’s Theater entry is extremely rare; auction records do not reveal other examples offered since its original sale as part of the Forbes Collection in 2002,” according to RR Auction.
Another rare bill from the performance, preserved in Harvard’s Houghton Library, was used to verify the authenticity of the two dress circle stubs through consistencies.
Surprisingly, tickets to the dress circle were not the most expensive sold at Ford’s Theater that night, despite Lincoln’s attendance. They called for a total of 75 cents, while orchestra seats were priced at $1, according to an advertisement on file at the Library of Congress.
Tickets that supposedly offered a panoramic view of Lincoln’s fatal shooting were auctioned for several hundred thousand dollars.
Tickets for the family circle were the cheapest: 25 cents, while private boxes cost between 6 and 10 dollars.
Booth, an actor who knew the theater well, took advantage of his familiarity to sneak into Lincoln’s cabin, one the president shared with his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, among others.
After Booth fired the fatal bullet, he jumped onto the stage, injured his leg, and shouted the Virginia state motto, “Sic semper tyrannis” (Latin for “So always to tyrants”) before limping away to escape. by horse.
He survived for 12 days, but was shot to death by Union troops who found the killer hiding in a Virginia barn, which they set on fire to force him out.
Tickets to the Lincoln assassination theater sold for a pretty penny at auction.REUTERS
Lincoln’s assassination, which took place days after the end of the Civil War, was part of a larger plot to decapitate the recently reunited American government. Booth’s fellow conspirators also targeted Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward.
Accomplice Lewis Powell repeatedly stabbed Seward inside his bedroom, but the secretary survived and recovered. Johnson was never attacked as would-be assassin George Atzerodt backed out of the plan.
Another artifact from the era, a first edition of the Lincoln-Douglas debates signed by Lincoln, sold for nearly $594,000 at Saturday’s auction, the AP reported.
Categories: Trending
Source: vtt.edu.vn