The Jay T. Snider Collection of Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin Autograph letter signed ("BFranklin") to Dr. Edward Bancroft ("Dear Sir"), 2 pages (238 x 188 mm) on a single leaf of laid paper (unwatermarked), Philadelphia, 25 November 1786, discussing his plans for an autobiography and the future of the nascent United States; trace of album mount at left edge. Half green morocco folding-case, red morocco labels. An exceptional letter to Edward Bancroft—friend, physician, secretary to the American legation in Paris (and double-agent for England)—revealing the genesis of “the most widely read of all American autobiographies” (Grolier/American 21). Benjamin Franklin's autobiography has been said to “hold the essence of the American way of life,” and it was a text that Franklin long labored over. He completed the manuscript for the early years of his life (though 1731, when he was twenty-five) in 1771, but his many other interests and the American Revolution conspired to prevent him from taking the story further. A request from publisher Charles Dilly for a new uniform edition of Franklin's works, however, caused the polymath to consider again taking up his autobiography. Edward Bancroft had written to Franklin on 5 September 1786, reporting that Franklin’s “Philosophical Works are out of Print in this Country, and so is the Political Volume Published by Mr. B. Vaughan.” In light of this, Bancroft continued, “Mr. Dilly and one or two other Eminent Booksellers have therefore determined on Printing a new Elegant Edition of every thing of yours both Philosophical and Political which has yet appear’d or which can be procured in time; the Work being already in part sent to the Press. … To this Edition it is intended to fix an Account of the Author written by one of the Writers of the Biographia Brittanica, who I am told will accord with the Wishes of your Friends at least so far as the Writers Knowledge of Facts may enable him to be accurate and do you justice. … Having some reason to believe that among the Papers which you had left in America during the late War, as well as among those which you carried from Europe, there might be some that you would willingly see added to the intended Edition of your Works, I determined to give you this account of what was in Agitation and advised the Editors (particularly Mr. Dilly) to keep the impression unfinished until I could hear from you respecting it, which they have promised to do. If therefore you should have any thing to add to the materials before mentioned, I could wish that you or your Grandson, would take the trouble [of] sending it to me here, and if he should know and think proper to add any facts that might enable me to Correct or improve the Proposed Biographical part, I shall receive them with thanks and endeavour to make a becoming use of them.” Franklin quickly responded in the present letter, and while clearly flattered by the prospect of a new collected edition of his writings, he also expresses the desire that his earlier publishers be treated fairly. He further makes clear that the intended biographical notice of himself will almost certainly be unsatisfactory, but that he has been convinced by friends to write the story of his own life: “I received your kind Letter of Sept. 5. informing me of the Intention Mr. Dilly has of printing a new Edition of my Writings, and of his Desire that I would furnish him with such Additions as I may think proper. At present all my Papers and Manuscripts are so mixt with other things by the Confusions occasioned in sudden and various Removals during the late Troubles, that I can hardly find any thing. But having nearly finished an Addition to my House, which will afford me Room to put all in Order, I hope soon to be able to comply with such a Request; But I hope Mr. Dilly will have a good Understanding in the Affair, with Henry and Johnson, who having risqu’d the former Impressions may suppose they thereby acquir’d some Right in the Copy. As to the Life propos’d to be written, if it be by the same hand who furnish’d a Sketch to Dr. Lettsom, which he sent me, I am afraid it will be found too full of Errors for either you or me to correct: And having been persuaded by my Friends Messrs Benja Vaughan, M. Le Veillard, Mr. James of this Place, and some others, that such a Life written by my self may be useful to the rising Generation, I have made some Progress in it, and hope to finish it this Winter. So I cannot but wish that Project of Mr Dilly’s Biographer may be laid aside. I am nevertheless thankful to you for your Friendly Offer to correcting it.” Unfortunately, Franklin's projection of a completion date for his memoir was far too optimistic. His 1771 manuscript first appeared in Paris in 1791 in an unauthorized French translation that was wedded to a translation of Wilmer's Memoirs of Franklin for the period after 1731 (see lot 145). The English text first appeared in 1793, and although its author never formally completed it, Franklin's Autobiography has indeed been very useful to later generations. Franklin was very familiar with all of the publishers that he mentions here. David Henry and Joseph Johnson had both previously published volumes by Franklin (see lots 59, 120), and in 1787, Dilly did issue the new edition of Franklin's Philosophical and Miscellaneous Papers, which Franklin alludes to in this letter (see lot 137). (Dilly was later to publish the first edition of James Boswell's Life of Johnson.) After informing Franklin of “what was in Agitation” regarding the pending new edition of his works, Bancroft admitted “I have very little to say to you in the way of News.” Still, he alludes to the Eden Treaty, an anticipated commercial agreement between Britain and France, and observes that “There does not appear the smallest probability of any Commercial Treaty between this Country and the United States.” Franklin picks up this theme in the closing paragraph of his response, predicting a bright future for the youthful United States, despite some festering factionalist disputes, including the recently quelled Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts, and hinting at a coming federal constitution: “As to Public Affairs, it is long since I gave over all Expentations of a Commercial Treaty between us and Britain; and I think we can do as well or better without one than she can. Our Harvests are plenty, our Produce fetches a high Price in hard Money and there is in every Part of our Country incontestible Marks of public Felicity. We discover indeed some Errors in our general and particular Constitutions; which is no wonder they should have, the time in which they were formed being considered. But those we shall mend. The little Disorders you have heard of in some of the States, rais’d by a few wrong Heads are subsiding, and will probably soon be extinguis’d. My best Wishes and those of my Family attend you. We shall be happy to see you here when it suits you to visit us: being with sincere and great Esteem my dear Friend, Yours most affectionately. …” REFERENCES Franklin’s letter to Bancroft, as well as the Bancroft letter to which it is an answer, both remain unpublished, but they will be included in a forthcoming volume of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin; in the meantime, the texts, without editorial apparatus, are available at franklinpapers.org. PROVENANCE Christie’s New York, 28 November 1983, lot 311 (undesignated consignor) — James S. Copley (Sotheby’s New York, 13 December 2011, lot 259)

View 1 of Lot 136: Benjamin Franklin | “a Life written by my self may be useful to the rising Generation”

benjamin franklin | “a life written by my self may be useful to the rising generation”

Benjamin Franklin Letterpress broadside document signed (“BFranklin”) as Postmaster General of British America, printed on a half-sheet of laid paper (227 x 370 mm; watermarked posthorn | D & C Blauw), [Philadelphia,] 10 January 1764, accomplished in a clerical hand, also signed by the joint Postmaster General (“John Foxcroft”), heraldic red wax seal of the Post Office; browned, rebacked with paper, closing some fold separations and a couple of small holes, with one letter and portions of two others supplied in ink facsimile. Headed “Benjamin Franklin, and John Foxcroft, Esquires, Post-Masters-General of all His Majesty’s Provinces and Dominions on the Continent of North-America,” this appointment reads, “To All to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting, Know ye, That We the said Benjamin Franklin and John Foxcroft, having received good Testimony of the Fidelity, and Loyalty to His Majesty, of Abraham Hunt, of Trenton, in New-Jersey, Gent. and reposing great Trust and Confidence in the Knowledge, Care, and Ability of the said Abraham Hunt, to execute the Office and Duties required of a Deputy Post-Master, have Deputed, Constituted, Authorized, and Appointed, and by these Presents do Depute, Constitute, Authorize, and Appoint the said Abraham Hunt, to be our lawful and sufficient Deputy, to Execute the Office of Deputy Post-Master at Trenton in New-Jersey, aforesaid, to have, hold, use, exercise and enjoy the said Office, with all and every the Rights, Privileges, Benefits and Advantages, to the same belonging, from the Day of the Date hereof for the Term of three Years, unless sooner removed by us, under such Conditions, Covenants, Provisoes, Payments, Orders and Instructions, to be faithfully observed, performed, and done, by the said Deputy, and Servants, as he or they shall, from Time to Time, receive from Us, or by our Order. In Witness whereof, We the said Benjamin Franklin, and John Foxcroft, have hereunto set our Hands, and caused the Seal of our Office to be affixed: Dated the Tenth Day of January, 1764, in the Fourth Year of His Majesty’s Reign.” Of all of his civil posts, Benjamin Franklin was a postmaster for the longest period: he became the postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737 under the British Parliamentary postal system; in 1753 he was appointed one of two Postmasters-General for the North American colonies (first with William Hunter and, after Hunter’s death, with John Foxcroft) and held this post until January 1774, when his growing sympathy for American independence led to his dismissal; and, finally, during a brief sojourn in Philadelphia between long stays in London and Paris, he served as the first Postmaster General of the Unted States from July 1775 to November 1776. Despite his lengthy tenure, postal service appointments signed by Franklin are of the greatest rarity. The Papers of Benjamin Franklin located five colonial post-office commissions signed by Franklin—all in institutional collections—in addition to the present: Thomas Vernon, Newport, Rhode Island, 24 December 1754 (New York Public Library); Woodward Abraham, Marblehead, Massachusetts, 10 April 1758 (American Philosophical Society); Thomas MacKreth, Charles Town, South Carolina, 11 July 1760 (New York Public Library); William Ellery, Hartford, Connecticut, 22 October 1767 (Beinecke Library, Yale); and Philip Skene, Skenesborough, New York, 5 June 1771 (Fort Ticonderoga Museum). Only one example appears in the auction records: Woodward Abraham’s appointment was sold at Charles Hamilton Galleries, 25 March 1971, lot 154. In addition, we have identified two United States post-office commissions signed by Franklin that extended the service of recipients of his colonial appointments: Abraham Hunt, 13 October 1775, is described in the Papers, 11:3–6 (then the property of Theodore Sheldon, Chicago; current location unknown); and William Ellery, 25 September 1775 (sold, Heritage Auctions, 8 August 2025, lot 47072). “Franklin had been appointed joint deputy postmaster general of North America in 1753 and had journeyed as far as New Hampshire and Williamsburg, Virginia, to plot the best postal routes and set up new post offices. Over the next few years he enlarged the reach of the post office north, south, and west, and made mail delivery along the major routes quicker and more frequent. He designed forms for postmasters, instituted home delivery of letters in the cities, advertised uncollected mail, created a dead-letter office, and began delivering newspapers and magazines (and charging for doing so). He was the most entrepreneurial, efficient postmaster America ever had—and the only one under whom the post office ever made a profit” (Lemay). Abraham Hunt was the principal merchant of Trenton and an ardent supporter of the American cause. He was a member of the New Jersey Committee of Correspondence and a lieutenant colonel in the Hunterdon County militia. On Christmas evening, 1776, Hunt entertained at his home, among other guests, Hessian Colonel Johann Rall, who became so engrossed in card playing and general revelry that he paid no attention to a Loyalist informant who tried to warn him of Washington’s planned crossing of the Delaware River. Hunt’s sociability threw him under patriot suspicion, from which he was exonerated, and the Papers note that “Rall enjoyed, somewhat to excess, his Christmas revels the night before Washington’s surprise attack in 1776, and Hunt’s ‘hospitality’ doubtless contributed to the success of the Americans.” Rall was killed during the Battle of Trenton. REFERENCES Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Labaree, 11:3–6; J. A. Leo Lemay, in Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World, pp. 34–36 PROVENANCE Theodore Sheldon, Chicago (credited in Papers)

View 1 of Lot 91: Benjamin Franklin | An appointment for a Deputy Postmaster 

benjamin franklin | an appointment for a deputy postmaster

Benjamin Franklin Remarques Sur la Navigation de Terre-Neuve à New-York afin d’éviter les Courrants et les bas-fonds au Sud de Nantuckett et du Banc de George. Paris: Le Rouge, circa 1782 Engraved map (sheet: 470 x 623 mm; platemark: 335 x 380 mm). Separately issued, large-paper copy, with full margins and deckle edges, a manuscript note on the verso: "Presented to the Congl. Library,/by Dr. Thos. Hewson Bache, Philadelphia"; minor dust-soiling, a miniscule ink stain, and few short tears along the edges, far from the printed surface, small pencil notation in lower right, a near pristine copy. Matted. A fine copy of Franklin's second chart of the Gulf Stream, printed in Paris by George-Louis Le Rouge, offered here with full margins and an inscription on the verso from Dr. Thomas Hewson Bache, Franklin's great-great grandson. The chart is both a scientific achievement and a diplomatic statement, asserting America's dominance over the Atlantic while suggesting a special relationship between the United States and her closest ally, France. Benjamin Franklin's chart of the Gulf Stream was first printed in 1768 by Mount and Page in London while Franklin was serving as Deputy Postmaster General. It is the first map to depict the Gulf Stream's flow. Franklin observed the Stream as early as 1726 while travelling to England, though he did not understand what he had seen. Later, he also noted that a sea voyage from London to Boston was quicker than one from Falmouth to New York, and a trip from America to England was shorter than either of these. In a letter to Anthony Todd dated 29 October 1769, he first claimed that this phenomenon was due to the "Gulph Stream" (Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 15:246–247). Franklin knew that a clearer understanding of the Stream would be a useful tool, especially for his postal system. In order to prove his hypothesis Franklin turned to his cousin Captain Timothy Folger, a mariner from Nantucket who was in London at the time. Folger claimed that Nantucket whalers had long followed and avoided the current, and that they would cruise along the Stream's edges while searching for whales. Folger provided Franklin with a chart of the Stream marked in red, as well as written instructions for navigating both in and around it, and for avoiding the dangerous shoals along its path. He also notes the speed of the Stream, and how it diminishes as the current flows away from America and widens. The map names both Franklin and Folger as its authors, a nearly unprecedented acknowledgement of a scientist and a mariner's close collaboration. The chart of the stream and Folger's navigational directions were engraved onto an existing plate—a four-sheet map of the Atlantic, now obsolete, that had originally appeared in the Atlas Maritimus Novus of 1702. Though copies of that map were distributed to mail-packet ship captains, there was little demand for them, and only three copies are now known to exist, all in institutions (Bibliothèque Nationale de France: 2 Copies; Library of Congress). Franklin's second chart, published around 1782, is an original engraving, unlike the previous example that recycled an old copperplate. It is smaller than the Mount and Page version, focusing only on the North American coastline rather than the whole of the Atlantic. It reprints Folger's instructions, but translated clumsily into French. It does not mention Captain Folger by name. Franklin had disowned his cousin long before — the captain was an English loyalist, like many Nantucketers, and he had illicitly traded with the British while under Franklin's protection. Franklin's hope for the Le Rouge map of the Gulf Stream was to increase and improve trade between France and the United States. As such, these maps were printed in limited numbers, intended for distribution among French ship captains. In 1783, Franklin gave a copy of Le Rouge's map to Michel Guillaume de Crèvecoeur, the director of U.S. affairs in the French Ministry of the Marine. Crèvecoeur had been charged with the creation of a packet-boat service between France and America. On that presentation copy, Franklin crossed out the poorly translated directions, rewrote them in the original English, and made a note about the water's temperature—a sign that Franklin had, in fact, conducted some of his own scientific research on the Gulf Stream. The temperature of the Gulf Stream's waters would be further studied by his grand-nephew, Jonathan Williams. Williams's book, Thermometrical Navigation (1793), would prove that mariners could measure the ocean's temperature to locate the Gulf Stream (see lot 150). Franklin would also produce a third edition of this map in 1786, published in an article in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society (see lot 137 for a related, 1787 example). Dr. Thomas Hewson Bache (1826–1912), was a prominent Philadelphia physician, a Civil War surgeon, the son of Dr. Franklin Bache, and the great-great grandson of Benjamin Franklin. Dr. Bache inscribed this copy to the Library of Congress. The provenance suggests that this is likely one of the copies that Franklin had kept for himself. This is only the second copy of this map offered at auction in the last ten years, according to Rare Book Hub. REFERENCES Pritchard & Taliaferro, Degrees of Latitude, 62; Joyce E. Chaplin. The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius, (2006) pp. 196–200, 289–292 PROVENANCE Dr. Thomas Hewson Bache (presumably by descent from Benjamin Franklin) — The Library of Congress (presentation inscription; later deaccessioned)

View 1 of Lot 124: Benjamin Franklin | A separately issued, large paper copy of the Le Rouge edition of Franklin's map of the Gulf Stream

benjamin franklin | a separately issued, large paper copy of the le rouge edition of franklin's map of the gulf stream

[John Wallis] Untitled map of the United States, one of the earliest cartographical depictions of the new nation created by the Treaty of Paris. The large surrounding cartouche with figures of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. [London: John Wallis, March 1783] Engraved map (sheet: 217 x 290 mm; platemark: 178 x 208 mm). Unrecorded proof state, hand-colored; minor soiling and staining, a few very short edge tears; two corners creased. An unrecorded proof state of this highly decorative map published at the end of the Revolutionary War, commemorating the Treaty of Paris, and celebrating the newly formed United States of America. After the preliminary treaty of Paris was signed on 20 January, 1783, most mapmakers, like Carrington Bowles, Jean Lattré, and Sayer and Bennett, reworked old copperplates and re-engraved "The United States" into their cartouches. This map, on the other hand, is an entirely original engraving, officially published on 18 March 1783. The unusual composition gives far more space to the allegorical border than it does to the rather simple, oval map. That said, the map does delineate the basic borders of each state and gives city and place names. It also includes various other details like the location of French Louisiana, the Spanish Floridas, some major rivers and lakes, as well as a note locating the "Country of Mines" in present-day Missouri. The inset map is flanked by two of America's most important founding fathers—General George Washington, who fought and defeated the British, and diplomat Benjamin Franklin, who negotiated the Treaty of Paris and officially ended the Revolutionary War. Both are accompanied by allegorical figures. Washington is shown being led by Liberty, and Franklin is seen being advised by Wisdom and Justice. Above Washington, winged Fame, with a wreath of laurels in one hand, blows her trumpet to announce the new nation. The background near Franklin includes a pine tree and a pineapple, symbols of American resilience, wealth, and promise. While the publication of a map celebrating American independence in 1783 London may seem surprising, there had for decades been a significant group of Whigs among the British governing classes and their pundits who believed in liberalism and constitutionality. As such, Wallis could have expected this map to be commercially viable. There is a second state of the map dated 18 March 1783, and with the imprint of Wallis and the engravers Thomas Jones Woodman and Henry Mutlow. That state of the map is known in a single copy held at the British Museum (number 1865,0610.1143). Another variant of the map is sometimes found on patriotic transferware jugs (including one offered here at Sotheby's, "Fine Books and Manuscripts," 16 July 2021, lot 50). Wallis produced a second commemorative map of the United States, dated 3 April 1783, titled "The United States of America laid down from the best authorities, agreeable to the Peace of 1783" (Library of Congress, call number G3700 1783 .W3). The second revision's large size, greater detail, and wider availability, may help explain the rarity of the present map. Interestingly, the decorative cartouche on the April map matches the untitled map offered here almost identically, but the oval inset contains the map's title and is surmounted by a flag, the Stars and Stripes. This led British Museum catalogers to posit that the map offered here may have been cut from that larger plate. However, given the dates that Wallis engraved on his maps, as well as certain small inconsistencies in the engraved longitude lines and at the lower border, it is far more likely that Wallis inserted this smaller copperplate into the larger one and reworked it. REFERENCES Unrecorded, but other states and variants can be found in: Ashley Baynton-Williams, "Maps of the United States (1778–1800)," Mapforum.com, no. 1, maps 22 and 23; (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1865-0610-1143); (https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/fine-books-and-manuscripts-2/american-revolution-a-rare-transferware-jug; https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3700.ct000080/?r=0.504,0.608,0.254,0.152,0)

View 1 of Lot 125: John Wallis | A map celebrating America's independence featuring Washington and Franklin, an unrecorded proof state

john wallis | a map celebrating america's independence featuring washington and franklin, an unrecorded proof state

Auction Napa Valley

Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and Chateau Montelena | The Judgment of Paris: An Enduring Legacy

Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and Chateau Montelena | The Judgment of Paris: An Enduring Legacy WINE OFFERINGS 1 x 750ml (Standard) 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay1 x 750ml (Standard) 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon1 x 3L (Double Magnum) 2014, 2016 and 2019 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay, Napa Valley1 x 3L (Double Magnum) 1999, 2012 and 2015 Chateau Montelena Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Calistoga1 x 3L (Double Magnum) 1996, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2019, 2023 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon, Stag’s Leap District60 x 750ml (Standard) 2025 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon60 x 750ml (Standard) 2025 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon NAPA VALLEY 2-nights' luxury accommodations for 2 couples2-days ground transportationPrivate estate access with behind-the-scenes tour and lunch for 2 couples at each wineryPrivate consultation with each winemaker to craft custom, bespoke Cabernet SauvignonOne-year wine club memberships at each winery: Chateau Montelena Estate Membership and Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Luxe VI Membership To take place on a mutually agreeable date. Airfare not included. In 1976, the world tasted history. At the legendary Judgment of Paris, Napa Valley rose from a promising vinous frontier to a global force. In a blind tasting that stunned the French establishment, two California wines outscored the most revered bottles of Bordeaux and Burgundy. The shockwaves reshaped the hierarchy of fine wine and forever elevated Napa Valley onto the world stage. Now, fifty years later, you are invited not simply to remember that moment, but to own it, extend it and define its future. This unprecedented lot commemorates the 50th anniversary with two of the rarest and most culturally significant wines ever produced: the 1973 Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena and the 1973 S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. These are not merely bottles; they are artifacts of triumph. The only two American wines preserved in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution. Icons of craftsmanship. Symbols of a region’s audacity. With only a handful of bottles remaining worldwide, their rarity is absolute. Yet this offering does not end with history — it accelerates into creation. In 2027, you will collaborate directly with Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars winemaker Marcus Notaro and Chateau Montelena winemaker Matt Crafton in private consultations to craft two bespoke Cabernet Sauvignons tailored precisely to your palate. The result: 60 bottles from each estate, created exclusively for you — a personal chapter added to Napa Valley’s enduring narrative. Your immersion continues with two days of private estate access for four guests. Behind-the-scenes tours. Curated library tastings. Intimate lunches with the estates’ leadership. You will taste your custom blends at their earliest stage — experiencing the alchemy of terroir, intuition, and legacy in real time. Augmented by rare 3-liter celebratory vintages, one-year wine club memberships at both estates, luxury accommodations, and private ground transportation; this is more than an acquisition. It is stewardship. It is authorship. It is your place in the lineage of Napa Valley’s greatest story.

View 1 of Lot 7: Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and Chateau Montelena | The Judgment of Paris: An Enduring Legacy

stag’s leap wine cellars and chateau montelena | the judgment of paris: an enduring legacy

Benjamin Franklin Autograph document signed (“Errors excepted per BFranklin,” with large paraph) as colonial agent for Georgia, signed a second time (“BFranklin”) in text, one page on a quarter sheet of paper (165 x 295 mm), Philadelphia, 7 October 1776, being an invoice to the Province of Georgia for “three Years Service as their Agent in England”; browned, laid down on heavier stock, closing some tiny losses and fold separations, with some abrasion and loss of surface paper but costing only a single letter of text and a few very short sections of rules. Half green morocco folding-case gilt, chemise. Franklin’s long tenure as Colonial Agent in England for Pennsylvania (1757–1775) is well known and studied, and, because of his entanglement with the Hutchinson letters, so is his service in the same role for Massachusetts (1771–1775). But Franklin also represented the affairs of two other North American colonies in Parliament: New Jersey (1769–1775 [concurrent with his son William’s term as royal governor of that province]) and Georgia (1768–1774). “The Doctor was appointed Georgia agent in the spring of 1768 as a compromise selection, in the hope that his appointment would end a two-year feud between the two houses of the Georgia legislature. For two years the lower house had attempted to appoint Charles Garth, who was already serving as South Carolina's agent. The upper house consistently refused to concur in the appointment of Garth, and Governor James Wright had backed the upper house by persuading officials in London not to receive Garth as Georgia's agent. Hoping to end the political stalemate, Wright responded positively in the early months of 1768 when the lower house proposed Franklin for the agency. Although the upper house exhibited little enthusiasm for the Doctor, its members went along. … The effective date of Franklin's appointment was 1 June 1768, and the ordinance by which it was made, called upon the new agent to ‘follow and pursue all such instructions, as he shall from time to time receive from the General Assembly’ or from the Assembly's Committee of Correspondence, which was to consist of nine men from the lower house and five from the upper house. Seven members of the committee constituted a quorum and could send instructions, as long as at least two members from the upper house were present when the committee met. The new agent's salary was to be £100 per year over and above expenses” (Morgan, pp. 136–37). Franklin’s formal appointment as Agent for Georgia lapsed on 1 June 1771 and was never renewed, although he continued to represent the colony’s interests. In March 1774, Grey Elliott, a Georgia planter resident in London, was appointed as alternate Colonial Agent for Georgia, with power to act in Franklin’s absence. At the time Franklin sent this invoice, he had been back in America for more than a year and was shortly to sail the Atlantic again for Paris. He had evidently received no monies from Georgia for almost six years. Franklin’s neat statement of accounts is headed “Province of Georgia to BFranklin.” The left column lists his fees and expenses, which total £439.5.11: “To three Years Service as their Agent in England at 100£ Sterling per Ann.} £300.0.0 “To Cash paid for a Mace, Gowns, &c.——107.12.9 “To Do. paid Thos. Life Esqr. Sollicetor 16.1.2 “To Coach & Chair hire, Fees at Offices, and other small Expenses————} 15.12.0” In the right column, Franklin details his compensation received, which leaves him a “Balance” due of £219.5.11: “1770 June 20. By a Bill of Exchange———£100.0.0 “Dec. 11. By Ditto2 Bills————£120.0.0” Franklin’s claim for his agreed to annual salary is unremarkable, as are the charges for various “small Expenses” and for the lawyer Thomas Life, who was appointed to serve with Richard Jackson as London agent for Connecticut in 1760, but who frequently acted as Franklin’s lawyer, including during the Hutchinson letters affair. Less justifiable, perhaps, was the more than £107 charged for the ceremonial regalia required for his attendance at Parliament, which must assuredly already been part of his wardrobe. The Franklin Papers record the final settlement for Franklin’s Massachusetts agency, £1,851 allocated by the colony’s House of Representatives on 23 October 1775 (Papers 22:243–244). Massachusetts had a particular motivation to stay in Franklin’s good graces, as he had been appointed, 30 September 1775, together with Benjamin Harrison of Virginia and Thomas Lynch of South Carolina, to a committee of the Continental Congress to meet at Cambridge with George Washington, recently appointed commander in chief of the newly formed Continental Army, and representatives of the New England colonies to address the commander’s concerns and determine “the most effectual method of continuing, supporting, and regulating a continental army.” Indeed, the very day the committee was appointed, Massachusetts congressional delegate John Adams wrote to James Warren, speaker of the Massachusetts House, asking, “Will it not be excellent Politicks to make Dr Franklin welcome by making him a grant of what is due to him from the Province? if you grant it in your provisional Paper, I suppose you can change it for him into continental” (cf. Papers of John Adams 3:173 and Letters of Delegates to Congress 2:80–81 note). Interestingly, Adams’s letter was carried to Warren by Franklin. Georgia may not have felt the same incentive to settle her debt to Franklin; at the least, there is no record in the Papers of Benjamin Franklin that she did so. On 25 October 1776, Franklin sent a copy of his invoice—almost certainly the present document—to Savannah doctor and statesman Noble Wimberly Jones, explaining, “Being just about to embark for Europe, I take the Liberty of troubling you with my Acct. and requesting you would be so good as to procure an Adjustment of it from your Government, and remit the Sum you receive to my Son-in-law Richard Bache, Secretary of the General Post Office Residing in this Place, whose Rect. shall be a Discharge” (Papers 22:670–671). Franklin’s letter to Jones is now held by the Massachusetts Historical Society, but the enclosed accounting is no longer with it. In a note, the Papers point out that a transcription of the invoice “dated Philadelphia, Oct. 7, 1776, which may have been what he enclosed,” was published in The Historical Magazine and Notes and Queries Concerning the Antiquities, History, and Biography of America, vol. 1 (1857), p. 311, “and has since disappeared.” The note describing Franklin’s account with Georgia is signed “W. S. P.,” and the author stated that the document was in his possession. This may well have been William Stevens Perry (1832–1898), an Episcopal bishop and educator; see William Cushing, Initials and Pseudonyms: A Dictionary of Literary Disguises (New York, 1886). REFERENCES David T. Morgan, The Devious Dr. Franklin, Colonial Agent: Benjamin Franklin’s Years in London (Mercer University Press, 1996), passim PROVENANCE Probably William Stevens Perry (see above) — Christie’s New York, 18 June 2020, lot 92 (undesignated consignor)

View 1 of Lot 113: Benjamin Franklin | "three Years Service as [Georgia's] Agent in England at 100£ Sterling per Ann.".

benjamin franklin | "three years service as [georgia's] agent in england at 100£ sterling per ann.".

Jean Lattré Carte des Etats-Unis de L’Amerique Suivant le Traité de Paix de 1783. Dédiée et Présentée A.S. Excellence Mr. Benjamin Franklin Ministre Plénipotentarie des Etats-Unis de l’Amérique pres la Cour de France, ancien Président de la Pensilvanie et de la Societé Philosophique de Philadelphie, &c, &c. Paris: Delamarche, 1784 Engraved map on a full sheet, hand-colored, flanked on both sides by panels of engraved text (sheets in total: 580 x 1070 mm; neatline: 545 x 765 mm); old folds, a few minor marginal chips, splits, and tears, mostly closed, professionally backed with Japanese tissue. The first French map of the United States, and the first map of the newly formed nation to be published after the ratification of the Treaty of Paris, celebrating the Franco-American alliance, and dedicated to Benjamin Franklin. The first issue, first state, of the map, exceedingly rare with the flanking text panels. Jean Lattré's map of the United States covers the area from Canada to Florida, and from the East Coast to the Mississippi River. The geography draws heavily on earlier maps of North America, primarily John Mitchell's landmark 1755 A Map of the British and French Dominions in North America, a suitable source given that map's role in the boundary negotiations during the Treaty of Paris. It is notable that the United States' borders on Lattré's map do not exactly follow the boundaries that were agreed upon in the treaty, despite being printed a month after the treaty's ratification in May 1784. Instead, the map's primary purpose was journalistic, being an account of the chronology and geography of recent events in the Revolutionary War, rather than a detailed representation of the United State's new post-treaty borders. Lattré was likely influenced by his contemporaries in London, mapmakers like Jeffreys, Faden, and Sayer and Bennett, who often included text in their maps that summarized recent events, or provided other types of information. . The engraved text on the side panels, titled the "Principaux Evenemens Militaires entre les Americains et les Anglois," is organized both chronologically and by state, beginning in April 1775 with Massachusetts and the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and ending in October 1781 in Virginia with The Battle of York. Nearly all of the place names mentioned in the text, even small battles such as Lynch's Creek in South Carolina, are marked on the map. Particular attention is paid to the French forces that took part in the War, highlighting the close alliance between the two nations. Lafayette is mentioned specifically four times, including an amusing anecdote about General Howe promising the ladies of Philadelphia that he would capture the young French officer and bring him to them for dinner. Lattré dedicated his map to Benjamin Franklin, the minister plenipotentiary for the United States, who had been in France since 1776 encouraging French participation in the War. Franklin was incredibly popular in Paris, welcomed everywhere from salon society to the the Académie des Sciences. The map's cartouche, depicting a ship's stern, includes Franklin's own self-conceived, pseudo-aristocratic seal, shown being hung by a sailor on the yardarm. Franklin's seal is accompanied by two others—the recently designed Federal Seal of the United States, and the seal of the Society of the Cincinnati. This is the earliest known depiction of the Society's seal in print. This map is the first issue, first state, with Lattré's imprint, before the addition of the table listing the thirteen states, and before the addition of Washington, D.C., in the map and Vermont in the table. This separately published map is exceptionally rare when found with the flanking text panels. Only four complete copies have been identified: at the Library of Congress, the Library of the Society of the Cincinnati, an example of the second state that appeared recently in the trade, and the present example. Additionally, an example that was owned by a New York dealer appeared on the market in the 1980s with only one panel, while an example at Colonial Williamsburg has incomplete text. REFERENCES Pritchard and Taliaferro, Degrees of Latitude 70; Mary Sponberg Pedley, "A Map for Benjamin Franklin" (Ann Arbor: 2010); https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/masterpieces-in-detail/first-french-map-of-the-united-states/

View 1 of Lot 128: Jean Lattré | The first French map of the newly formed United States of America, dedicated to Benjamin Franklin

jean lattré | the first french map of the newly formed united states of america, dedicated to benjamin franklin

Benjamin Franklin Engraved broadside document signed (“BFranklin,” with paraph) as President of the American Philosophical Society, on laid paper (236 x 357 mm), Philadelphia, 20 January 1786, being Charles C.-J. Le Roux’s certificate of membership in the American Philosophical Society, accomplished in a clerical hand, countersigned by Society Vice Presidents John Ewing, William White, and Samuel Vaughan and by Society Secretaries James Hutchinson, John Foulke, Robert Patterson, and Samuel Magaw, embossed paper seal of the Society suspended from the certificate by original blue silk ribbon; some separations and repair at folds and left platemark. Some light marginal stains. Tipped to a mat board. The membership certificate for Charles C.-J. Le Roux, an educator, inventor, and physicist—and a relatively early French member of the American Philosophical Society: “To all Persons to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting. The American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful Knowledge, desirous of advancing the Interest of the Society by associating to themselves Men of distinguished Eminence, and of conferring Marks of their Esteem upon Persons of literary Merit have Elected Monsieur Le Roux a Member of the said Philosophical Society, hereby granting unto him all the Rights of Fellowship, with all the Liberties and Privileges thereunto belonging.” The American Philosophical Society was founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1743, but the scholarly society soon lapsed into drowsy inactivity. It was revived in 1767 and two years later merged with the American Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge. Le Roux met Franklin during the latter’s ambassadorship to Paris, and while both were inventors, probably their strongest shared bond was education reform. Le Roux was the founding editor of Journal d’éducation, which he published from 1768 to 1769, reviving the title from 1776 to 1778. He advocated for a pragmatic pedagogy that deemphasized the study of classical languages; this point of view aligned almost exactly with the curriculum Franklin outlined in his Idea of the English School (see lot 55). Le Roux was elected to membership in the APS in 1775; however, the Society did not adopt a membership certificate until 1786, when all living members were entitled to receive one. The present certificate, therefore, is part of the very first issuance. Le Roux spent his entire career in education, rising from a schoolteacher in Amiens to Physicien en l’Université de Paris. He evidently observed M. Le Coeur’s private boarding school in Passy when Franklin’s grandson Benjamin Franklin Bache was a student there. Franklin was invited by the Société Royale de Médecine to observe a demonstration of various swimming experiments and apparatus, including early version of a wetsuit, by Le Roux held at the Bains Chinois on Île Saint-Louis in the Seine on 10 March 1783. Although Franklin was a major advocate of the benefits of swimming, it is not known if Franklin attended Le Roux’s presentation. Franklin’s very first invention, at age 11, was a pair of swimfins for the hands, and he included among the “Letters and Papers on Philosophical Subjects” appended to the 1769 edition of Experiments and Observations on Electricity (see lot 105) a letter to Oliver Neave, encouraging him to learn how to swim and extolling the “enjoyment in so delightful and wholesome an exercise.”

View 1 of Lot 135: Benjamin Franklin | American Philosophical Society membership certificate for a French colleague of Franklin

benjamin franklin | american philosophical society membership certificate for a french colleague of franklin

John Dickinson Lettres d'un fermier de Pensylvanie, aux habitans de l'Amérique Septentrionale. Traduites de 'l Anglois [by Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg]. Amsterdam [but Paris], Aux Dépens de la Compagnie, 1769 8vo (166 x 103 mm). Woodcut headpiece, numerous woodcut tailpieces, with terminal blank R2; occasional very light browning. Contemporary French mottled calf, smooth spine gilt in compartments with green morocco title label, endpapers and edges marbled en suite; extremities a bit worn. Half red morocco slipcase, chemise. First edition in French of John Dickinson’s seminal work, with distinguished provenance. Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies was the first serious study of the legal rights of the British colonists in America. Dickinson’s letters first appeared in twelve successive issues of William Goddard’s Pennsylvania Chronicle, and Universal Advertiser, Nos. 46–57, 2 December 1767–15 February 1768. Goddard evidently recognized the immediate significance of Dickinson's letter-essays: eight of the dozen letters are printed on front pages. Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania were collected and reprinted as a pamphlet by Hall and Sellers in Philadelphia in 1768, and by the next year, at least eight editions—including the present—had been issued in the colonies and abroad. Dickinson was one of the leading colonial statesmen to advocate a peaceful reconciliation with—or separation from—Great Britain, but in this series of essays he first admitted that force of arms in the quest for liberty might be both necessary and justified. His evolving position on the relationship between the mother country and her North American colonies closely paralleled Benjamin Franklin’s own considerations on the matter, although Franklin became a much more radical voice. Benjamin Franklin was instrumental in having Dickinson’s work published in London and, in French translation, in Paris. He wrote the preface to Almon’s London edition, which is translated in the present: “When I consider our Fellow Subjects in America as rational Creatures, I cannot but wonder that during the present wide Difference of Sentiments in the two Countries concerning the Power of Parliament in laying Taxes and Duties on America, no Application has been made to their Understandings, no able learned Pen among us has been employed in convincing them that they are in the wrong, proving clearly that by the establish’d Law of Nations, or by the Terms of their original Constitution, they are taxable by our Parliament tho’ they have no Representative in it. … It is to that End I have handed the following Letters (lately published in America) to the Press here. They were occasioned by the act made (since the repeal of the Stamp-act) for raising a revenue in America by duties on glass, paper, &c. The Author is a Gentleman of Repute in that Country for his Knowledge of its Affairs, and it is said speaks the general Sentiments of the Inhabitants. How far these Sentiments are right or wrong I do not pretend at present to judge. I wish to see first what can be said on the other Side of this Question. I hope this Publication will produce a full Answer if we can make one. If it does, this Publication will have had its Use. No Offence to Government is intended by it, and it is hoped none will be taken” (Papers, ed. Willcox, 15: 110–112). Franklin had a copy of the English edition sent to his friend Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, who had often translated Franklin’s own writings into French. Barbeu-Dubourg made the present translation and had it printed with a false Amsterdam imprint. The Snider copy belonged to Franklin—almost certainly the gift of the translator and perhaps specially bound by him—and his shelfmark (C69 N23) appears on the front free endpaper, probably added by his grandson Benjamin Franklin Bache. Edwin Wolf 2d and Kevin J. Hayes include Lettres d'un fermier de Pensylvanie in their catalogue, The Library of Benjamin Franklin (no. 860), noting that this copy was “acquired by William Reese for his private collection, 2001.” After Franklin’s death in 1790, most of his books were sold to Nicholas Dufief, a Philadelphia bookseller. In about 1802, Dufief, perhaps unable to sell a French-language work in Philadelphia, gave the book to John Dickinson, acknowledging his authorship in an inscription on a front blank leaf: “This French translation of an original work of General Dickinson is respectfully presented to him by his most abdt. sevt. N. G. Dufief.” This volume links two of the most crucial Founders and demonstrates their mutual respect despite frequent disagreements on the best methods of reconciling the colonist’s grievances with Great Britain. Indeed, Frankin arranged for Dickinson’s Letters to be reprinted even though he did not fully agree with their position. At the time, as noted by William Willcox in the Papers of Benjamin Franklin, “Dickinson accepted Parliament’s power to regulate commerce by duties; he distinguished it from the power to raise imperial revenue, which he denied that Parliament had. [Franklin] was moving hesitantly toward a realization that these two aspects of power were inseparable, and hence toward a denial of parliamentary jurisdiction in toto.” PROVENANCE Benjamin Franklin (shelfmark C69 N23 on front free endpaper; likely the gift of the translator); sold by his estate to — Nicholas G. Dufief, Philadelphia bookseller, who gave the volume to — John Dickinson (shelfmark J Q A L on front free endpaper) — William S. Reese (booklabel; Christie’s New York, 25 May 2022, lot 42)

View 1 of Lot 104: John Dickinson | Benjamin Franklin's copy 

john dickinson | benjamin franklin's copy

(Benjamin Franklin) Adventures of Franklin, illustrated school exercise worksheet. London: Publish'd by W. & T. Darton, April 5, 1808 Engraved writing blank (478 x 384 mm). Ten engraved vignettes, inscribed by a student; edges toned and chipped with a few short closed tears, two repaired at verso, short puncture within ink line under the "ov" of "Improvement," a few stray spots and stains, blue ink spots to verso. Glazed and framed (525 x 430 mm). A charming glimpse into Franklin's legacy among students abroad. The present exercise worksheet features ten vignettes of various scenes from Franklin's life, with a central blank for a student's penmanship practice. Among the scenes are young Franklin with his father, apprenticing at his brother's printing-house, distributing newspapers, leaving Boston, arriving in Philadelphia for the first time, serving as an ambassador in Paris, becoming President of Pennsylvania, conducting his kite experiment, opening his printing shop, and attending a Quaker Meeting. The worksheet was printed in London and presumably completed by a young English schoolchild, demonstrating Franklin's international reach. The student has written in an elegant hand a maxim not from Father Abraham, but from Proverbs: "Improvement. Train up a Child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." Similar examples are held at the Bodleian Library and American Philosophical Society. REFERENCES Cf. American Philosophical Society, Mss.973.C683; University of Oxford, Bodleian Library educational folder 5 (21a)

View 1 of Lot 152: (Benjamin Franklin) | Adventures of Franklin, illustrated school worksheet

(benjamin franklin) | adventures of franklin, illustrated school worksheet

(Benjamin Franklin, and others) A group of three texts relating to Franklin's report on Franz Anton Mesmer's animal magnetism: Report of Dr. Benjamin Franklin and other Commissioners, Charged by the King of France, with the Examination of the Animal Magnetism. … Translated from the French. London: Printed for J. Johnson, 1785 [With:] Rapport des Commissaires chargés par le Roi, de l'Examen du Magnétisme Animal. Imprimé par ordre du Roi. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1784 {And with:] Jean-Baptiste Bonnefoy. Analyse raisonnée des Rapports des Commissaires chargés par le Roi de l’examen du Magnétisme animal. Lyon, et se trouve à Paris, chez Prault, 1784 8vo (227 x 140, uncut). Report: title-page dust-soiled, with small paper repairs at margin, and an illegible early ownership signature, a few small spots and very short marginal tears in the text. Contemporary gray paper wrappers; rebacked, soiled and worn, with paper repairs along the wrapper's edges, with an early manicule and inscription to the front cover, "Dr. Franklin's and other com.t in France report on animal magnetism [manicule] reported hurtful as merely an excitement of the irregularities." Rapport: 4to (243 x 191 mm). Title-page vignette, typographic ornaments; very minor and infrequent pale spots. Contemporary quarter mottled calf, paste-paper boards, gilt-decorated spine "a la grotesque," red morroco spine label, all edges stained red, with a green silk ribbon; joints lightly worn, rubbing and wear to boards, with some losses to the paste-paper's surface, a single wormhole, the lower corners lightly bumped. Bonnefoy: 8vo (190 x 121 mm). Some faint toning in the margins, and occasional spots. Modern gray paper wrappers, all edges stained red; short tear in the wrapper at the foot of the front joint, creasing to rear wrapper. The first English edition of Franklin's report discrediting Franz Anton Mesmer's "animal magnetism," and attributing its effects to the imagination. This is accompanied by a copy of the true first edition of the report from the library of Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier who, along with Franklin, was a member of the investigating committee. Lastly, there is a work by Jean-Baptiste Bonnefoy, a "reasoned analysis," defending Mesmer. Franz Anton Mesmer was German healer who, in 1774, originated the idea of "animal magnetism." He believed that all animals were filled with invisible magnetic fluids, and that blockages of these fluids created a number of ailments. His therapy, mesmerism, where he would delicately touch a patient with iron rods or his hands while soothing music played, would unblock these fluids. During his treatments, people would fall into deep sleep-like states, similar to hypnosis, or would have dramatic convulsions. Mesmer arrived in Paris in 1778 and, though he failed to impress the medical community, he soon gained a cult following. By 1784, King Louis XVI decided to launch an official enquiry . The King appointed a committee to investigate whether Mesmer's treatments worked and publish their findings. The committee included four medical doctors from the faculté de médecine, and four scientists from the Académie Des Sciences, including Lavoisier and Franklin. Rather than focusing on the occult nature of mesmerism, they performed a series of experiments where they compared the results of mesmerism on separate groups of patients. During the experiments, Franklin, his son, and possibly John Paul Jones, were all mesmerized. "The results indicated that people who thought they were being magnetized, whether they were or not, had the strongest therapeutic responses … what is known today as the placebo effect" (Chaplin). REFECENCES Joyce E. Chaplin, The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and The Pursuit of Genius (2006), pp. 297–299 PROVENANCE Report: illegible early ownership signature on title; Rapport: Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (bookplate) — Docteur Poirier (Pierre Bergé & Associés, 6 November 2020, lot 104); Bonnefoy: Docteur Poirier (Pierre Bergé & Associés, 6 November 2020, lot 143)

View 1 of Lot 129: Benjamin Franklin | Franklin refutes Franz Anton Mesmer's Animal Magnetism

benjamin franklin | franklin refutes franz anton mesmer's animal magnetism

Benjamin Franklin Letterpress broadside document signed (“BFranklin, Presdt.”) as President of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, printed on a half-sheet of laid paper (203 x 325 mm; watermarked wreaths within circle), [Philadelphia,] 7 September 1776, accomplished in a clerical hand, with metalcut seal of the Pennsylvania Council of Safety (a bundle of lictor’s rods set diagonally and surmounted by the word “Seal,” encircled by the motto “Liberty Safety & Peace”); fold separations and chips, some repaired, costing bits of a few letters. "[F]or the Defence and establishing of American Liberty." Headed “In Convention for the state of Pennsylvania,” the present document reads, “To James Young Gentleman, We reposing especial Trust and Confidence in your Patriotism, Valour, Conduct and Fidelity, Do, by these Presents, constitute and appoint you to be first Lieutenant of a company of Foot from Cumberland County in the Flying Camp for the Middle States of America, for the Protection of the said States against all hostile Enterprizes, and for the Defence and establishing of American Liberty. You are therefore carefully and diligently to discharge the Duty of first Lieutenant as aforesaid by doing and performing all Manner of Things thereunto belonging. And we do strictly charge and require all Officers and Soldiers under your Command, to be obedient to your Orders as first Lieutenant. And you are to observe and follow such Orders and Directions, as you shall receive from the Convention during their Sessions, from the Government now establishing, or from the Council of Safety for this State, or any other your superior Officers, according to the Rules and Discipline of War, in Pursuance of the Trust reposed in you. This Commission to continue in Force until revoked by the Government now establishing for this State, the Council of Safety, or by this or any succeeding Convention. By order of the convention.” Even for Benjamin Franklin, the eighteen months from May 1775 (when he returned to Philadelphia after a decade in London as colonial agent for Pennsylvania, Georgia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts) and October 1776 (when he departed for Paris as an American commissioner seeking support from, and alliance with, France) were exceptionally busy. In addition to serving as President of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, a delegate to the Continental Congress, and the nation’s first Postmaster General, Franklin was also elected President of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention. The Convention met from 15 July through 28 September 1776, and while the delegates—including, in addition to Franklin, Robert Whitehill, Timothy Matlack, Dr. Thomas Young, George Bryan, and James Cannon—were drafting the first independent state constitution issued after the Declaration of Independence, the Convention itself assumed responsibility for the day-to-day governance of the commonwealth through the Council of Safety. The Council succeeded the Committee of Safety, expanding its charge to exercise full executive power after the fall of the Penns’ proprietary government. The Council shortly ceded that power to the government established by the new state constitution: a unicameral legislature, with members elected to one-year terms; a thirteen-member Supreme Executive Council to administer the government; and a judiciary appointed by the legislature for seven-year terms, and removable at any time. (Like the Declaration, the Pennsylvania constitution began with a preamble that inveighed against George III and his unlawful war against the Colonies.) So, the Convention and Council of Safety had a period of just over eight weeks when military commissions could be issued by their authority, which accounts for their great rarity. Rare Book Hub records only one other such appointment in addition to the present, Gabriel Blakeney’s appointment as a Second Lieutenant in a battalion of Cumberland County in the Flying Camp, 11 September 1776, part of the celebrated James S. Copley Library, sold in our rooms, 14 April 2010, lot 54. The “Flying Camp” was a mobile reserve militia corps authorized by Congress after the British evacuated Boston. Active from July through November 1776 and drawn largely from Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, units of the Flying Camp served principally in New York and New Jersey. The James Young who received this appointment is presumably the same James Young who was commissioned a first lieutenant in the 7th Pennsylvania Regiment of the Continental Army in March 1777. The 7th Pennsylvania was largely recruited from Cumberland and York counties. PROVENANCE Christie’s New York, 27 January 2023, lot 148 (undesignated consignor)

View 1 of Lot 112: Benjamin Franklin | The rarest form of American Revolutionary military commission

benjamin franklin | the rarest form of american revolutionary military commission

Benjamin Franklin Autograph letter signed (“BFranklin”) to Henry Home, Lord Kames (“Lord Kaims,” at foot of page), one page (228 x 183 mm) on a disjunct bifolium of laid paper (watermarked JWhatman&Co), London, 14 March 1775, bidding goodbye to Lord Kames and introducing Benjamin Duffield, with a four-line autograph postscript written longitudinally in the left margin, integral leaf with autograph address “Lord Kaims | Edinburgh | per Mr. Duffield” and with a fine black-wax impression of Franklin’s heraldic seal (Argent on a bend between two lions' heads erased gules, a dolphin embowed of the first between two martlets or); address panel soiled, address leaf trimmed at upper and lower margins, seal tear. Half blue morocco folding-case gilt, chemise. After a more than six-year lapse in their discursive and stimulating correspondence (although the two met in Edinburgh in 1771), Franklin takes leave of perhaps his closest Scottish friend, who was nearing his eightieth birthday, in this the final letter they are known to have exchanged: “Purposing to embark for America in a few Days, I cannot depart without taking Leave of my dear Lord Kaims, to whose Civilities and Friendship I have been so much oblig’d, and for whom I shall ever retain the sincerest Esteem and Affection.” Franklin then acknowledges the recent publication of Kames’s influential polygenist monograph, Sketches of the History of Man. “I congratulate you cordially on the Success of your last Work. It does you great Honour. I hear it every where well spoken of. I almost envy the Abilities you continue to possess of instructing, delighting and being useful at so late a Period in Life; of still going through so much Business with so much Ease to yourself; and of employing your Leisure so advantageously to others.” (Of course, Franklin, too, retained his abilities to a late period in life.) The letter closes with an especially warm valediction, “May every kind of Felicity attend you and your good Lady, is the sincere parting Wish of Your affectionate and most obedient humble Servant.” But after this “parting Wish,” Franklin added an extensive postscript in the left margin regarding the bearer of the letter, Benjamin Duffield (see previous lot): “Mr. Duffield, who will have the Honour of presenting this to your Hands is a young Gentleman for whom I have a great Regard. He at present studies Physic in your University. I beg leave to recommend him to your Protection.” This letter was written at a crossroads in Franklin’s personal and political lives. He had recently learned of the death of his wife of forty-four years, Deborah Read Franklin, with whom he had hoped to reunite in Philadelphia. This is the reason for the letter being sealed with a black-wax impression of his heraldic seal (and explains the neat excision of Franklin’s seal from the letter in the preceding lot by some sigillographer). And less than a week after writing this letter to Lord Kames, Franklin was sailing homeward to Pennsylvania. While he was at sea, the Battles of Lexington and Concord inaugurated the military action of the American Revolution. Although he was in Philadelphia for just a year and a half—arriving from London aboard the Pennsylvania Packet in May 1775 and weighing anchor on the USS Reprisal for Paris in October 1776—Franklin devoted himself entirely to the patriot cause, serving as President of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, a delegate to the Continental Congress, the nation’s first Postmaster General, and President of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention. REFERENCES Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Willcox, 21:523–524 PROVENANCE Deposited in the Scottish Record Office by a Family Trust of Kames’s Descendants (pencilled accession number on verso of letter, “Abercairny” stamp on address leaf) — Sold by the Trust (Christie’s London, 29 June 1995, lot 515) — Roger D. Judd (Christie’s New York, 12 June 2019, lot 111)

View 1 of Lot 110: Benjamin Franklin | “Purposing to embark for America in a few Days …”

benjamin franklin | “purposing to embark for america in a few days …”

Benjamin Franklin Oeuvres de M. Franklin. Paris: Chez Quillau, Esprit, et L'auteur, 1773 2 volumes bound together (275 x 192 mm). Two half titles, an engraved portrait frontispiece, woodcut and typographic ornaments in text, 5 engraved plates at the rear of vol. I, and 7 engraved plates at the rear of vol. II; occasional light foxing, infrequent minor soiling, a few very lightly toned leaves, expert paper repairs to the margins of the frontispiece. Contemporary French mottled calf, spine and board-edges decorated in gilt, red morocco spine label lettered in gilt, all edges stained red, green silk ribbon; a few small scuffs, expert restorations to the joints, a superficial crack at the head of the front joint, a small bump at the foot of the front board, altogether a very attractive and well-preserved book. A presentation copy of the first French-language edition of Franklin's collected works, inscribed by Franklin to his friend and fellow polymath, Aimé-Ambroise-Joseph Feutry on the half-title: “A Mons. Feutry. From the Author,” and inscribed in another hand on the title, "Donné à Feutry, par l'auteur, Le 16 Avril 1777." This edition was translated and edited by another friend of Franklin, Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg. It was based on the fourth English language edition, but also includes numerous previously unpublished texts. The first volume is devoted to electricity, printing the entirety of Experiments and Observations on Electricity, along with 28 additional texts by Franklin, his correspondents, and the editor. The second volume covers a wide array of topics, such as meteors, inoculation, evaporation, sea water, politics, and much more. It reprints many of Franklin's popular essays, including "The Pennsylvania Fireplace," "Observations on the Increase of Mankind," and "The Art of Swimming." It also includes a series of letters to Miss Stevenson, known as the Craven Street letters. This edition's version of Poor Richard, is titled "Le Moyen De S'Enrichir … par le Pauvre Henri." This is the earliest dated version of the Poor Richard text using "The Way to Wealth" as its title — moving forward, this would become its most common title, used consistently throughout the next century (Green and Stallybrass, p. 130). This volume also adds 27 additional unpublished texts by Franklin, his correspondents, and Barbeu-Dubourg. Aimé-Ambroise-Joseph Feutry (1720–1789) abandoned a career as lawyer to become a writer, mostly composing poetry, including some in praise of the American Revolution. He was interested in ballistics, and invented a number of military machines. Feutry was also a member of the American Philosophical Society, nominated by Franklin. He wrote two verses praising his friend, published in his Nouveaux Opuscules (1779), which references his APS membership on the title-page. Though a member of Franklin's social and intellectual circle in Passy, no letters from Franklin to Feutry survive. Their relationship is instead documented through a series of letters between Feutry and Franklin's grandson, William Temple Franklin. The annotation on the title page, presumably by Feutry, dates the gift to 16 April, 1777, a matter of months after Franklin's arrival in Paris. For another book translated into French by Barbeu-Dubourg, also having belonged to Franklin, see lot 104. REFERENCES Ford, 315; James N. Green and Peter Stallybrass, Benjamin Franklin: Writer and Printer (2006), p. 130; Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Willcox, 23:557 PROVENANCE Aimé-Ambroise-Joseph Feutry (presentation inscription from Benjamin Franklin)

View 1 of Lot 106: Benjamin Franklin | First collected edition of Franklin's works in French, a presentation copy to Aimé-Ambroise-Joseph Feutry

benjamin franklin | first collected edition of franklin's works in french, a presentation copy to aimé-ambroise-joseph feutry

Pierre-André Gargas Union souveraine et conciliatrice, De toutes les Nations d'Europe, & de celles qui sont connues. Ou Projet de Paix générale et perpétuelle. La Haye [Avignon?], 1785 12mo (160 x 92 mm). Half title, woodcut headpieces, tailpieces, and other ornaments in text, contemporary ink dedicatory inscription on leaf C7v, to "son excelence Monseigneur le Ministre Plenipotentiaire de l'infant duc de Parme"; a pale stain and a paper repair to the half title; tiny loss at corner of leaf A5, small hole (paper flaw?) in leaf C4 affecting one word on the verso of the leaf, the inscription on leaf C7 shaved, a small yellow stain at lower corners of final two leaves, otherwise a bright copy. Modern dark brown morocco spine, vellum corners, marbled paper boards, smooth spine with gilt decorations, black morocco spine-label, edges stained yellow; a tiny white stain on front board, very mild rubbing along bottom edge. The only known copy of Pierre-André Gargas's revised plan to establish a union of nations to ensure perpetual peace in Europe, dedicated to Benjamin Franklin. This treatise uses the term United Nations, anticipating the U.N. by over a century and a half. Pierre-André Gargas (1728–1801), a Provençale landowner, was accused of murder, dispossessed of his land, and condemned to twenty years as a galley slave on charges that he always denied. While serving his sentence in a hulk moored off the coast of Toulon, he was somehow able to write a book on phonetic spelling, Alfabet qonciliateur de l’ortografe. . . (Marseille: Jean Mossy, 1773), and draft a manuscript for a short work on establishing perpetual peace in Europe. After sending the manuscript to a number of luminaries, including Voltaire, he sent a copy to Benjamin Franklin. It was accompanied by a note where he begged the famous American diplomat for "the kindness, Monsieur, of having them printed, announced, and distributed to the public as far as it would be possible for you to do so" (Gargas to Benjamin Franklin, 14 February 1779, as translated by Ellen R. Cohn). After his release, Gargas made his way on foot to Paris to visit Franklin at his home in Passy on the outskirts of Paris, at the Hôtel de Valentinois. Despite the ex-prisoner's ragged appearance, Franklin welcomed him, discussed the project, likely gave his own input, and printed the pamphlet, which is titled Concilateur de toutes les nations d’Europe, ou Projet de paix perpetuelle entre tous les souverains de l’Europe et leurs voisins (Passy: Benjamin Franklin, 1782). The major points of the plan were to freeze Europe's borders and settle international disputes through a Perpetual Congress (which in this later version of the text is called the United Nations). The congress would be made up of one delegate from each nation. The president of the delegates would be chosen through a system of hierarchy determined by each sovereign's age, with hereditary sovereigns given precedence over elected ones. He also suggests turning Europe's standing armies into a massive public works force, tasked with building infrastructure and engaging in community services. Gargas's intention was to distribute his work freely to Europe's rulers and diplomats, though he evidently did not get much traction for his improbable ideas. For Franklin, however, embroiled in negotiations with England, the idea of universal peace must have been particularly enticing. In a letter to the British politician David Hartley, 10 July 1782, he wrote: "There is methinks a point that has been too little considered in treaties, the means of making them durable. An honest peasant from the mountains of Provence, brought me the other day a manuscript he had written on the subject, and which he could not procure permission to print. It appeared to me to have much good sense in it, and therefore I got some copies to be struck off for him to distribute where he may think fit. I send you one enclosed. This man aims at no profit from his pamphlet or his project, asks for nothing, expects nothing, and does not even desire to be known... such was his zeal for peace and the hope of forwarding and securing it by communicating his ideas to great men here. His rustic and poor appearance has prevented his access to them or his obtaining their attention; but he does not seem yet to be discouraged. I honour much of the character of this veritable philosophe" (Papers 37:607–608). Having received little notice in Paris outside of Franklin and his circle, Gargas returned south to his home in Theze where, a year later, he decided to print a revised and enlarged version his plan. He wrote to Franklin on 2 May 1783 to ask permission to dedicate the work to him. At that time, dedications functioned as endorsements, and Franklin would often decline them. However, this time he accepted. In August 1785, the present work, Union souveraine, was published, probably in Avignon, under a false imprint without a privilege du roi. The previous pamphlet had been printed on Franklin's diplomatically immune press, but that was not the case here. As it turned out, Franklin never received his copy of the book. According to Cohn, the 300 copies that Gargas intended for him were seized in transit by the censors, and, in any event, Franklin was halfway across the Atlantic when the package was sent. Gargas set off himself for Paris to hand-deliver his Union Souveraine to the king, the royal family, his nine state ministers, and twenty-nine foreign ambassadors. This example, personally addressed to the minister plenipotentiary of the Duchy of Parma, was one of the copies intended for a foreign diplomat. The only other copy of this text that has been traced is a set of page proofs, held at the Archives Nationales in Paris. A few years later, in 1787, Franklin sent Gargas a copy of his own proposal for a national union, The Constitution. Franklin personally inscribed it to "M. Gargas, who propos'd the Union of the States of Europe." However, just as the Union Souveraine never reached Franklin, The Constitution never made it to Gargas—Franklin sent it to his close friend and banker, Ferdinand Grand, who never forwarded it. REFERENCES Ellen R. Cohn, "'he Printer and the 'Peasant': Benjamin Franklin and Pierre-André Gargaz, Two Philosophers in Search of Peace," in Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Winter 2010), pp. 146-172 PROVENANCE Giquello, 1 June, 2017 lot 61 (undesignated consignor)

View 1 of Lot 133: Pierre-André Gargas | Union souveraine et conciliatrice.

pierre-andré gargas | union souveraine et conciliatrice.

Benjamin Franklin Autograph letter signed ("BF") to Jacques-Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont ("Cher Ami"), in French, half page on a sheet of laid paper (227 x 181 mm), Passy, on or after 3 July, 1780, addressed to "Monsieur de Chaumont" on the verso, remnants of red wax seal to recto and verso, two tiny chips and a very short tear at the edges, a closed tear next to the seal, none of which affects the text of the letter, a box of sun-toning around the text. Housed in a custom brown leather clamshell case and cloth chemise, with an earlier collector's paper folder laid in, the folder with a manuscript title and an unidentified, likely French, collector's stamp. A letter that reveals much about Franklin—his diplomacy, his pragmatism, and his preference for avoiding direct conflict. Franklin writes to Chaumont in French regarding the June 1780 mutiny on board John Paul Jones's fleet's flagship, the Alliance. The recipient of this letter, Jacques-Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont, was a French merchant who had made his fortune trading in the East Indies. He became one of the American Revolution's biggest supporters, acting as a go-between for Franklin and the French court. A close friend to Franklin, he rented him a portion of his Hôtel de Valentinois in Passy, initially at no cost, commissioned Jean-Baptiste Nini's portrait medallion of the "docteur" (see lot 118), and refitted an old French East Indiaman into a 42-gun frigate for the U.S. Navy, renamed the Bonhomme Richard. The letter, however, deals with a different ship—the frigate Alliance. When completed in 1777 in Salisbury, Massachusetts, it was the finest and fastest warship ever built in America. First named Hancock, it was renamed in honor of the new alliance between the United States and France. Alliance departed Boston in January 1779, captained by the commissioned Frenchman, Pierre Landais, carrying the Marquis de Lafayette back to France. Once arrived, despite Landais's orders to return with supplies to America, Franklin ordered the ship to join John Paul Jones's squadron. Landais obeyed Franklin but, following a nighttime collision of the Alliance and the Bonhomme Richard, as well as a heated argument between their two captains, he soon stopped taking orders from Jones. In September, the squadron took part in the Battle of Flameborough Head, off the coast of Yorkshire. The Alliance kept its distance from the action until, hours after the first shots were fired, while the Bonhomme Richard and the Serapis were lashed together in a death struggle, she began firing indiscriminately into both ships. Soon after, as Bonhomme Richard sank, Jones commandeered the damaged Serapis and set sail for the Dutch Republic. Once the Alliance had returned to France, Franklin relieved Landais of his command and began an enquiry into the captain's conduct. Franklin's letter to John Paul Jones of 15 October 1779, reveals the seriousness of the matter: "I have accordingly written to him this Day acquainting him that he is charged with Disobedience of Orders in the Cruise and Neglect of his Duty in the Engagement... direct him to render himself immediately here, bringing with him such Papers or Testimonies as he may think useful in his Defence. I know not whether he will obey my Orders... it will be necessary, if he should refuse to come, that you should put him under an Arrest, and in that Case as well as if he comes, that you should either appoint some Person to command his Ship or take it upon yourself; for I know of no Person to recommend to you as fit for that Station" (Papers 30:537–538). In the end, Franklin did install Jones as captain of the Alliance. He planned to send the ship to America with arms, uniforms, and other supplies. However, it took months for Jones to ready himself. Landais, on the other hand, travelled to Lorient seeking passage to America, where he planned to acquit himself in a court martial. While there, he met Arthur Lee, the diplomat who had been sidelined after Franklin's arrival in France. Lee was also awaiting passage to the United States. He told Landais that Franklin had no authority to remove his captaincy, since he held a Continental Commission. On 12 or 13 June, with Jones in Paris and Lee at his side, Landais boarded the ship and assumed command. Around 16 June, Le Ray de Chaumont urged Franklin to command Landais to remain in port. On 19 June, he wrote a longer, more urgent letter to Franklin warning him of Arthur Lee's involvement in the affair, and now suggesting that he order the ship out of port - an unpunished mutiny at port set a bad example for the other sailors. However, when Jones arrived in Lorient on 20 June, he found that the Alliance had already weighed anchor. She had sailed to Port Louis, and was now blocked in the harbor by a boom and surrounded by three French warships with orders to fire if she tried to escape. Jones, however, interceded on the Alliance's behalf — he apparently wished to avoid losing the ship and harming Franco-American relations. Captain Landais took command of the frigate Alliance and absconded with it to America, Franklin had originally ordered that the crew not be paid for its trip—he was obviously angry at being so blatantly disobeyed, and he did not want to support mutineers. However, in the present letter, written to Le Ray de Chaumont after the ship has already departed France, Franklin's fury seems to have cooled: "Notre Intention en donnant l’Ordre de ne pas payer leurs Portions a ceux qui avoient signé le Mutinerie, n’etant qu’un Expedient temporaire pour les reclamer; il me semble qu’actuellement il sera mieux de rapeller cette Ordre; parceque il y a en Amerique des Loix pour les punir; & je crois qu’il sera bon de payer les portions de ces gens en France plutôt qu’en Amerique, parceque ils ont nombre des Creanciers à l’Orient qui perdront beaucoup de leur Droits si l’Argent est envoyé en Amerique, & cela causera grand Clameur. Je suis donc d’Avis de payer à Messrs. Puchelberg tout ce qui est dû aux Matelots & aux Officiers du produit des Prises. On evitera par ce moyen nombre de Soupçons & de Censures—" ["As our intention in giving the order to not repay the shares of those who had signed the mutiny agreement was only a temporary expedient to secure their return; it seems to me that it would now be better to revoke this order; this is because, in America, we have laws for punishing them; and I think that it will be good to pay these individuals' shares in France rather than in America, as they have numerous creditors in Lorient who would stand to lose a significant portion of their claims were the funds to be sent to America, and this would cause a great clamor. I am therefore of the opinion to pay Misters Puchelberg the all that is due to the sailors and officers from the profits of the prizes. We will, in this way, avoid much suspicion and censure"; translation by Noah Goldrach.] The Alliance departed soon after. Landais, however, proved to be a disastrous captain, abusing his men and making unsafe decisions. Thinking him insane, his officers mutinied, forcibly relieving him of his command on 11 August. When the Alliance arrived in Boston, naval authorities found Landais guilty and removed him from service. "A beleaguered Franklin decided it was best to let others sort it all out. He had other things in France to deal with" (Isaacson, p. 390). REFERENCES Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Oberg, 32:544–545; Walter Isaacson. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. (New York: 2003); "Alliance I (Frigate)," in Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, (2015), (https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/a/alliance-i.html)

View 1 of Lot 122: Benjamin Franklin | Autograph letter to Le Ray de Chaumont, regarding a mutiny on the Frigate"'Alliance," 1780

benjamin franklin | autograph letter to le ray de chaumont, regarding a mutiny on the frigate"'alliance," 1780

Benjamin Franklin Letterpress broadside document signed (“BFranklin Presidt.,” with paraph) as President of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, printed on a half-sheet of laid paper (195 x 304 mm, sight), Philadelphia, 1 August 1775, accomplished in a clerical hand, being Nicholas Biddle's commission as Captain of a provincial armed boat called the Franklin, countersigned by the Secretary of the Committee (“Wm. Govett Sect:y”), fine embossed paper seal of the Committee (motto “This Is My Right & I Will Defend It” encircling a liberty cap); rebacked with tissue, lightly browned, tiny holes at some intersecting folds touching two letters. Matted, framed, and glazed with Plexiglas. Headed “In Committee of Safety,” the present document commissions Biddle and details his responsibilities: “To Nicholas Biddle Esquire. We reposing especial trust and confidence in your Patriotism, Valour, Conduct and Fidelity, Do by these Presents constitute and appoint you to be Captain of the Provincial Armed Boat, called the Franklin fitted out for the protection of the Province of Pennsylvania, and the Commerce of the River Delaware, against all hostile Enterprizes, and for the defence of American Liberty: You are therefore to take the said Boat into your charge, and carefully and diligently to discharge the duty of Captain by doing and performing all manner of things thereunto belonging. And we do strictly charge and require all Officers, Soldiers and Mariners under your command, to be obedient to your orders, as Captain[.] And you are to observe, and follow such orders and directions from time to time, as you all receive from the Assembly or Provincial Convention, during their sessions, or from this or a future Committee of Safety for this Province, or from your superior Officer, according to the Rules and Dicipline of War, pursuant to the trust reposed in you; this Commission to continue in force until revoked by the Assembly or Provincial Convention, or by this or any succeeding Committee of Safety. By order of the Committee.” Nicholas Biddle (1750–1778), a native of Philadelphia, entered the merchant marine when he was just thirteen, and in 1770 he was appointed a midshipman in the Royal British Navy. After the Boston Tea Party, he resigned from the British service. Despite his youth, Biddle’s experience was recognized by the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, and he was commissioned a captain and given command of a Pennsylvania row-galley, the Franklin. The Franklin patrolled the Delaware River, and possibly the Schuylkill as well, but less than three months after receiving the present commission, the Continental Congress officially established a Continental Navy. Biddle, longing for more action and more guns, left the service of his home state and accepted command, successively, of the USS Andrew Doria and the USS Randolph, becoming one of the first five captains appointed to the Continental Navy. (The present commission has sometimes been misinterpreted as giving Biddle command of the Continental schooner Franklin, which was fitted out from a Marblehead fishing vessel as part of "Washington's Navy," but Biddle never served on her.) Biddle captured many British prizes, but he was killed at his post when the Randolph was sunk by HMS Yarmouth off Barbados, 7 March 1778. Between 1901 and 1967, four US Navy ships were named for Biddle. This is an exceptionally rare form of document; Benjamin Franklin was president of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety only from 3 July 1775 until August 1776, when he was succeeded by Thomas Wharton Jr. Franklin had just returned to Philadelphia in May 1775 from London, where he had been resident for a decade. Over the course of the next year, in addition to being named President of the commonwealth’s Committee of Safety, he was appointed as first Postmaster General of the United States and elected to the Second Continental Congress, which in 1776 appointed him to the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence. At the end of October 1776, Franklin sailed to Paris as the American Commissioner to France, an office that would be officially recognized as Minister Plenipotentiary after France had acknowledged the independence of the United States. Rare Book Hub records only three Committee of Safety appointments signed by Franklin, none since 1979 and all for commissions in the First Battalion of Pennsylvania Associators. No other Pennsylvania Committee of Safety naval appointments can be traced in the auction records. REFERENCES Tim McGrath, "I Fear Nothing," in Naval History, Vol. 29, No. 4 (August 2015) PROVENANCE Nicolas Biddle (recipient), by family descent to — Christine Biddle Wainwright (Doyle, 4 May 2022, lot 1122)

View 1 of Lot 111: Benjamin Franklin | Franklin commissions the captain of an eponymous naval vessel

benjamin franklin | franklin commissions the captain of an eponymous naval vessel

Benjamin Franklin Autograph letter signed (“BFranklin”) to Mary “Polly” Stevenson Hewson (“My dear dear Friend”), 2 pages (228 x 183 mm) on a leaf of laid paper (watermarked posthorn GR), Passy, 13 April 1782, a warm letter on domestic topics, that also looks forward to seeing “Peace & Good Will restored between our Countries,” reception docket in left margin of verso “Passy April 13—82.” Half red morocco folding-case gilt, chemise. In the midst of his residence at the Hôtel de Valentinois, Passy, while American Minister to France, Franklin sends an affectionate letter to Mary “Polly” Hewson. “I received your kind Letter of the 23d of December. I rejoice always to hear of your & your good Mother’s Welfare, tho’ I can write but Seldom, safe Opportunities are Scarce.” Franklin renews an earlier invitation that Hewson visit him in Passy with her mother and children: “Looking over some old Papers I find the rough Draft of a Letter which I wrote to you 15 Months ago, and which probably miscarried, or your Answer miscarried, as I never receiv’d any. I enclose it, as the Spring is coming on and the same Proposition will now again be in Season and easily executed if you should approve of it.” Franklin was wise to include his draft, because the original of his earlier letter, 10 January 1780, evidently never reached London and Polly would have had no idea of what the “Proposition” entailed. Still thinking of a reunion in France, Franklin inquires about John Viny and Joseph Jacobs, partners in a wheelwright and carriage-building firm who had worked with Franklin to develop a new method of making wheels in one piece. “You mention Mr. Viny’s being with you. What is his present Situation? I think he might do well with his Wheel-Business in this Country. By your Newspapers Jacob [sic] seems to have taken it to himself. Could he not make up a good Coach with the latest Useful improvements, & bring you all in it. It would serve here as a Specimen of his Abilities, if he chose to stay; or would sell well if he chose to return.” He next commiserates with Mrs. Stevenson about the health consequences of growing older: “I hope Your Mother has got over her Lowness of Spirits about the Dropsey. It is common for aged People to have at times swell’d Ancles towards Evening; but it is a temporary Disorder, which goes off of itself, & has no Consequences.— My tender Love to her.” Benjamin Franklin Bache, Franklin’s twelve-year-old grandson, was at the time attending school in Geneva, and his grandfather requests Hewson to send the books that he arranged for her to purchase to him there: “If you have an Opportunity of sending to Geneva, I like well enough your sending the Books thither for my Grandson, who goes on well there.—” (Franklin had earlier suggested that she use a smallish amount of money that she owed him—about £5—to purchase duplicate sets of appropriate books for his grandson and her son William, Franklin’s godson, who was the same age). Perhaps referencing a running joke that the young Bache would one day wed Hewson’s daughter Elizabeth, Franklin endorses not dressing the girl too soon in mature undergarments, “You do well to keep my Grandaughter without Stays. God bless her, and all of you.—” In its conclusion, the letter transcends familial themes as Franklin thoughtfully reflects on the unsettled period between Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown and signing of the Treaty of Paris: “You may imagine that I begin to grow happy in my Prospects. I should be quite so, if I could see Peace & Good Will restored between our Countries; for I enjoy Health, Competence, Friends & Reputation; Peace is the only Ingredient wanting to my Felicity. Adieu, my dear Friend, and believe me ever Yours most affectionately.” REFERENCES Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Cohn, 37:144–145 (not locating the original, text [surprisingly accurate] from Stan V. Henkels, Catalogue No. 1262) PROVENANCE Stan V. Henkels, Catalogue No. 1262, The Great Autograph Sale, 1 July 1920, lot 31 (undesignated consignor) — American Art Association, 22 April 1924, lot 295 (undesignated consignor) — “A Gentleman” (Christie’s New York, 4 December 2018, lot 141)

View 1 of Lot 85: Benjamin Franklin | "Peace is the only Ingredient wanting to my Felicity"

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