Philly-related artifacts of Annie Oakley, Jefferson are sold

Guns and alcohol are twin American obsessions that have been part of the republic since before there even was one. This week, an auction brought in big dollars for items tied to those national pastimes - with Philadelphia connections.

A letter written by the sharpshooter Annie Oakley in 1920 to a Philadelphia woman - accompanied by two coins that Oakley had shot - sold during an online auction in Boston on Wednesday for $8,000.

During the same auction, a check that then-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson wrote to a Philadelphia brewer for a six-month supply of beer in 1793 went for $14,700.

A person from Los Angeles grabbed the Oakley memorabilia, and an Ohio man known for collecting checks written by U.S. presidents scored Jefferson's payment of $27.67. Jefferson became president in 1801.

The identities of the buyers weren't disclosed by Robert Livingston, executive vice president of RR Auction.

"I . . . send a coin for you," Oakley wrote from Pinehurst, N.C., to Mrs. Jacob Langsdorf of 185 Spring Garden St., Northern Liberties. "It was hit on the edge, and just turned over I re loaded and caught it with a second shot."

The words tickled Livingston, who gets a charge out of handling the correspondence of the historically famous.

"You can picture the coin in the air, and bang, bang," he said. "It just brings her to life. You see the character and the entertainment value of Annie Oakley."

A markswoman for much of her life, Oakley was a star attraction of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, run by the showman and frontiersman William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody.

Later in life, she lived at a hotel in North Carolina with her husband, Frank Butler, and taught hundreds - some say thousands - of women how to shoot, said Marilyn Robbins, an author of four books about Oakley, who volunteers at the National Annie Oakley Center at Garst Museum in Greenville, Ohio.

"She thought every woman should know how to handle a gun for safety reasons, and thought it would be good for a woman's posture," Robbins said.

Langsdorf, the letter recipient, may have been a woman whom Oakley had taught to shoot, Livingston surmised.

Oakley, who died at age 66 in 1926, had another Philadelphia connection, Robbins said: She would visit doctors in the city to treat a blood disease, possibly leukemia.

As for Jefferson, history tells us the genius statesman had a taste for suds.

"Beer, if drunk in moderation, softens the temper, cheers the spirit, and promotes health," Jefferson is quoted as saying.

Jefferson included spaces for brewing and storing beer at Monticello, according to a history of the Virginia mansion.

He bought the Philadelphia beer from brewer Henry Pepper, said to be a favorite of Jefferson's.

Livingston said checks such as the one Jefferson wrote to Pepper from the Bank of the United States are favorite auction items.

"Checks are some of the nicest artifacts to have," he said, "because the authenticity is significantly proven."

And from people like Jefferson, he said, "they're very rare."

alubrano@phillynews.com

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@AlfredLubrano