Profiles in History, run by Joe Maddalena, hosts today's July 10th, "Rare Books & Manuscripts Auction," in Los Angeles. Highlights from the upcoming auction are detailed below:
An absolutely historic Alexander Graham Bell aviation archive on his quest for manned flight. This archive includes a 217-page handwritten and extra-illustrated laboratory journal and over 950 photographs documenting his early experiments with tetrahedral kites in his pursuit of manned flight. The 217-page laboratory journal is dated 18 June 1903 through 12 December 1903, from Bell's Beinn Bhreagh laboratory on the property of his summer home near Baddeck, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. There are thousands of words penned by Bell captioning the photographs (many signed with his initials), as well as hand-drawn sketches, diagrams, schematics and weight-to-surface area calculations. It is expected to fetch $120,000 to $150,000.
A deeply personal collection of Ernest Hemingway items related to his last great work, The Dangerous Summer, including a three-piece matador uniform worn by the great Antonio Ordóñez, who was part of the central focus of the book, a sword purchased by Hemingway for his friend and editor A.E. Hotchner, a sterling silver trophy given to Hotchner from Hemingway and a "lucky chestnut" that Hemingway carried around with him for 11 years before returning it to his friend a month before committing suicide - all with highly detailed provenance from Hotchner. The collection is expected to fetch $30,000 - $50,000.
Finally, one of the most important literary relics of the 20th century, Ernest Hemingway's personal travel typewriter in a leather case. This is the typewriter used by Hemingway to write his last great work, The Dangerous Summer. This Halda Swedish-made typewriter is fully functional and was obtained from famed author A. E. Hotchner who wrote the definitive biography,Papa Hemingway. Author Hotchner indicated in a private interview that he was there with Hemingway in 1959 when he was typing portions of The Dangerous Summer on this very typewriter. For perspective, in 2009, Christie's, New York, sold author Cormac McCarthy's typewriter used to type his novels for an extraordinary sum of $254,500. This typewriter is expected to fetch $60,000 - $80,000.
Founded in 1985 by Joseph Maddalena, Profiles in History is the world's largest auctioneer & dealer of original Hollywood Memorabilia, historical autographs, letters, documents, vintage signed photographs and manuscripts. Born into a family of antiques dealers in Rhode Island, Joseph "Joe" Maddalena learned early on how to turn his passion of collecting historical autographs into a career. Upon graduation from Pepperdine, Joe pursued his passion to become a full-time dealer of historical documents, and opened his first office in 1985. Profiles in History has held some of the most prestigious and successful auctions of Hollywood memorabilia and own virtually every Guinness Book record for prices of original screen-used memorabilia. Highlights from their previous auctions include the "Cowardly Lion" costume from The Wizard of Oz ($805,000); Steve McQueen's "Michael Delaney" racing suit from Le Mans ($960,000); From the history-making Debbie Reynolds Auction in June 2011, Profiles in History sold the Marilyn Monroe "Subway" Dress from The Seven Year Itch for $5.52M and the Audrey Hepburn Ascot Dress from My Fair Lady for $4.44M. In February 2012, Profiles in History arranged the sale of a pair of Judy Garland screen-used Ruby Slippers from The Wizard of Oz to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. In addition, Joe Maddalena is the star of Hollywood Treasure, which just ended its second season on Syfy. Hollywood Treasure takes viewers into the fascinating world of showbiz and pop culture memorabilia. For more information visit
www.profilesinhistory.com
