Edgar Allan Poe Inscribed Book
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GUEST:
The book was in the book collection of Professor Blume, who was a professor of history at Seton Hall College, which is now, of course, Seton Hall University. The book was passed down through his family to a woman who was a friend of my family who recently gave it to me.
APPRAISER:
And why don't we take a look at what the book is.
GUEST:
Sure.
APPRAISER:
It's a book called Zenosius. And if we look at the title page, we see that it's written by a Reverend Charles Constantine Pise. It's a very typical mid 19th-century book. You'll see that this was written in 1845. It was a religious historical novel of a young man who would have traveled through the world and gained religious knowledge. A s a book itself, it's got very little value-- probably in the $10 to $20 range-- but where its real value comes is in the inscription. If we turn to the flyleaf of the book, we'll see that it's inscribed, "To Miss Cordelia Eugenie AndrÈ from her sincere friend, Edgar A. Poe." Edgar Allan Poe has a great tradition of being linked to Baltimore. He's in fact buried here in Baltimore. Now, this is an Edgar Allan Poe signature. We're quite certain. And Edgar Allan Poe signatures are quite rare. He lived a short life. He lived from 1809 to 1849. Since this book was published in 1845, it's quite late in his life. I would say that its value at auction would probably be in the neighborhood of $6,000 to $9,000.
GUEST:
Really? That's great.
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