Opening Day Auction Closing May 9th
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/10/2015
Offered here is an impressive rare broadside of the Declaration of Independence, one page, 20.25” x 24.5”. It is engraved by E. Huntington at bottom center and printed on heavy wove paper. It has been professionally restored, including treatment of tears, minor loss, and creases. Fine appearance.
Eleazar Huntington, a Hartford, Connecticut engraver, used Benjamin O. Tyler’s 1818 facsimile as his model. It is a design which featured different decorative calligraphic styles in each line of the heading: “In Congress July 4th. 1776 / Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of / America.” The text calligraphy differs from Tyler’s as does the grouping of the signatures of the signers.
In the July 12, 1839, edition of the Hartford “Daily Courant,” Huntington offered for sale the plate from which this broadside was printed: “To Publishers and Booksellers. The subscriber, having changed his business, for the benefit of his health, offers for sale the following valuable Plates, (Engravings on steel and copper) connected with his late business. With the exception of those done by himself, they were generally executed by distinguished artists in excellent style; some of which are new, others are more or less worn. A fair description and valuation of each has been made for the more particular information of those who may wish to purchase. The plates, and impressions from them, can also be examined. The prices named, although no more than their real value, are not in all cases to be considered the lowest selling prices. Listed first: “The large Declaration of Independence, first published by B.O. Tyler, Esq. of Washington city, and engraved by P. Maverick, at $1000 – now valued at $300. It has been by recutting, put in good condition for printing, without injuring its original beauty; the subject, it is well known, improves by age.” John Bidwell in “American History in Image and Text,” published in “Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society,” Vol. 98, part 2 (October 1988), cites only three copies of Huntington’s engraving of the Declaration of Independence in institutional collections.