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[Peter Force]. Declaration of Independence....
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Description
Peter Force's Declaration of Independence
[Peter Force]. Declaration of Independence. Copperplate
engraving printed on rice paper, 733 x 641 mm. [Washington]:
Engraved by William J. Stone, reprinted for Peter Force in 1833
(historically mis-dated as 1848) from Stone's copperplate.In 1820, then-Secretary of State John Quincy Adams commissioned William J. Stone to engrave a facsimile of the Declaration of Independence in an effort to preserve the deteriorating foundational text. The painstaking engraving process took Stone three years to complete. When finished, a resolution by the Senate and the House of Representatives provided, "That two hundred copies of the Declaration, now in the Department of State, be distributed..." In fact, Stone produced two hundred and one copies of his facsimile on vellum, keeping the final copy for himself, which was later donated by his widow to the Smithsonian.
After completing the printing of the vellum copies, Stone removed the legend from the top of the copperplate and added the imprint: "W.J. STONE SC. WASHn." "It is from this altered plate that several thousand paper copies were pulled throughout the years" (Coleman).
In 1833, Peter Force, printer, historian, and future mayor of Washington, D.C., successfully persuaded Congress to authorize the publication of a multi-volume work which would eventually be named American Archives: A Documentary History of the United States of America. Force contracted Stone to produce additional copies of the Declaration of Independence from the same copperplate as those examples produced in 1823. On July 21, 1833, Stone invoiced Peter Force for 4,000 prints of the Declaration of Independence (though the Department of State had contracted for only 1,500 copies). The facsimile Declaration engravings were printed on rice paper and inserted into the text block of the 1848 printing of Series V, Volume I of Force's American Archives. Though the actual number of copies printed is unknown, with estimates ranging from 500 to upwards of 1,000, it is believed that only a few hundred of Force's printings of the Declaration of Independence are known to exist today. The present example has been removed from the book in which it was originally inserted.
Condition: Somewhat toned with scattered spotting and foxing. Creases along old folds, a few splits along folds though no loss to text. Horizontal tear through part of the text, skillfully repaired with Japanese tissue on verso. Single hinge mount in the center of the top margin, torn where hinge-mounted on verso. Offsetting to rice paper as usually found.
References: Bidwell 7, "American History in Image and Text," in Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, Vol. 98, Part 2, 1989; Coleman, "Counting the Stones," in Manuscripts, Vol. 43, No. 2, Spring 1991; Goff, "Peter Force" in The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Vol. 44, First Quarter, 1950; Kaller, "America's National Treasure: The Declaration of Independence & William J. Stone's Official Facsimile," 2014.
Provenance: Property of A Distinguished American Collector From The Pacific Northwest
Auction Info
2023 July 8 Historical Platinum Signature® Auction #6275 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
July, 2023
8th
Saturday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 12
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
Page Views: 2,425
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