Rare Declaration Of Independence For Auction At Bonhams New York

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declarationofindependance Bonhams’ sale Treasures from The Caren Archive on April 7 will feature a rare and exceedingly important early newspaper printing of the Declaration of Independence as published in The New England Chronicle (Powars and Willis) on July 18, 1776 (est. $50,000-70,000).

The 4-page newspaper tied with Gill’s Continental Journal as the first Boston appearance of the Declaration of Independence. One can easily imagine the excitement among the city’s residents as they absorbed the enormity of the news contained therein.

While appearing some days after the news broke in Philadelphia, the Boston printing is supremely attractive by comparison and features the entire body of the Declaration on the front page. This formatting renders it especially conducive to display.

Treasures from The Caren Archive will encompass rare newspapers, broadsides, photographs, books, and manuscripts dating from the 16th century through the 1960s.

Other Revolutionary War lots include the celebrated “Bloody Butchery by British Troops” (est. $25,000-35,000), a graphic broadside (featuring 40 woodcut coffins) produced as a memorial to the dead at Lexington and Concord, and Paul Revere’s iconic and highly significant engraving “Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King Street” (est. $25,000-35,000). Also featured will be the Boston printing of Increase Mather’s A Brief History of the Warr With the Indians in New England, one of the very earliest secular books printed in America (est. $25,000-35,000).

Treasures from The Caren Archive will take place on April 7 at Bonhams New York. The auction will preview at Bonhams April 3-7.