Beschreibung:

GWINNETT, Button (1735-1777). Signature (“Button Gwinnett”), n.p., n.d.
GWINNETT, Button (1735-1777). Signature (“Button Gwinnett”), n.p., n.d. One page, 21 x 92mm on laid paper. (Mounted resulting in a faint red hue surrounding some letters, mild dampstain, two vertical creases). Provenance : Bruce Gimelson; the present owner. The signature of Button Gwinnett, the rarest of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. It is somewhat ironic that Gwinnett, who left few written records on either side of the Atlantic, has attained a high degree of recognition–at least among collectors–based on the extreme rarity of his signature rather than any particularly crucial role in the achievement of American independence. Little is known of his early life. Born in Down Hatherly, Gloucestershire, Gwinnett established himself in Bristol as a merchant, then emigrated to the American colonies, settling first in Charleston, S.C., and later in Savannah, Georgia. In October 1765 he purchased a large tract of land on St. Catherine’s Island, which he intended to develop as a plantation. He became friendly with patriot Lyman Hall, a neighbor, and active in the independence movement. In January 1776 he attended a meeting of the Georgia Council of Safety and was selected as one of Georgia’s five delegates to the Continental Congress. Taking his seat in May, he was present for the vote for independence on July 2, and with his fellow delegates, signed the Declaration of Independence. His service in Congress, though, was relatively brief and after returning to Savannah in August he served as Speaker of the Georgia Assembly. He played a part in the drafting of the state Constitution and helped quash a move to make Georgia a part of South Carolina. On the death of Governor Bulloch in March 1777, Gwinnett became President of the state of Georgia and Commander-in-Chief, but failed to win re-election. A long-simmering antipathy between Gwinnett and fellow patriot Lachlan M’Intosh culminated in a fateful duel, fought on 17 May 1777 in which both men were wounded. Gwinnett succumbed to his injuries on May 25 at the age of forty-five, further ensuring the rarity of his documents. His activities in support of the patriot cause resulted in the total destruction of his property during the British occupation of Savannah and surrounding areas. Gwinnett’s signature, perceived as rare since the era of Lyman Draper and the earliest collectors of the Signers, has become increasingly so in the last three decades, as many complete sets of the 56 Signers have passed into permanent institutional collections. (At least one other example, presently in a private collection, is also destined for a noted university rare book collection.) It is highly unlikely that any additional previously unrecorded Gwinnett letters or documents will come to light. Since 1980, only six other examples of Gwinnett’s signature have been offered individually at auction: 1. Document signed, [7 April 1763?], as a subscriber of the Charity School of Wolverhampton (Forbes Collection, Christie’s, 27 March 2002, lot 2, $270,000). 2. Signature, undated, on a small irregular piece of paper, damaged, with serious lacunae and considerable restoration (Marshall Coyne Collection, Sotheby’s, 5 June 2001, lot 107, $110,000). 3. Partly printed document signed, 9 July 1774. From the former Bamberger set (Superior Galleries, Los Angeles, 6 November 1993, lot 311, $150,000). 4. Document signed, 19 February 1773, a receipt (Sotheby’s, 22 May 1990, lot 38, $135,000). 5. Letter signed by Gwinnett and five other members of the Marine Committee of Congress, 12 July 1776 (Estelle Doheny Collection, Christie’s 22 February 1989, lot 2168, $190,000; Sotheby’s, 14 April 2010, lot 189, $600,000). 6. Signature [c.1772], mounted with a note indicating that is was removed from a document recommending an applicant for collector of the port of Sunbury, Georgia (Sotheby’s, 1 May 1985, lot 17, $31,000). The standard census of Gwinnett documents, records a total of 51 extant autographs, not incl