LISBON FALLS — A southern New England collector added an album full of Civil War-era autographs to his collection Saturday at a Lisbon Falls auction.

Appraiser and auctioneer Daniel Buck Soules said the unnamed collector paid $55,000 for the 122-page book, collected by William Kettles, a White House telegraph operator at the time.

Soules said the book — with signatures from Abraham Lincoln, Brigham Young, Jefferson Davis, Kit Carson and 284 other notable names, was the best he’d ever seen.

“He was actually out of the country on business, and he flew back to the country on Friday night so he could be here,” Soules said.

Bidding started at $15,000, Soules said, and quickly ramped up to $55,000.

Soules said the buyer also purchased a pardon request signed by Abraham Lincoln for $6,000.

Soules said the buyer has an extensive private collection of historical artifacts, including Revolutionary War items and a letter from John Adams.

Soules was a traveling appraiser for the PBS series “Antiques Roadshow” for 11 years. He said he met the book’s previous owners at an appraisal event he hosted.

Kettles, the book’s collector, was a telegraph operator across from the White House during and after the Civil War. He managed to collect the autographs throughout his life, giving it as a gift to a friend late in his life. That family kept the book and it went up for auction.

Sellers don’t always attend his auctions, but Soules said this family did.

“They came up to me on Saturday night after the auction and I think I got the biggest hug ever in my life,” he said.

staylor@sunjournal.com