A rare printing of the United States Declaration of Independence will be auctioned in New York next week, and is expected to realise as much as $4 million.
Sotheby’s are selling the Essex Broadside, a July 1776 printing of the Declaration of Independence, through a single-lot sale in their Visions of America series.
It carries an estimate of $2 million to $4 million and an opening bid of $1.4 million is demanded.
Kalika Sands, Sotheby’s Head of Books and Manuscripts, Americas, said: “This rare printing of the Declaration of Independence is a cornerstone of American history, offering a glimpse into the transformative moment when the United States declared its independence.
“The Essex broadside, one of the earliest versions to reach the public, not only captures the bold spirit of a nation in its infancy but also stands as a timeless emblem of American heritage.”
As the United States was born, printing was coming into its own as a means of public communication.
The Essex Printing. Fowle added italics to the plain original, and a P to secretary Charles Thomson’s name. Image courtesy of Sotheby’s.
The Declaration of Independence, finalised on July 4, 1776, was first printed by John Dunlap, who was the official congressional printer.
As Dunlap’s copies were distributed around the 13 colonies who wanted to break away from British rule, local printers made their own imprints to spread the word more widely.
The copy for sale at Sotheby’s is one of these. It is called a broadside for its large, single-sided format, designed to be posted up and read in public.
Manuscript historians are aware of around 100 surviving copies of broadside editions of the Declaration printed in the year of its writing.
Most are Dunlaps. And most are in museums or libraries.
The Essex printing was done in Exeter, New Hampshire by Robert Luist Fowle.
Exeter in New Hampshire (pictured in 1910) was established in 1638 and is one of the earliest British settlements in the United States.
Fowle, 1743 – 1802, was himself a British loyalist according to later, local historians. He was suspected of using his press to forge US currency just a year after printing the Declaration and fled to the UK while on bail under that charge.
This copy of the Essex Broadside is one of 10 known to exist. It has previously been in well-known private collections.
Copies of the Essex printing have been sold at auction before.
In 2008, a Boston auction house realised $625,000 for one. In 2010 another copy was sold for $380,000.
Since then, interest in, demand for, and prices of America’s founding documents has expanded explosively.
The most valuable Declaration of Independence is a Dunlap printing that was sold for $8.1 million in June 2000. Last year, a newspaper printing was sold for $3.4 million to become the second most valuable Declaration copy.
The most expensive historical document of all time is a first printing of the United States Constitution, sold in November 2021 – complete with a bidding war fueled by crown-funded crypto currency money – for an astonishing $43.2 million.
Election season is a good time to sell these documents. The meaning of American democracy and its future has been much discussed in recent years. The inauguration of President Donald Trump on January 20 will no doubt mean many Americans are thinking about it as this sale approaches.
