The Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana sale at Christie's New York this morning brought in $3,342,438. Many of the expected high spots didn't sell, but the 1823 Stone engraving of the Declaration of Independence on parchment did well, making $302,500. The Einstein speech manuscript carried the day, though, fetching $578,500 (well over the $250,000-350,000 estimate).
A first edition of Nicolai Ivanovitch Lobatchevskii's O nachalakh geometrii (1829-1830) made $134,500 (not quite reaching the estimate). A presentation copy of Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! fetched $86,500. A first edition of Darwin's Origin (1859) sold for $52,500. The unfolded copy of the 1833 Declaration engraving made for Peter Force's American Archives brought $23,750.
And that 1787 Ethan Allen letter to Crevecoeur? It still didn't find a buyer.
