News | February 17, 2023

Early Telephone and AT&T Archive Material to Auction

Quinn's

Archive known as ‘The Telephone Cases,’ - includes 20 original pleadings, complaints, briefs and filing documents associated with the nearly 600 cases filed by and against the American Bell Telephone Company and its adversaries contesting the telephone patents applied for and granted to Alexander Graham Bell. Estimate $1,000-$2,000

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell’s famous invention, the telephone. While scientific history is mired in controversy over who actually devised the first electronic speech-transmitting device, it was Bell who received the US patent for the telephone, on March 7, 1876. In recognition of his world-changing invention, Quinn’s has included several significant early documents and other ephemera pertaining to the telephone patent dispute in its February 20 Presidential Autograph and Americana Auction.

Papers associated with the many legal challenges to Bell’s invention are of inestimable importance, as decisions from those cases went on to set precedents that affected future patent litigation. Quinn’s presents several significant lots of ephemera directly associated with the dawn of telecommunications, starting with a first edition of Bell’s first report on the telephone, titled Researches In Telephony. In this account, Bell includes a word-for-word description of the first successful transmission of human speech via telephone, occurring on March 14, 1876. The report is part of a disbound 8-volume set and is estimated at $2,000-$3,000.

Bell’s The Second Bell Telephone Patent: Improvements in Electric Telephony relates to US Patent No. 186,787, which was issued on January 15, 1877. The second of Bell’s two fundamental patents for the telephone, it provided sweeping protection for the Scotsman’s invention, clearing a pathway for AT&T’s near-century-long monopoly in the marketplace. The lot offered by Quinn’s consists of three pages, two of them having intricately detailed illustrations and diagrams. Estimate: $1,000-$2,000

Quinn's

First edition of Alexander Graham Bell’s ‘Researches In Telephony,’ the inventor’s first report on the telephone, consists of new series Vol. IV and whole series Vol. XII (May 1876-May 1877), pp. 1-10. Publisher: John Wilson & Son, 1877. 8 vol. disbound. Contains Bell’s detailed description of first successful transmission of human speech via telephone. Estimate $2,000-$3,000

Quinn's

Alexander Graham Bell’s Second Bell Telephone Patent: Improvements in Electric Telephony, US Patent No. 186,787 issued on January 15, 1877, with illustrations and diagrams. One of Bell’s two fundamental patents for the telephone. Estimate $1,000-$2,000

Quinn's

Archive known as ‘The Telephone Cases,’ includes 20 original pleadings, complaints, briefs and filing documents associated with the nearly 600 cases filed by and against the American Bell Telephone Company and its adversaries contesting the telephone patents applied for and granted to Alexander Graham Bell. Estimate $1,000-$2,000

Quinn's

Framed presentation including check drawn on First National City Bank of New York account of ‘John F Kennedy,’ dated September 27, 1961 and made payable to Bethesda Engravers. Handwritten by White House staffer Pamela Turnure and hand-signed by Kennedy. Accompanied by inaugural invitation and other associated items. Estimate $4,000-$6,000

An extraordinary collection known as “The Telephone Cases” is a virtual archive of literature chronicling the years of litigation that ended in a win for Bell and untouchable status for AT&T until 1982, when the Bell System was finally broken up. The auction lot includes 20 original pleadings, complaints, briefs and filing documents associated with the nearly 600 cases filed by and against the American Bell Telephone Company and its adversaries. The lot estimate is $1,000-$2,000.

As is fitting for a Presidents Day auction, the 166-lot sale includes a broad array of Presidential autographs and memorabilia. In addition to documents and other materials signed by James Madison, James Buchanan and Theodore Roosevelt, there are letters and photographs hand-signed by Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, and George W Bush. A football emblazoned with the Presidential Seal and signed by four consecutive Presidents – GHW Bush, Clinton, GW Bush and Obama – is accompanied by a letter from the original owner, Worthington W White, who was an administrative officer and executive residence usher at The White House. Its estimate is $1,500-$2,500.

An attractively framed presentation dated February 14, 1865 features an Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) signed and sealed government appointment of J(ohn) H(olmes) Goodenow to the position of Consul General of the United States at Constantinople. Additionally, it is signed by Lincoln’s Secretary of State William H Seward [who later negotiated the United States’ $7.2 million purchase of Alaska from Russia]. The Lincoln appointment is from the penultimate month of the Civil War period. Estimate: $4,000-$6,000

Another framed presentation is anchored by a check drawn on First National City Bank of New York account of John F Kennedy. The $10.71 check is dated September 27, 1961 and made payable to Bethesda Engravers as payment for the engraver’s plate used to print JFK’s inaugural invitations. Handwritten by White House staffer Pamela Turnure, the check was then hand-signed by Kennedy. The framed grouping includes the actual engraver’s plate, an inaugural invitation and a letter on White House stationery. Estimate: $4,000-$6,000

In addition there are two important lots tied to women’s suffrage. The first is Ida Husted Harper’s 2-volume set titled Life And Work of Susan B Anthony. Published by Bowen-Merrill Co., in 1898 and 1899, the set is dated and inscribed by Anthony to her cousin, Mrs. Sarah Anthony Burtis, who assumed the post of acting secretary at 1848 Rochester Women’s Rights Convention. Estimate $800-$1,200. The second lot consists of a 4-volume set of books titled History of Woman Suffrage by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage. With lengthy personal inscriptions by Anthony and illustrated with steel engravings, this sought-after set is estimated at $2,000-$3,000.