A rare 1868 document signed by Gregor Mendel sold for $24,079 at auction.
BOSTON, Mass., April 17, 2026 —A rare document signed by Gregor Mendel, the Augustinian friar whose experiments laid the foundation for modern genetics, sold for $24,079 at RR Auction.
The document, dated 1868, is a financial receipt issued from St. Thomas’s Abbey in Brno, where Mendel lived and conducted his pioneering experiments in plant hybridization. In the manuscript receipt, Mendel acknowledges the payment of 63 florins in interest from an endowment capital secured by the Pernstein manor and its associated rights. The document bears Mendel’s signature along with an official red wax seal and revenue stamps.
Mendel conducted his groundbreaking pea plant experiments between 1856 and 1863, developing the basic laws of inheritance through careful observation of dominant and recessive traits. His landmark paper describing these discoveries was published in 1866, though its significance was not widely recognized until decades later. In 1868, the year of this document, Mendel was elected abbot of St. Thomas’s Abbey, a position that significantly reduced the time he could devote to scientific research.
“Material signed by Gregor Mendel is genuinely scarce — after his death, a succeeding abbot burned many of the papers in his collection, leaving relatively little behind,” said Bobby Livingston, executive vice president at RR Auction. “A document from 1868, the year he became abbot of St. Thomas’s Abbey, places him at the moment when administrative responsibilities began to pull him away from the research that transformed our understanding of heredity.”
Additional highlights from the sale include:
- Ford’s Theatre unissued “Orchestra” ticket dated April 14, 1865, the night President Abraham Lincoln attended the performance of Our American Cousin, sold for $83,414
- Warren Buffett signed Berkshire Hathaway 2005 annual report, sold for $20,548
- King Edward VI signature — the “Boy King,” sold for $18,126
- U.S. Grant archive of 20 documents signed as president, sold for $16,444
- John Adams autograph letter signed as president to historian George R. Minot, sold for $14,949
- Abraham Lincoln signed free frank as president, addressed and signed by Mary Todd Lincoln, sold for $13,598
- Albert Einstein autograph letter signed on Piccard’s experiments in the “electrical neutrality of matter,” sold for $12,654
• Barack Obama signed Time magazine, sold for $10,478
The Fine Autographs and Artifacts Featuring Abraham Lincoln and Civil War auction opened March 27 and concluded April 16, 2026. Additional information is available at www.rrauction.com.
