Daniel Meader holds J.F.K.’s 1962 Air Force One Bomber Jacket, among the items sold by John McInnis Auctioneers in Amesbury, Mass. (Getty Images)
An Air Force One bomber jacket worn by President John F. Kennedy is among the items that earned as much as $2 million this weekend for an Amesbury auction house.
The collection sold by John McInnis Auctioneers included dozens of personal letters, photographs, and other memorabilia preserved by longtime Kennedy aide David Powers, who died in 1998.
Powers knew JFK from 1946 until his assassination in 1963, and served as curator of the Kennedy Presidential Library until 1994. Powers’s family recently discovered the collection while preparing to sell his home in Arlington.
According to Reuters, the bomber jacket was the top-selling item, bringing in $570,000 – more than ten times what was expected.
A birthday card from Kennedy’s son, the late John F. Kennedy Jr., fetched $17,000, a flag flown on Kennedy’s motorcade limousine sold for $55,000, and a seal that hung above Powers’s desk in the West Wing sold for $17,000, excluding buyers’ premiums.
The auction house says some items sold for as much as 20 times their estimated price in bidding sessions that took twice as long as expected.
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