Lot 117
  • 117

Jefferson, Thomas

Estimate
90,000 - 120,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Jefferson, Thomas
  • Return of the Whole Number of Persons within the Several Districts of the United States. Philadelphia: Childs and Swaine, 1791. [Bound with]: Coxe, Tench. A Brief Examination of Lord Sheffield's Observations on the Commerce of the United States;. In Seven Numbers. Philadelphia: M. Carey, 1791.
  • ink, paper
8vo (7 1/4 x 4 1/2 in., 183 x115 mm). Signed on the final text leaf ("Th. Jefferson"); toned with a minor marginal ink stain to title page of second title, first blanks detached but present. Contemporary sheep, spine with single git rules; rubbed, upper cover detached and spine lacking upper half, cords loosening but sound.

Provenance

Evans 2396 and 23295;  Howes R220 and C828.

Catalogue Note

First edition of the first United States census, boldly signed by Thomas Jefferson on the final text leaf. The enumeration was evidently printed in a very small edition for distribution by the Secretary of State at whose urging the census was undertaken. A scarce work,  prior to the copy in the  Copley Sale in 2010  (Part I, lot 98, $122,500) only two others had appeared at auction since 1975. 

The second work is also uncommon. A rebuttal by Coxe to Lord Sheffield's assertion that the  United States and its industry will suffer from not being under English rule, he outlines the considerable trade and manufacturing capabilities of the young nation, in spite of the disarray following the Revolution. It was a prescient study of what was to come over the next century, the rise of America as the world's greatest economic power.