Chekhov Letter on Newfound Fame and Henry VIII Warrant Lead Autograph Auction

A handwritten letter by Anton Chekhov in Russian about the success of The Seagull and his consequent fame leads RR Auction’s Fine Autographs & Artifacts online sale which closes October 14.

He writes to Capitolina Mikhailovna that he has recently returned to Moscow where he has had so many visitors that "I was receiving the public from, eight in the morning until ten at night...L N. Tolstoy has been to visit me, I have visited him and dined there…In short, I am besieged by celebrities like a virtuous maiden with angels while she sleeps."

The sudden celebrity followed the successful revival of The Seagull at the Moscow Art Theatre following its calamitous 1896 St. Petersburg premiere.  

Other highlights include:

• a vellum warrant signed 'Henry R' by Henry VIII in 1510, addressed to Andrew Wyndesore, Keeper of the Wardrobe, ordering five yards of London russet cloth for Humfrey Baryngton’s clothing. 
• a 1497 warrant signed 'H. R.' by Henry VII directing Robert Lytton, Keeper of the Great Wardrobe, to deliver coats of arms to five heralds, including the Garter, Richmond and Norroy Kings of Arms
• a 1503 decree bearing the signatures of both Ferdinand and Isabella addressed to the mayor of Valladolid calling for an investigation into claims that residents had seized municipal land and instructs him to hear those involved before providing redress
• an 1825 George IV signed warrant authorizing British envoy Charles Richard Vaughan to negotiate a treaty with the United States for “the more effectual Suppression of the Slave Trade"
• a handwritten August 1941 letter from Al Capone to his longtime family physician Dr. Kenneth Phillips requesting medication at a time when Capone was suffering from the effects of neurosyphilis
• a 1924 Indiana Reformatory document assessing John Dillinger’s arithmetic and language skills when he entered prison