A rare piece of American history was auctioned last week, and it's quite surprising they still exist 158 years after the paper was printed-a pair of tickets for Ford's Theatre the night President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

Even more amazing, they were front-row balcony seats, which would have provided the theater-goers with a clear view of the box where Lincoln was shot on April 14, 1865.

The new owners paid more than a quarter-million dollars for the artifacts ($262,500), although Boston-based RR Auction believed the tickets would fetch less than $100,000.

The only other similarly date-stamped ticket stub is in the collection of Harvard University's Houghton Library.

On the fateful night, Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States reportedly ignored his wife's misgivings about the theater outing to see the play, Our American Cousin, and so met his end at the hand of stage actor John Wilkes Booth while attending.

'Honest Abe' was the first U.S. president to be assassinated. While Booth escaped the building after vaulting down onto the stage, he was killed twelve days later after being tracked to a farm.

It was near the end of the American Civil War, and Lincoln's assassination was part of a larger conspiracy intended by Booth to revive the Confederate cause by eliminating the most important officials of the federal government.

Bobby Livingston, of RR Auction, said the historic tickets belonged to The Forbes Collection of American Historical Documents.

"We know of only one other used April 14, 1865 ticket bearing a seat assignment that exists, making these two extremely valuable."

Yes, they may invoke America's most tragic performance, but what a fascinating piece of Americana.

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