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Signatures on business paper ephemera

I recently purchased a large lot of letterheads and other paper ephemera from an online auction was from a Rockford Illinois family. That family was the Brolins. The patriarch was Willard A. Brolin Sr. He had is hand in numerous Rockford businesses and was a millionaire before the 1929 stock market crash in which he lost everything. Amongst that lot of papers was a rather benign looking letterhead for an R.L. Beckwith of Center Harbor New Hampshire. The typed letter discusses business. I always do a quick research of the items I sell on ebay just to make sure I am not missing anything. To my surprise, Richard L. Beckwith was a Titanic survivor! There is a market for Titanic survivor signatures and I was fortunate to be able to market this as such. What also helped me to link this to the Beckwith Titanic survivor was other paper in my lot from William Monypeny Newsom - who was Beckwith's stepson. Without that link, I would have had to put a caveat on my listing as a "possible" survivor, but with that paper, I was able to be sure this was the correct Beckwith.


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