Lot 138
  • 138

Paine, Thomas

Estimate
60,000 - 80,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Common Sense; Addressed to the Inhabitants Of America... A New Edition, with Several Additions in the Body of the Work. To Which is Added an Appendix; Together with an Address to the People Called Quakers. N. B. The New Edition Here Given Increases the Work Upwards of One Third. Philadelphia: W. and T. Bradford, [1776].
  • paper, ink, leather
8vo (7 7/8 x 4 5/8 in.; 197 x 118 mm), [4], 46 pp. Bound with:

Constitution and Frame of Government of the United States: As a General Government, by the Federal Convention. New Brunswick: Printed by Shelly Arnett, 1787. 16 pp. A scarce early printing of the Constitution, ratified in September of this year, and possibly the first New Jersey printing (another Trenton imprint is recorded, without priority). Evans 20793. Ownership signature of Henry Lyon to title page.



Extracts from the votes and proceedings of the American Continental Congress, held at Philadelphia, 10th May, 1775. Published by order of the Congress. New-York: printed and sold by John Anderson, at Beekman's-Slip, 1775. Title page, List of Delegates, 192 [i.e., 190] pp. "The above is a copy of the Journal of the proceedings of the Congress, from their meeting on the tenth of May, to this time, except that some resolutions relative to military operations, carrying on, are omitted. John Hancock, President, Charles Thompson, Secretary."—p. 192. Evans 14572. Ownership signature of Henry Lyon to title page.



A Political Catechism, intended for the use of Children of a Larger Growth, and respectfully dedicated to the Republicans of the Counties of Morris, Essex and Sussex, in the State of New-Jersey. By a Lay Preacher. Morristown: Printed by Henry Russell, 1812. 16 pp. An interesting political primer on the U. S. government. Scarce. No copies found at Yale, Princeton, LOC.



A Candid appeal to the honest yeomanry of Essex, Morris & Sussex counties, in the state of New-Jersey, on the subject of the approaching presidential and congregational election. [N.p.: n.p.], 1808. 24 pp. Evans, 2nd Series, 14636.



An oration pronounced in the Presbyterian Church at Connecticut Farms, N.J: before the citizens of the township of Union on the fourth of July, 1818. Elizabeth-Town [N.J.]: Printed by J. and E. Sanderson, 1818.
14 pp. Evans, 2nd Series, 44495



Together 6 pamphlets in one volume, 8vo; uniformly browned. BINDING: Nineteenth-century full tree calf, morocco label on spine ("Pamphlets"). 



Ownership signature of Jonas Booth Jnr., to first endpaper. Lacking final two leaves of Appendix and half title, lower portion of H4 excised to remove signature, other contemporary marginalia, uniformly browned. Boards worn, first cover and first blank leaf detached, second fragile.

Condition

Ownership signature of Jonas Booth Jnr., to first endpaper. Lacking final two leaves of Appendix and half title, lower portion of H4 excised to remove signature, other contemporary marginalia, uniformly browned. Boards worn, first cover and first blank leaf detached, second fragile.
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Catalogue Note

Third edition, one month after the first edition of January 1776. Paine was unhappy with the work of the original printer Robert Bell, and immediately commissioned the Bradford brothers to produce a separate edition with additions (Gimbel CS-11). This copy is especially interesting in that it contains a series of signatures of Revolutionary War soldiers in the margins of the final leaves, dated September 9, 1779, who apparently served under Colonel William Prescott, commander of rebels forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The final leaves of the Appendix contain what appears to be an oath "Let him pray to the people, Sept. 1779," followed by the signatures of Obadiah Jenkins, Moses Thompson, David Camp [Kemp?], and John Lou [?] (one additional signature excised). Some of these soldiers heralded from the region of Groton, Massachusetts, William Prescott's home town. Obadiah Jenkins, for example, appears with the rank of Private on the Lexington Alarm roll of Capt. Henry Farwell's company of "Minute Men," Col. William Prescott's Regiment, which marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775. He was the father of a family with five sons who all fought during the Revolution (his son Jonathan Jenkins was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill under Prescott's command). The significance here of the oath, the date (September 9, 1779), and the role of Paine's seminal tract remains unclear, but it does indicate that this copy served as a companion to at least one group of soldiers during the Revolutionary War. Also this copy proves that the aim of the Paine's publication of disseminating to a very wide audience ideas that were already in common use among the elite was achieved.