Hamilton Fever Grabs Sotheby’s at $2.6 Million Special Sale
- Auction house’s tally exceeds the presale estimated range
- Document naming Washington’s aide-de-camp among items sold
Sotheby’s sale of Alexander Hamilton letters and manuscripts in New York exceeded expectations by generating $2.6 million as the auction house capitalized on the historical figure’s surging popularity.
A 1777 document appointing Hamilton as aide-de-camp to General George Washington fetched $212,500 as part of the special auction on Wednesday from the family archives of the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, whose life inspired the Tony Award-winning musical “Hamilton.” A few minutes later, the earliest surviving love letter from Hamilton to his future wife Eliza, which began “My dearest girl,” sold for $118,750, surpassing the high estimate of $60,000.