The time has come to sell my highly coveted First Edition Book of Mormon. I’ve been collecting rare LDS books for over 20 years and this is the prize of my collection. I had it treated for preservation and a custom clam shell leather display box made for it. This Book of Mormon belonged to James Emmett, a colorful figure in early Mormon history. He was a member of the Council of Fifty, the secretive organization the formed the political Kingdom of God on earth. He was commissioned, like Lyman White, to find a suitable place for the saints to move to. After Joseph’s death, James Emmett led away 100 saints to South Dakota for a short time and returned under chastisement from Brigham Young. He was eventually cut off from the church.
B. H. Roberts notes of James Emmett that he "was quite active in the affairs of the church in Missouri; but just a bit uncertain in his conduct. . . . He was always a restless, impatient man and ambitious of leadership which led him into great trouble and final separation from the church." (HC, 7:270 fn.)
I’ll get some photo’s and a better description posted in the near future.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Rare Book of Mormon Auctioned $97,900
Rare Book of Mormon Auctioned LDS Living Staff12/12/2007 05:06 PM MST
A first-edition Book of Mormon sold Wednesday in an auction for $97,900, it is one of only 600 remaining original copies.
The auction for the book took place in Geneva, N.Y., and closed Wednesday at noon after only being open for three minutes. The auction participants were from all over the country, including phone and absentee bidders from Calif., Arizona, and Utah.
Hessney Auction Co. hosted the auction and stated the book was printed in 1830. It was purchased in 1944 at a bookstore in Hollywood, Calif. by Harold Lundstrom, who was a music critic for the Deseret News for many years. A bookplate bearing his name is on the inside of the front cover. The sellers obtained the book from Lundstrom in 1968.
The conclusion of this auction adds to the growing list of recent sales of early Church articles. In Sept., another first-edition Book of Mormon sold for more than $105,000. And in March, a rare Hymn book and first-edition Book of Mormon each sold for $180,000.
“According to Missouri-based rare book collector John Hajicek, who owns 80 1830 editions of the Book of Mormon, 250 copies of the book are now in the hands of private collectors, 50 are owned by libraries or museums and another estimated 250 are still undiscovered,” the Deseret News stated.
A first-edition Book of Mormon sold Wednesday in an auction for $97,900, it is one of only 600 remaining original copies.
The auction for the book took place in Geneva, N.Y., and closed Wednesday at noon after only being open for three minutes. The auction participants were from all over the country, including phone and absentee bidders from Calif., Arizona, and Utah.
Hessney Auction Co. hosted the auction and stated the book was printed in 1830. It was purchased in 1944 at a bookstore in Hollywood, Calif. by Harold Lundstrom, who was a music critic for the Deseret News for many years. A bookplate bearing his name is on the inside of the front cover. The sellers obtained the book from Lundstrom in 1968.
The conclusion of this auction adds to the growing list of recent sales of early Church articles. In Sept., another first-edition Book of Mormon sold for more than $105,000. And in March, a rare Hymn book and first-edition Book of Mormon each sold for $180,000.
“According to Missouri-based rare book collector John Hajicek, who owns 80 1830 editions of the Book of Mormon, 250 copies of the book are now in the hands of private collectors, 50 are owned by libraries or museums and another estimated 250 are still undiscovered,” the Deseret News stated.
Book of Mormon is Auctioned for $105,000
From New York Times - Sept 20, 2007
Several weeks ago, according to the owner of an upstate New York auction company, he and his staff were combing through the belongings of an elderly man about to enter a nursing home. The house was just outside Palmyra, the birthplace of the Mormon religion, and amid the attic clutter, at the bottom of a box of books, was the treasure: a 177-year-old first-edition copy of the Book of Mormon.
At an auction held yesterday in nearby Geneva, an undisclosed bidder from the East Coast paid $105,600, including the auctioneer’s commission, for the book, which is considered sacred by Mormons. There were originally 5,000 first-edition copies of the Book of Mormon, and some collectors estimate that fewer than 500 may remain today.
Mormons believe that the Book of Mormon, one of three books of Mormon Scripture beyond the Bible, was translated from golden tablets that Joseph Smith Jr. of Palmyra discovered in a hillside in the 1820s. He was the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church.
“It’s a terribly important book to the Latter-day Saints and is absolutely the foundation of their belief system,” said Jan Shipps, a non-Mormon scholar of Mormonism and professor emeritus of history and religious studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
In recent years, interest has soared in first-edition Mormon documents, as have the prices paid at auction.
In March, another first-edition Book of Mormon sold for a record $180,000, said Rebecca Weiss, a spokeswoman for Swann Auction Galleries in Manhattan. That copy had a special provenance. Not only was it signed by Orson Pratt, one of the first 12 church apostles, but an inscription indicated that the book was also given to the owner by Joseph Smith’s brother, Hyrum Smith. “All of that really led to the extraordinary price,” Ms. Weiss said.
At the auction yesterday in the Finger Lakes city of Geneva, the opening bid was $77,500. The book was an unrestored copy with the original binding, and its discovery immediately drew national interest.
While Palmyra has many Mormons and is historically significant, it is predominantly a working-class town that is struggling financially. Of the 20 people who showed up saying they were there to at least see the rare book, only one said he intended to place a bid.
“We knew it was a big-buck item, and it wasn’t something the local Mormon population was going to be able to afford,” said Roberta Hessney, who owns Hessney Auction Company with her husband, Joseph Hessney.
Indeed, the real action was off-site. Six bidders were on the phone, and another five were absentee bidders who had put in a maximum bid beforehand. Both groups were primarily from California and Utah, where the largest concentrations of Mormons live. In six minutes, the bidding ended at $105,600.
Mr. Hessney, whose company handled the sale, said that his manager, Mark Witmer, was the one who discovered the copy in the attic in Newark, N.Y., about seven miles east of Palmyra. The owner, whom he would not identify, had apparently misplaced it years ago.
“At first, the gentleman didn’t remember it,” Mr. Hessney said. “But after we told him about it, he said that he did remember it, and that he purchased it in the 1930s when he was a boy, when he was 15 or 16. It was one of the first antiques he owned, and he said he had been looking for it.”
Alfred L. Bush, the retired curator of Western Americana in the Princeton University Library and an expert on Mormon books, said that while the Book of Mormon is not rare, it is “desired and collected, so the prices have been steadily going up.” He owns a first-edition Book of Mormon with the original binding that he bought 45 years ago for $50.
The most coveted Mormon book is actually the first edition of the Book of Commandments, Smith’s revelations, which were published shortly after the Book of Mormon. Local mobs in Missouri that were persecuting Mormons destroyed the printing press, as well as the books, and only about a dozen first-edition copies survive, according to Mr. Bush. Princeton University owns such a copy, which Mr. Bush estimated was worth about $1 million.
Just how many first editions of the Book of Mormon remain is unclear. Jared F. Brown, president of Latter-day Harvest, a bookseller in Ogden, Utah, said he doubted that more than 10 percent of the original 5,000 copies survived. Mr. Bush said research libraries and museums hold about 100 first editions.
While the Mormon faith started in New York, most of its followers were driven west. Smith led his followers first to Ohio, then to Missouri and then Illinois, where he was killed in 1844.
Several weeks ago, according to the owner of an upstate New York auction company, he and his staff were combing through the belongings of an elderly man about to enter a nursing home. The house was just outside Palmyra, the birthplace of the Mormon religion, and amid the attic clutter, at the bottom of a box of books, was the treasure: a 177-year-old first-edition copy of the Book of Mormon.
At an auction held yesterday in nearby Geneva, an undisclosed bidder from the East Coast paid $105,600, including the auctioneer’s commission, for the book, which is considered sacred by Mormons. There were originally 5,000 first-edition copies of the Book of Mormon, and some collectors estimate that fewer than 500 may remain today.
Mormons believe that the Book of Mormon, one of three books of Mormon Scripture beyond the Bible, was translated from golden tablets that Joseph Smith Jr. of Palmyra discovered in a hillside in the 1820s. He was the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church.
“It’s a terribly important book to the Latter-day Saints and is absolutely the foundation of their belief system,” said Jan Shipps, a non-Mormon scholar of Mormonism and professor emeritus of history and religious studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
In recent years, interest has soared in first-edition Mormon documents, as have the prices paid at auction.
In March, another first-edition Book of Mormon sold for a record $180,000, said Rebecca Weiss, a spokeswoman for Swann Auction Galleries in Manhattan. That copy had a special provenance. Not only was it signed by Orson Pratt, one of the first 12 church apostles, but an inscription indicated that the book was also given to the owner by Joseph Smith’s brother, Hyrum Smith. “All of that really led to the extraordinary price,” Ms. Weiss said.
At the auction yesterday in the Finger Lakes city of Geneva, the opening bid was $77,500. The book was an unrestored copy with the original binding, and its discovery immediately drew national interest.
While Palmyra has many Mormons and is historically significant, it is predominantly a working-class town that is struggling financially. Of the 20 people who showed up saying they were there to at least see the rare book, only one said he intended to place a bid.
“We knew it was a big-buck item, and it wasn’t something the local Mormon population was going to be able to afford,” said Roberta Hessney, who owns Hessney Auction Company with her husband, Joseph Hessney.
Indeed, the real action was off-site. Six bidders were on the phone, and another five were absentee bidders who had put in a maximum bid beforehand. Both groups were primarily from California and Utah, where the largest concentrations of Mormons live. In six minutes, the bidding ended at $105,600.
Mr. Hessney, whose company handled the sale, said that his manager, Mark Witmer, was the one who discovered the copy in the attic in Newark, N.Y., about seven miles east of Palmyra. The owner, whom he would not identify, had apparently misplaced it years ago.
“At first, the gentleman didn’t remember it,” Mr. Hessney said. “But after we told him about it, he said that he did remember it, and that he purchased it in the 1930s when he was a boy, when he was 15 or 16. It was one of the first antiques he owned, and he said he had been looking for it.”
Alfred L. Bush, the retired curator of Western Americana in the Princeton University Library and an expert on Mormon books, said that while the Book of Mormon is not rare, it is “desired and collected, so the prices have been steadily going up.” He owns a first-edition Book of Mormon with the original binding that he bought 45 years ago for $50.
The most coveted Mormon book is actually the first edition of the Book of Commandments, Smith’s revelations, which were published shortly after the Book of Mormon. Local mobs in Missouri that were persecuting Mormons destroyed the printing press, as well as the books, and only about a dozen first-edition copies survive, according to Mr. Bush. Princeton University owns such a copy, which Mr. Bush estimated was worth about $1 million.
Just how many first editions of the Book of Mormon remain is unclear. Jared F. Brown, president of Latter-day Harvest, a bookseller in Ogden, Utah, said he doubted that more than 10 percent of the original 5,000 copies survived. Mr. Bush said research libraries and museums hold about 100 first editions.
While the Mormon faith started in New York, most of its followers were driven west. Smith led his followers first to Ohio, then to Missouri and then Illinois, where he was killed in 1844.
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