Rare Book Monthly

Articles - August - 2021 Issue

Second Highest Price Ever Paid for a Declaration of Independence

Charles Carroll's copy of the Declaration of Independence sold at Freeman's. (Freeman's photo).

Charles Carroll's copy of the Declaration of Independence sold at Freeman's. (Freeman's photo).

Records were set at Freeman's auction in anticipation of July 4 when a copy of the Declaration of Independence sold for over $4 million. According to Freeman's, that was the highest aucrion price ever paid for a 19th century document (not including books) and the second highest price ever paid for a Declaration of Independence. Americana is back!

 

Perhaps the surprising fact about a second highest price ever for a Declaration of Independence is that it was also the highest priced document of the 19th century. Wasn't it signed in the 18th century, all the way back in 1776? This cannot be a first edition nor anything close to it. It wasn't.

 

This copy was printed in 1823, 47 years after the original was created. In 1820, then Secretary of State John Quincy Adams commissioned facsimile copies of the Declaration. The commission to engrave and print a plate of the copy was given to William J. Stone. The Declaration was already experiencing deterioration by then, hence Adams' desire to have facsimile copies made. However, whatever process Stone used made it fade even more, so that his printings are the clearest copies of the original document in existence today, and is what is used for reproductions you might find in textbooks.

 

Adams commissioned 201 copies, of which around 50 are known to still exist. This is not an ordinary Stone copy. Among those Adams determined would receive copies, two each to be exact, were all surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence. That did not require many copies. By the time these were printed, there were only three signers left, Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and the not as well known Charles Carroll of Carrollton. Carroll is known for being the only Catholic who signed the Declaration of Independence and for one other thing. Jefferson and John Adams died in one of the greatest coincidences in American history. Both died on July 4, 1776, exactly 50 years to the day after it was first ratified. That made Carroll the last surviving signer. He lived until November 14, 1832, age 95, and 56 years after he signed the document, the only signer to survive more than 50 years later.

 

Carroll was a large land owner in Maryland, one of the wealthiest men in the colonies before the Revolution. You might think such a person would be a loyalist but he was anything but. He argued against colonial rule, recognizing that ultimately, only revolution would free the colonies. He was selected to the Continental Congress of 1776, hence his becoming a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He later served in the Maryland Senate and the U.S. Senate representing his home state.

 

Adams' two copies of Stone's printing today reside with the Massachusetts Historical Society. Jefferson's two copies were dispersed among his family and their whereabouts today is unknown. Carroll's two copies passed to his granddaughter, Emily Caton, and her husband, John MacTavish. MacTavish gave one of those copies to the Maryland Historical Society (now Maryland Center for History and Culture) in 1844. The other? That was unknown for 177 years, until...

 

What it was doing in those 177 years is uncertain, but can be surmised. It was rediscovered by Cathy Marsden, a Rare Books Specialist at British auction house Lyon & Turnbull, while going through papers in the attic of a home in Scotland. She explained, “It was a wonderful surprise to find the Stone facsimile unknowingly hidden in the family home. What at first glance appeared to be an unassuming old document nestled within a pile of papers, has turned out to be a fascinating and important piece of American history.”

 

But, how did Carroll's copy end up in Scotland? That is unknown for certain, but one can imagine based on his grandson-in-law's name, “MacTavish.” He was actually a British consul in Maryland when he married Carroll's granddaughter, with ancestors back in Scotland. It is therefore not that surprising that it would end up where it did. Lyon & Turnbull did not reveal who the seller was, their wishing to remain anonymous, so we can't say whether that person was a descendant of the MacTavish family. What we can say confidently is that somewhere along the way, the owners lost track of the document, or at least its significance, so that they had no idea they had something valuable, let alone worth millions of dollars. We also can say that it made one more trip, back to America. Lyon & Turnbull and Freeman's have a cooperative arrangement so that the sale was held in the more logical location, Philadelphia, U.S.A., home to Freeman's.

 

The final price, after furious bidding by several parties on July 1, was $4,420,000. This number was a surprise, even to Freeman's, which put an estimate of $500,000-$800,000 on it. The buyer has chosen to remain anonymous. This price for a Declaration of Independence was second only to a first printing by John Dunlap on the night of July 4-5, 1776. One of those sold in 2000 for $8.1 million.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.

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