Realized: $1,720,150
2023 December 15 Historical Platinum Session Signature® Auction #6280
Auction Info
Buyer's Premium per Lot:
25% on the first $300,000 (minimum $49), plus 20% of any amount between $300,000 and $3,000,000, plus 15% of any amount over $3,000,000 per lot.
Sessions
Live Proxy bidding on Heritage Live now starts within 2 hours of when the auction opens for proxy bidding and continues through the live session.
1 - Signature® Floor Session (Live Floor, Live Phone, Mail, Fax, Internet, and Heritage Live):
(Lots 47001-47104) - 11:00 AM Central Time, Friday, December 15, 2023.
Approximate rate of lots sold per hour: 50 lots
Auction Location
Heritage Auctions - Dallas
2801 W. Airport Freeway
Dallas, TX 75261
"The World's Greatest Typewriter Collection"
- Huffington Post
Steve Soboroff
Los Angeles
December 1, 2023
Dear Fellow Collectors,
There are rare typewriters, some of which date back to 1867, and some of which have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. There are typewriter documentaries, typewriter museums, legendary typewriter collectors, a typewriter orchestra, photos made from typewriters, and thousands of articles about typewriters and what they mean to their owners.
Many of your parents and your grandparents may have passed their typewriters on to you or your relatives. No two are the exact same. They are unique engraving machines. No delete button, just a bell.
The Soboroff Typewriter Collection (hereafter referred to as "The Collection") is quite a bit different -- it is about who owned the typewriter and what he or she typed on it. These one-of-a-kind machines were important parts of their owners' creative lives. Partners, if you will, to some of the most important authors, playwrights, sports people, composers, and entertainment figures in American history. All famous (and a few infamous) and featured on the covers of legendary magazines and newspapers worldwide.
As Los Angeles Police Commissioner, I learned the value of healthy skepticism and the importance of forensics in getting to the truth. Inclusion in The Collection is preceded by proof of at least two, though usually more, of the following: receiving the typewriter directly from the family or the principal themselves; a photo of the owner with the typewriter; exact match to a typescript; using conversations with descendants, friends, or employees of the principal to verify ownership -- sometimes including following leads from repair shop stickers; working with libraries and scholars to authenticate items found with the typewriter; finally, checking the serial number database.
The Collection took almost 20 years to put together. Sometimes, a family member would wait for years before agreeing to sell. Six of the 39 are now in The Smithsonian (appraised at an average of $251,000 each), and the remaining 33 are in today's auction.
The Collection has traveled to and has been included in exhibitions all over the USA. One exhibit, scheduled for 4 weeks, lasted for 14 months due to overwhelming and popular demand. Folks have been allowed to actually type on their favorite typewriter by making a contribution to a scholarship program for journalism students. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been raised. Hands shook, and tears were even shed while supporters typed messages on these historic machines and kept, as a lifetime souvenir, the sheet of paper.
It is time for these pieces of history, each with a unique story, to be more widely celebrated.
My hope is that those of you who are fortunate enough to acquire one or more of these treasures will share them widely by allowing museums, friends, universities, print, TV, and radio media to see and hear about what you acquired from "The World's Greatest Typewriter Collection" and your personal reason for doing so.
This is emotional for me, and I hope for you and yours for generations to come.
The True Story of 'The World's Greatest Typewriter Collection'
STEVE SOBOROFF'S LEGENDARY ASSEMBLAGE FEATURES WRITING MACHINES FROM THE LIKES OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY, HUGH HEFNER, TRUMAN CAPOTE AND TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
By Robert Wilonsky
Like so many collections, it began with a single purchase made on a whim -- in this case, the typewriter used by a Pulitzer-winning sportswriter. The man who bought the machine, Steve Soboroff, was a fan of the man who used it, revered Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray, whose words Soboroff devoured each morning, especially after nights when Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax hurled fastballs using The Left Hand of God. Soboroff wanted the 1940 Remington Model J so desperately that he outdueled two others competing for it at auction in 2005: the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was a hell of a score.
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