[Star Spangled Banner]

2 pages, 4to (8 1/4 x 12 3/8 in). Text and music printed from two engraved plates on pages 2 and 3 of a bifolium; foxing, a few closed tears to margin repaired, central fold with intermittent strengthening.

BAL, vol. 5, p. 246

THE FIRST PRINTING OF THE "STAR-SPANGLED BANNER" TO ACTUALLY HAVE AN IMAGE OF THE AMERICAN FLAG. The bold engraving of an American flag shows 12 stars in three vertical rows on the front, with two additional stars appearing behind a fold in the flag, suggesting the presence of two more rows to make the 18 stars necessary for the time (Indiana became the 19th state on December 11, 1816).

A rare example, with second edition points of the original price (25¢ ) and the publisher's plate number (2). Bacon's Philadelphia printing—undated as are all early editions—is closely copied from the Baltimore second edition.

Francis Scott Key's tense shipboard vigil during the British cannonade of Fort McHenry on the night of 13–14 September, 1814, is the most indelible image from the War of 1812.  While being kept aboard an enemy vessel, Key anxiously watched as the fort's flag remained visible through the hail of cannon and rocket-fire; a proud signal that the American defenses were holding under an immense British onslaught.

When the guns at last fell silent, the smoke was so great that he was unable to see the flag any longer. It wasn't until dawn broke that he was able to see that "our flag was still there".

Immediately inspired, Key wrote the first draft while still a British detainee, then completed it over the next few days. Broadside and newspaper printings of the anthem were abundant as the lines captured the nation's patriotic fervor (driven even higher with the recent burning of Washington). When Key's words were set to a popular drinking ballad, "The Anacreontic Song," it became a sensation, and enterprising publisher's issued printings of the lyric and music together.

Though widely circulated, few early printings seem have to survived: the Baltimore first edition is only known in eleven copies, the last on the market having sold for $506,000 at Christie's, 3 December 2010; this early Philadelphia printing is also quite scarce. The "Star-Spangled Banner" became America's national anthem on 3 March, 1931.