Mason-Dixon Line map that came to divide America's free and slave states could fetch up to $1.2m at Thursday's auction
The original 1768 Mason-Dixon Line survey, held at Brunk Auctions in Asheville, North Carolina, where bidding opens at $500,000 and the document could break the all-time record for any map sold at auction.
The original 1768 hand-drawn manuscript of the Mason-Dixon Line goes under the hammer at Brunk Auctions in Asheville, North Carolina on Thursday, with bidding starting at $500,000. Christie's estimates the 76-inch strip of linen-backed paper could sell for between $800,000 and $1.2 million — and auctioneers say there is a chance it could break the all-time record for any map sold at auction.
The Library of Congress wanted it in 1982 but was outbid by publisher Malcolm S. Forbes, who paid $360,000.
Auctioneer Lauren Brunk called it 'awe-inspiring', noting the surveyors' signatures appear in brownish, possibly iron-based ink.
The map was drawn simply to settle a colonial land dispute between Pennsylvania and Maryland — its association with slavery came only decades later.
