By ERIC C. RODENBERG
Antique Week Associate Editor

VIRDEN, Ill. — For Lincoln collectors, it’s “Lincolnmania” at its zenith; it’s almost too good to be true.

Shortly after Presidents’ Day and Abraham Lincoln’s 201st birthday (Feb. 12), 1,000-plus Lincoln-related items – amassed by two avid Lincoln collectors during more than 100 years – came up for public auction, only minutes south of the president’s hometown of Springfield.

On Feb. 20, HAS Auctions offered the collection – including one of the president’s top hats, letters, documents, books, photos, medals, political buttons and more – all of which has been under lock and key during the past 25 years. It is only due to the current owner’s illness that it was broken up for public auction, said HAS Auction Coordinator David Stark.

The collection began in 1909 by Lincoln enthusiast Leonard C. Stock of Chillicothe, Ill., who shortly before his death in the 1940s passed the collection to avid collector Henry J. Svoboda from Hinsdale, Ill. During Svoboda’s period of ownership he graciously shared part of the collection with the public. It was a “Featured Collection” of Hobbies Magazine in 1946; publicly displayed in 1945; and deemed a “priceless collection” in a local newspaper account.

Whether “priceless” or not, remains in question – at least at press time – as the HAS Auctions staff winnowed through the massive collection.

“This is the largest collection of Lincoln pieces I’ve ever seen, or heard of,” Stark says. “We’re still going through it. We have over 1,000 pieces; I’d like to get it down to around 500 lots.”

However, there are several “stand alone” items that sold such as the Lincoln top hat and an original 1907 bronze plaque with Lincoln’s “penny profile,” signed by Victor D. Brenner, the designer of the enduring Lincoln cent (in circulation since 1909). There was numerous engravings and sketches of Lincoln, including an original Currier & Ives depiction of the president’s assassination inside Ford’s Theatre.

Add to that, more than 75 pictures of Lincoln, boxes of Lincoln souvenirs from the 1900s to the 1960s, letters, documents, statuary, more than 250 history books and, even a piece of wood identified as coming from “Lincoln’s log cabin” and you have quite an auction, according to Stark.

“Since word got out the phone has been ringing off the hook,” he said. “People are wanting to get in here to look things over … but right now, we don’t even know what we have.”

A preview took place on Feb. 19 before the sale on Feb. 20.