O/T What's the best auction house to sell autographed documents?
 

I wrote O/T since these autographed items are not baseball related, but hopefully someone can provide some suggestions on auction houses.

Several years ago I inherited a very nice autograph collection from my uncle and I'm considering putting some of it up for auction.
It consists of documents signed by Presidents, governors, famous leaders, etc. One collection consists of autographed documents from every governor of New York State up to the 1970s when he stopped collecting. There is an artist's portrait of Abe Lincoln that is about 2' x 3' and has Abe's signature.
There are many signed documents in foreign languages dating to the 1500s,1600s, and 1700s, some I believe are from Kings or Kaisers (spelling?) with a wax seal.

I would like to get an idea how much these items are worth. I live 90 minutes outside the New York metropolitan area and I could drive the items anywhere within a couple hours radius to get appraisals.

Any recommendations would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Paul C.

There are many in NYC but a place you could start is Swann Auction Galleries. They are on East 25th Street in Manhattan, and have a document department.

I knew I chose the wrong uncle.

Go to "Gotta Have It" in New York City.

http://www.gottahaveit.com/

Lelands is in the general area and sells non-sport autographs like you describe. Also the head, Josh Evens, is an appraiser as well. I've bought non-sport autographs from them, include of Presidents, Governors and such.

My uncle reminded me a lot of Jefferson Burdick with his obsession and devotion to collecting. They actually lived just a few miles from each other. He never married and spent all his time and money on his collections.
His autograph collection was just one of his passions. He had a huge collection of ancient roman coins which he willed to a childhood friend, and he had many other hobbies.
He tried giving his hundreds of rare books on Irish genealogy and New York State history to a library but they wouldn't take them unless he donated a large sum of money to create a separate room for security. He was a remarkable individual but very low key about his collections.