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Auction archive: Lot number 211

LYNCH, THOMAS, 1749-1779, Signer of the Declaration of Independence (South Carolina) . Clipped signature ("Lynch"), cut from the title-page of a book once owned by him, [c. 1767]. A small rectangle, neatly clipped and laid down on a card measuring 72...

Auction 08.10.1996
8 Oct 1996 - 9 Oct 1996
Estimate
US$15,000 - US$20,000
Price realised:
US$11,500
Auction archive: Lot number 211

LYNCH, THOMAS, 1749-1779, Signer of the Declaration of Independence (South Carolina) . Clipped signature ("Lynch"), cut from the title-page of a book once owned by him, [c. 1767]. A small rectangle, neatly clipped and laid down on a card measuring 72...

Auction 08.10.1996
8 Oct 1996 - 9 Oct 1996
Estimate
US$15,000 - US$20,000
Price realised:
US$11,500
Beschreibung:

LYNCH, THOMAS, 1749-1779, Signer of the Declaration of Independence (South Carolina) . Clipped signature ("Lynch"), cut from the title-page of a book once owned by him, [c. 1767]. A small rectangle, neatly clipped and laid down on a card measuring 72 x 132mm. (2 7/8 x 5 3/16) , the card with autograph statement attesting to the authenticity and provenence of the signature (see below). THE EXCEPTIONALLY RARE SIGNATURE OF A SIGNER WHO DIED AT AGE 30 A clipped signature of one of the two or three rarest Signers, who died at age 30, three years after signing the Declaration of Independence (Lynch died at the youngest age of any of the fifty-six Signers). It was clipped, like nearly all of the surviving examples of Lynch's signature, from the page of a book from his library. The card bears the handwritten authentication of the historian Lyman C. Draper (1815-1891): "This 'Lynch' signature was discovered & obtained since the printing of the Essay on the Autographs of the Signers , clipped from a volume of Swift's Works , Lond. 1767, preserved in the family of a sister of the Signer...and is guaranteed to be genuine. Lyman C. Draper." Thomas Lynch, Jr. of South Carolina, from an aristocratic family of planters, studied abroad at Eton and Cambridge and read law in London. His father, Thomas Lynch, Sr., served in the Continental Congress from 1774, but suffered a stroke in early 1776. Thomas, Jr. was elected to the Continental Congress to care for his ailing father in Philadelphia and also to serve in Congress in his place. (The Lynch's were the only father-son team to serve concurrently in Congress). The young South Carolinian attended session during the eventful period of May to November 1776, and voted for and signed the Declaration of Independence, before he and his father returned to South Carolina. In 1779, the thirty-year-old Lynch and his wife left South Carolina for southern France on a ship that foundered. A total of eighty-one Lynch autographs have been inventoried by Dr. Joseph E. Fields; of these, the overwhelming majority derive from books owned by Lynch; fully 48 consist of a clipped signature. Lyman C. Draper, Director of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, obtained a group of clipped Lynch signatures from a descendant of Lynch between 1889 (when he published an Essay on the Autographic Collections of the Signers ) and 1891, the year of his death. Among these were a series of clipped signatures from the title-pages of an eighteen volume edition of Swift, apparently purchased by the young Lynch when he was a law student in England from 1766 to 1770. A list of the present locations of these is given by Joseph T. Fields, "A Signer and His Signatures or The Library of Thomas Lynch, Jr.," Harvard Library Bulletin , xiv, 2 (Spring 1960), pp. 210-252. Provenance : Major Samuel Prioleau Hamilton, C.S.A. (1826-1897), grand nephew of Thomas Lynch, Jr. -- Lyman C. Draper (1815-1891).

Auction archive: Lot number 211
Auction:
Datum:
8 Oct 1996 - 9 Oct 1996
Auction house:
Christie's
New York, Park Avenue
Beschreibung:

LYNCH, THOMAS, 1749-1779, Signer of the Declaration of Independence (South Carolina) . Clipped signature ("Lynch"), cut from the title-page of a book once owned by him, [c. 1767]. A small rectangle, neatly clipped and laid down on a card measuring 72 x 132mm. (2 7/8 x 5 3/16) , the card with autograph statement attesting to the authenticity and provenence of the signature (see below). THE EXCEPTIONALLY RARE SIGNATURE OF A SIGNER WHO DIED AT AGE 30 A clipped signature of one of the two or three rarest Signers, who died at age 30, three years after signing the Declaration of Independence (Lynch died at the youngest age of any of the fifty-six Signers). It was clipped, like nearly all of the surviving examples of Lynch's signature, from the page of a book from his library. The card bears the handwritten authentication of the historian Lyman C. Draper (1815-1891): "This 'Lynch' signature was discovered & obtained since the printing of the Essay on the Autographs of the Signers , clipped from a volume of Swift's Works , Lond. 1767, preserved in the family of a sister of the Signer...and is guaranteed to be genuine. Lyman C. Draper." Thomas Lynch, Jr. of South Carolina, from an aristocratic family of planters, studied abroad at Eton and Cambridge and read law in London. His father, Thomas Lynch, Sr., served in the Continental Congress from 1774, but suffered a stroke in early 1776. Thomas, Jr. was elected to the Continental Congress to care for his ailing father in Philadelphia and also to serve in Congress in his place. (The Lynch's were the only father-son team to serve concurrently in Congress). The young South Carolinian attended session during the eventful period of May to November 1776, and voted for and signed the Declaration of Independence, before he and his father returned to South Carolina. In 1779, the thirty-year-old Lynch and his wife left South Carolina for southern France on a ship that foundered. A total of eighty-one Lynch autographs have been inventoried by Dr. Joseph E. Fields; of these, the overwhelming majority derive from books owned by Lynch; fully 48 consist of a clipped signature. Lyman C. Draper, Director of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, obtained a group of clipped Lynch signatures from a descendant of Lynch between 1889 (when he published an Essay on the Autographic Collections of the Signers ) and 1891, the year of his death. Among these were a series of clipped signatures from the title-pages of an eighteen volume edition of Swift, apparently purchased by the young Lynch when he was a law student in England from 1766 to 1770. A list of the present locations of these is given by Joseph T. Fields, "A Signer and His Signatures or The Library of Thomas Lynch, Jr.," Harvard Library Bulletin , xiv, 2 (Spring 1960), pp. 210-252. Provenance : Major Samuel Prioleau Hamilton, C.S.A. (1826-1897), grand nephew of Thomas Lynch, Jr. -- Lyman C. Draper (1815-1891).

Auction archive: Lot number 211
Auction:
Datum:
8 Oct 1996 - 9 Oct 1996
Auction house:
Christie's
New York, Park Avenue
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