Though his works are now revered and highly valued in his native land, Edgar Allan Poe spent most of his writing life in debt. There were, however, a few months in the early 1840s when, while working in Philadelphia as an editor and contributor on Graham’s Magazine, he enjoyed some short-lived financial success.
It was then that he treated himself to the French gold-cased pocket watch shown here.
Sadly, those good times did not last and all too quickly the watch passed – as collateral or in part payment, with a valuation of $169 – into the hands of one of his creditors, a local merchant tailor.