LISBON FALLS — As far as Civil War memorabilia goes, Saturday’s auction is the mother lode, according to appraiser Daniel Buck Soules, who will sell the items at his gallery here.

“There is nothing anywhere close to this,” Soules said. “This is an autograph book, 122 pages with 228 signatures. It’s literally a who’s who of the Civil War era in Washington, D.C. There is Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Winfield Scott. And it just goes on.”

Pick a Union leader or post-war figure and they’re represented here: Horace Greeley, Joshua Chamberlain, Brigham Young, Kit Carson.

Of course, Abraham Lincoln is here.

The album goes up for auction Saturday, Oct. 24, along with a handful of other art pieces and Civil War-era memorabilia.

“We have a request for pardon signed by Abraham Lincoln, a number of U.S. Grant banners from when he ran for president,” Soules said. “There are probably 100 pieces of art in this sale, along with 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century furniture.”

But the autograph album is the biggest deal.

Soules said he and his partners have spent weeks investigating the individual signatures, checking them for authenticity and trying to assess their value.

“Kit Carson was worth $2,500 because he didn’t sign much,” he said. “So what you are looking at are very few signatures. The Jefferson Davis is worth $3,000 individually. The Lincoln is worth $2,000 to $2,500.”

The album also contains another novelty, tickets to President Andrew Johnson’s 1868 impeachment hearing.

All of the signatures were collected by William Kettles, who gained a minuscule measure of fame himself, Soules said. As a 15-year-old telegraph operator working across from the White House, Kettles was the first to receive news that Richmond had fallen in April 1865.

“We wanted to find out, if the signatures sold individually, what they’d be worth,” he said, “and then take into account the whole thing, all the signatures in one album, the tickets and who collected them. It’s an amazing piece.”

He estimated the book could command as much as $50,000 at auction.

Soules said the owners, who are not named, have had the album for years. Kettles  gave it to an ancestor as a gift and they passed it down within the family.

Soules was at an auction when they approached him and asked him to look at it.

“We went through it, and it’s just truly the best Civil War autograph album that’s ever come on the market,” he said.

It’s not the first time Soules has come upon forgotten finds in his years. He was a traveling appraiser with the PBS series “Antiques Roadshow” for 11 years.

“If they had brought this with them then, it would have been on television,” Soules said.

The book will go to the highest bidder, and he’s done his part to get the word out. He’s notified Civil War museums, collectors and historians around the country.

“It’s difficult to say where it could end up,” he said. “A private collector who wants it enough, they’ll get it. If a museum with deep pockets wants it for their collection, it could end up there.”

After examining it, Soules said he hopes more people get that chance.

“I’d rather see it somewhere people can see it, rather than tucked away somewhere,” he said, “but if someone buys it personally and they allow people to use the information from it and look at the autographs, that’s OK as well.”

staylor@sunjournal.com