Treasure hunter at Christie's

Both connoisseur and detective, Christopher Coover, B.A. '73, scrutinizes the manuscripts and letters that pour into Christie's New York Book Department, where he is a vice president.

It is his job both to disappoint and to delight. A purported Lincoln letter is "an obvious forgery." In another case, a woman is only gradually persuaded that what she holds is a facsimile of the Bill of Rights, not the original. But a collateral descendant of John Hancock presents a genuine copybook in which the 15-year-old Hancock has practiced his script and signature. It sells at Christie's for $19,800.

In another coup, an 1858 autographed manuscript of Abraham Lincoln-in which he prophesies the abolition of slavery-is authenticated and sells for $497,500. Written during the Lincoln-Douglas debates, it is read by James Earl Jones at Christie's Park Avenue before an audience of 500 school children, collectors and fans of the actor.

"While often overworked and occasionally out of my depth, I am, thank God, almost never bored," says Coover, who took an unusual route to his career as manuscript specialist. After receiving his UB degree in music, he studied music privately in the New York area and then earned a master's in library science from Columbia. After working for Albert Phiebig Inc., a mail order and book supply house and antiquarian dealership, and in the Rare Book Room at the Strand Bookstore in New York, Coover secured a position at Southeby Parke Bernet, before joining Christie's in 1980.

In his work, Coover must often immerse himself in the historical setting, as it relates to a document. "I can get completely caught up in researching and describing a manuscript," he says.

Experience has taught him, also, to patiently examine each document in an unexplored pile. About to return a stack of materials to his California correspondent, Coover discovered a handwritten message of Ethan Allen on an historically significant point. It sold for $41,800 and is now in the Karpeles Manuscript Library in Santa Barbara, Calif.