Some people shelled out some serious dough for their favorite collectibles this past year. Here are just a few of the record-breaking auctions from 2007.
1. A copy of the Magna Carta sold for $21,321,000.
There are about 20 in the world, but only two outside Britain. The new owner immediately arranged for it to go back on view at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. It was last sold in 1983 by an English family and bought by Ross Perot, who had also placed it on display.
2. The Rothschild family's pink Faberge egg auctioned for $18,500,000.
The Faberge Egg sold for a price of 18.5 million US dollars ($8.98 million pounds or 12.5 million euro).
3. A Philadelphia Chippendale carved mahogany tea table with a piecrust edge was $6,761,000.
Previously unknown, the Fisher Fox family Chippendale mahogany piecrust tea table sold for $6,761,000, an auction record for Philadelphia furniture, to C.L. Prickett Antiques underbid by G.W. Samaha.
4. A Hertford jewel cabinet from England sold for $3,176,000.
John Webb, Hertford jewel cabinet, commissioned by John Rutter in Paris for the 4th Marquess of Hertford, 1855–1857, sold for $3,176,000, establishing a new record for Nineteenth Century furniture.
5. The rare Honus Wagner 1909-1911 T206 baseball card went for $2,350,000.
The Mona Lisa of all trading cards was put up for auction Feb. 27, 2007 and sold for an unprecedented $2.35 million. The T206 Honus Wagner is recognized by collectors and industry experts as the most famous and valuable baseball card in existence.The card was purchased by a private California sports collector.
6. Two decoys by A. Elmer Crowell, a pintail drake and a sleeping Canada goose, each sold for $1,130,000.
Above: A. Elmer Crowell's preening pintail drake decoy, $1.1 million.
Above: Stephen B. O'Brien Jr with antique preening pintail drake and sleeping Canada goose decoys by renowned carver A. Elmer Crowell.
7. "Inverted Jenny" stamp sells for $825,000
One of the famous error stamps, the "Jenny," a 1918 24-cent stamp showing an upside-down biplane, was sold privately to a Wall Street executive for $825,000. It seems like a bargain. The buyer had tried to buy another of the "Inverted Jenny" stamps a month earlier, but it sold to another collector for $977,500.
8. A Santa Barbara art pottery vase by Frederick Hurten Rhead with a stylized landscape sold for $516,000.
A Rhead Santa Barbara pottery masterpiece, an 11 1/4-inch vase with mirror black glaze and stylized trees, auctioned at a Rago Craftsman Auction in New Jersey for the astounding record price of $516,000 on March 10.
9. Vacheron Watch Sets Record For Christie's
Watches sold well; one of the highest was a vintage 18k pink gold Vacheron Constantine wristwatch with the complications of minute repeating, triple calendar and phases of the moon that brought $457,000.
10. A mechanical bank, "Jonah and the Whale, Jonah Emerges," one of dozens of very high-priced banks, auctioned this year for $414,000.
11. A comic book, the Amazing Fantasy No. 15 that introduced Spider-Man, auctioned for a record $227,000.
Publisher: MARVEL
Condition: CGC 9.4 NM
Census Rank: 2nd Highest CGC Graded
Page Quality: Off-White to White Pages
Type of Holder: Universal
Degree Of Restoration: Unrestored
Pedigree or Highlight: WHITE MOUNTAIN PEDIGREE
Item description: 1962, 1st Spider-Man and Original Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko art.
12. The original art of a Peanuts strip by Charles Schulz auctioned for $113,525.
It showed Charlie Brown at a rainy baseball game.
13. The first electric typewriter, the Blick Electric made in 1902 in the United States, set a world record price of $100,000 at a German auction.
World's first electric typewriter, the »Blick Electric« from 1902, (Lot 172) – invented by the world famous American Charles Blickensderfer, Stamford, CT – as part of the 1st Session of auctioning off the traditional »Remington Typewriter Museum« from the OHA-Onondaga Historical Association, Syracuse, NY – made an absolute world record price of $ 100,000 (Euro 67,600) at world's leading specialty auction of AUCTION TEAM BREKER in Cologne, Germany.
14. A rainbow spatterware Festoon pattern plate brought a record $37,400.
