U.S. CONSTITUTION. Proceedings of the Federal Convention. "We the People of the United States. In Order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, secure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America..." In Convention, Monday, Sept. 17, 1787... N. p., n.d. [September-October 1787]. Folio broadsheet, 17 x 10 in. Page 1 with 1-line heading in large type, text in four columns, THE SHEET UNTRIMMED with original deckle edges preserved, small paper loss along part of central vertical fold just catching a few letters, other minor losses along horizontal fold and at right-hand edge, dampstains . Pencil inscription in margin of page 2: "Given me by H.G. Hammett, Jan 1921." AN UNRECORDED CONTEMPORARY BROADSHEET PRINTING OF THE CONSTITUTION A very rare and previously undescribed early printing of the Constitution, including the text of all seven articles, plus the Congressional act submitting the Constitution for ratification by the state conventions, signed in type by George Washington as President of the Constitutional Convention. Not in Evans, Sabin or any of the standard bibliographical sources. We are aware of only one other copy of this printing, which is without imprint or any indication of its place of printing (that copy sold at Sotheby's, 13 December 2000, lot 209). Immediately after the adoption of the newly drafted Constitution on 17 September 1787, the full text was prepared for general dissemination. The official printers to the Convention, Dunlap and Claypoole, working in the late afternoon and early evening, set the text in type, together with the accompanying resolutions of the Convention and letter to Congress, and then printed an unknown number of copies. In addition, the printers prepared a special issue of the Pennsylvania Packet containing the same text. "Newspapers throughout the United States soon printed the Constitution in special issues, handbills and pamphlets" (Bernstein, Are We to be a Nation? , p. 186). The rapidity with which the text was disseminated may be seen in the separate imprints listed in Evans and elsewhere. "Printers all over America...followed on during the next two weeks, several of them publishing special editions to inform, comfort or shock their readers. Delegates sent off copies in every direction...and by early November it was a lonely or uncaring American, whether a merchant in Paris or a trapper in the Kickapoo country, who had not read the proposed Constitution" (C. Rossiter, 1787: The Grand Convention , pp.257-258).
U.S. CONSTITUTION. Proceedings of the Federal Convention. "We the People of the United States. In Order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, secure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America..." In Convention, Monday, Sept. 17, 1787... N. p., n.d. [September-October 1787]. Folio broadsheet, 17 x 10 in. Page 1 with 1-line heading in large type, text in four columns, THE SHEET UNTRIMMED with original deckle edges preserved, small paper loss along part of central vertical fold just catching a few letters, other minor losses along horizontal fold and at right-hand edge, dampstains . Pencil inscription in margin of page 2: "Given me by H.G. Hammett, Jan 1921." AN UNRECORDED CONTEMPORARY BROADSHEET PRINTING OF THE CONSTITUTION A very rare and previously undescribed early printing of the Constitution, including the text of all seven articles, plus the Congressional act submitting the Constitution for ratification by the state conventions, signed in type by George Washington as President of the Constitutional Convention. Not in Evans, Sabin or any of the standard bibliographical sources. We are aware of only one other copy of this printing, which is without imprint or any indication of its place of printing (that copy sold at Sotheby's, 13 December 2000, lot 209). Immediately after the adoption of the newly drafted Constitution on 17 September 1787, the full text was prepared for general dissemination. The official printers to the Convention, Dunlap and Claypoole, working in the late afternoon and early evening, set the text in type, together with the accompanying resolutions of the Convention and letter to Congress, and then printed an unknown number of copies. In addition, the printers prepared a special issue of the Pennsylvania Packet containing the same text. "Newspapers throughout the United States soon printed the Constitution in special issues, handbills and pamphlets" (Bernstein, Are We to be a Nation? , p. 186). The rapidity with which the text was disseminated may be seen in the separate imprints listed in Evans and elsewhere. "Printers all over America...followed on during the next two weeks, several of them publishing special editions to inform, comfort or shock their readers. Delegates sent off copies in every direction...and by early November it was a lonely or uncaring American, whether a merchant in Paris or a trapper in the Kickapoo country, who had not read the proposed Constitution" (C. Rossiter, 1787: The Grand Convention , pp.257-258).
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
