A sale of Americana doubled its pre-sale estimate in New York on Friday, January 23, with originals of America’s founding documents selling well above their predicted prices.
Christie’s We The People, America at 250 is one of a number of major sales cashing in on America’s 250th anniversary in 2026.
The top priced item in the sale was a draft copy of the Constitution that sold for $7.395 million against a $5 million top estimate.
The copy was the first generation of the document to open with the epochal phrase: “We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union…”.
It was owned by Rufus King (1755 – 1827), who sat on the Committee of Style that finalised the document for public printing.
This, the second draft, if annotated and corrected in his hand from debates in the Constitutional Convention from September 12 to 14.
Only 15 examples of this draft survive, and all the other copies are in institutional collections say Christie’s.
A copy of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Declaration realised $6.785 million against a $5 million top estimate.
This portrait of George Washington owned by fellow founidng father and succeeding POTUS James Madison proved popular with buyers in New York. Image courtesy of Christie’s.
It is an “Authorized Edition” of the document that all-but ended slavery in the United States, and is signed by Lincoln and his Secretary of State, William Seward, and Lincoln’s secretary, John Nicolay.
The copy was printed for sale as a limited edition document, of which only 27 are known to survive.
A copy of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which did finally end slavery, was sold in the same sale for $584,200 against a $150,000 top estimate.
The Declaration of Independence was also sold, bringing in $5.687 million against a $5 million high estimate.
This copy was found in a box of documents in 1980, and is one of only 10 surviving copies of the edition probably printed by Robert Luist Fowle, a New Hampshire newspaper publisher.
Elsewhere in the sale, the partnership document that founded Apple computers sold for $2.515 million. As did a military flag flown at the Battle of LIttle Big Horn (in which General Custer died). A portrait of George Washington owned by Fourth US President James Madison realised $2.881 million against a top estimate of $1 million.
