Carnegie Autograph Album
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GUEST:
It belonged to my husband's great-aunt, who was Mrs. Andrew Carnegie. And her name was Louise Whitfield Carnegie.
APPRAISER:
Uh-huh. Well, I'll tell you a little bit about it that I've been able to determine. The binding is Dutch 17th-century silver. It's done on both sides, very elaborately engraved. Inside, it's a bit loose, as you can see. The book is a 19th-century book that's been put into this binding. This is the Carnegies' autograph album. And as you might expect, they had famous people visiting them. Now, when I think of Carnegie, I think of Carnegie Hall and music. And the famous visitor that he had was Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. And in 1891, not only did he sign his autograph book, but he was kind enough to write a whole musical quotation in there. He had people like Mark Twain come and visit. And Twain signed not only as Samuel Clemens, but as Mark Twain. And Rudyard Kipling signed here as Rudyard Kipling. And the other musical quotation he had was from Paderewski. Now, what's nice about this is that they're all very clean, very neat signatures. It's so beautiful, and the autographs are so important, that I think that this album would be worth around $10,000 today.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
So you have really a nice little family heirloom.
Appraisal Details
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